Skip to main content

Wanjiru and Wendimu Headline New Taipei City Wanjinshi Marathon

by Brett Larner


Sendai Ikuei H.S. graduate Ruth Wanjiru (Kenya) and 2:06:46 man Eshetu Wendimu (Ethiopia) headline the international field at Sunday's New Taipei City Wanjinshi Marathon, where with good weather in the forecast the 2:17:17 and 2:34:52 course records are bound to fall.  Special guests in attendance to celebrate Wanjinshi's first edition as an IAAF bronze label race, the first label race in Taiwan, include include former pole vault world record holder and IAAF vice president Sergey Bubka.

Wanjiru at the pre-race press conference.

Wanjiru leads the small women's field of seven, the only woman there to have broken 2:30 in her career with a 2:27:38 at the 2009 Osaka International Women's Marathon.  In the absence of last year's winner Ji Hyang Kim (North Korea), Wanjiru's main competition look to be her countrywoman Rose Kosgei (Kenya) and Aregu Lechisa Awaki (Ethiopia).

Miyata and Bubka.

His 2:06:46 in Dubai in 2010 makes Wendimu look like the favorite, but with a best time in the last three years of only 2:14:29 he's certainly vulnerable to others, especially in the Ethiopian contingent and Kenyan Eliud Kiplagat Barngetuny.  Adam Draczynski (Poland) is the best of the non-Africans in the field with a 2:10:49 in Vienna in 2010, but with nothing to show since then but a 2:15:01 at the 2012 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon his current fitness is doubtful.  Running with support form JRN, independent Etsu Miyata (Japan), with a 2:13:19 best from Nagano in 2010 and more recently a 2:14:09 in Nobeoka in 2013, hopes to be among those at the front contending for the win over the mostly downhill last 7 km.

JRN will be onhand to cover the New Taiepei City Wanjinshi Marathon live.  Check back for photos, results and more.

New Taipei City Wanjinshi Marathon Elite Field
New Taipei City, Taiwan, 3/22/15
click here for complete field listing

Men
Eshetu Wendimu Tsige (Ethiopia) - 2:06:46 (Dubai 2010)
Abdelmounaim Harroufi (Morocco) - 2:09:11 (Dubai 2014)
Andre Sambu Sipe (Tanzania) - 2:09:52 (Seoul 2004)
Eliud Kiplagat Barngetuny (Kenya) - 2:11:07 (Beijing 2014)
Adam Draczynski (Poland) - 2:10:49 (Vienna 2010)
Ahmed Nasef (Morocco) - 2:10:59 (Chongqinq 2012)
Etsu Miyata (Japan) - 2:13:19 (Nagano 2010)
Debesay Tsige (Eritrea) - 2:13:58 (Frankfurt 2012)
Dadi Tesfaye Beyene (Ethiopia) - 2:14:38 (Porto 2012)
Artur Kern (Poland) - 2:17:15 (Poznan 2011)
Chin Ping Ho (Taiwan) - 2:17:42 (Lake Biwa 2015)
Girma Hailu Firo (Ethiopia) - debut

Women
Ruth Wanjiru Kuria (Kenya) - 2:27:38 (Osaka Int'l 2009)
Rose Chekurui Kosgei (Kenya) - 2:30:52 (Toronto 2010)
Aregu Lechisa Awaki (Ethiopia) - 2:31:56 (Cannes 2012)
Lucia Mwihaki Kimani (Bosnia & Herzegovina) - 2:34:57 (Zagreb 2011)
Eliana Patelli (Italy) - 2:36:18 (Carpi 2011)
Tigist Teshome Ayanu (Ethiopia) - 2:36:29 (Marrakesh 2015)
Almaz Negede Fekade (Ethiopia) - 2:37:42 (Shanghai 2014)

text and photos (c) 2015 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

Restaurant Owner Selected as Olympic Torchbearer Dies in Fire After Becoming Despondent Over Impact of Coronavirus Crisis (updated)

On the evening of Apr. 30, the 54-year-old male owner of a restaurant in Tokyo's Nerima ward specializing in tonkatsu deep fried pork cutlets died from full-body burns in a fire at the restaurant. The man had been one of the people chosen as a torchbearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics torch relay. With the coronavirus crisis causing both the postponement of the Olympics and a loss of business at the restaurant, the man had recently started talking pessimistically about the future to those around him. With evidence of the man's body having been doused in tonkatsu cooking oil, metropolitan police from the Hikarigaoka Police Station are carefully examining the cause of the fire. At around 10:00 p.m. on the 30th, the fire broke out in the tonkatsu restaurant on the first floor of a three-story building. A neighborhood resident who noticed smoke called the fire department. Firefighters found the floor and part of a wall burning, with the man lying on the floor in the customer seat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kawauchi Wins Inaugural Kawauchi Half Marathon

http://www.minyu-net.com/sports/running/FM20160501-070419.php translated by Brett Larner 川内優輝ロード pic.twitter.com/rEJk7CQPFV — みとっぽ (黒) (@mitoppo_tmyk) April 30, 2016 Yuki Kawauchi Road in Kawauchi, Fukushima Held to inspire former residents to return to the area after the nearby TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident five years ago, the village of Kawauchi held the first " Kawauchi no Sato Kaeru Half Marathon - From Reconstruction to Creation " on April 30.  The course started and finished at the village heliport.  1188 runners from across the country gathered to celebrate the village's revival as they ran through its springtime streets. The event's organizing committee was made up of local government and board of education members with support from the Fukushima Minyu Newspaper and other sponsors.  The race's purpose was to transmit the vitality and charm of the reconstructing Kawauchi village to the rest of the nation in hopes of helpin...
Post a Comment
Read more