Skip to main content

Volkswagen Prague Marathon Preview

by Brett Larner


Japan's Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) will run Sunday's Volkswagen Prague Marathon with support from JRN in preparation for August's London World Championships marathon. At the pre-race press conference organizers expressed their hopes of seeing a 2:06 men's race, led by past 2:06 men Lani Kiplagat Ruto and Frankline Chepkwony of Kenya.  For his part Kawauchi said that his goal is to break his 2:08:14 PB dating back to 2013.  "I haven't broken my PB for four years, so I'm here to run 2:07," he said.

Organizers were even more optimistic about the potential outcome of the women's race, which features 2:20 women Feyse Tadese and Amane Beriso, two other Ethiopians with bests under 2:23, and 1:07:50 half marathoner Valary Jemeli Aiyabei. With the quality of field assemble, favorable weather conditions and the split timing and finish time projection system devised by Dr. Helmut Winter and used at the London, Berlin, Chicago and Dubai Marathons in place for the women, the hope is that Prague will see its first-ever women's 2:19 clocking. At the very least an update to the 2:22:34 course record looks to be in the works.

Volkswagen Prague Marathon Elite Field Highlights
Prague, Czech Republic, 5/7/17
times listed are athlete's best within last three years except where noted

Men
Lani Kiplagat Rutto (Kenya) - 2:06:34
Frankline Chepkwony (Kenya) - 2:06:51
Bazu Worku (Ethiopia) - 2:07:09
Stephen Kwelio Chemlany (Kenya) - 2:07:37
Gebrstsadik Abraha (Ethiopia) - 2:08:17
Raymont Choge (Kenya) - 2:08:39
Evans Kipkosgei Ruto (Kenya) - 2:08:55
Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) - 2:09:01
Oleksandr Sitkovskyy (Ukraine) - 2:09:11
Laban Kipkemboi Mutai (Kenya) - 2:09:16
Mekuant Ayenew (Ethiopia) - 2:09:23
Salah Eddine Bounasr (Morocco) - 2:10:25
Benson Kipruto (Kenya) - 2:13:24
Moses Mengich (Kenya) - 2:14:04
Edwin Kemboi (Austria) - 2:14:05
Nicolas Cuestas (Uruguay) - 2:15:31

Debut
Geoffrey Kipyego (Kenya) - 1:02:39
Said ait Addi (Morocco) - 1:03:25
Fred Musobo (Uganda) - 1:03:31
Blair Morgan (Canada) - 1:05:55

Women
Feyse Tadese (Ethiopia) - 2:20:27
Amane Beriso (Ethiopia) - 2:20:48
Mulu Seboka (Ethiopia) - 2:21:56
Tadelech Bekele (Ethiopia) - 2:22:51
Valary Jemeli Aiyabei (Kenya) - 2:24:48
Hirut Tibebu (Ethiopia) - 2:25:12
Sarah Jebet (Kenya) - 2:27:07
Beatrice Toroitich (Kenya) - 2:30:35
Rosa Chacha (Ecuador) - 2:35:39

Debut
Carlo Salome Rocha (Portugal) - 1:13:01
Sonia Cekini (Greece) - 1:16:08

text and photo © 2017 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr