Skip to main content

Gosa Over Habtegebrel in Ethiopian Bahraini Duel at Saitama International Marathon

For the second year in a row Bahraini Shitaye Habtegebrel found herself knocked down to 2nd in the Saitama International Marathon's home straight, this time to fellow Ethiopian-born emigrant Dalila Gosa.

Part of a group of nine that immediately separated from the main body of the elite women-only race behind three pacers, both Gosa and Habtegebrel stayed at the front of the pack on mid-2:25 to low-2:26 pace as its five Japanese constituents and lone Ethiopian national Fatuma Sado dropped off one by one. When the last pacer stepped off at 30 km Habtegebrel and Gosa took turns leading in a successful effort to drop Kenyan Sylvia Kibet.

Last year Habtegebrel lost out to Flomena Cheych Daniel of Kenya by 3 seconds in the home straight, both of them ultimately having their times disallowed due to poor direction on the final corner. This time both Gosa and Habtegebrel successfully turned at the right spot thanks to improved course marking and marshaling, but Habtegebrel again lacked the closing speed to seal the win. Gosa took 1st in a PB of 2:25:35, Habtegebrel this time 4 seconds behind.

Kibet held on to 3rd in 2:28:38, exactly where the top Japanese woman needed to be to clear the 2:29:00 standard for qualification for Japan's 2020 Olympic marathon trials event, next September's MGC Race. It looked as though the last two Japanese women left in the pack, Marie Imada (Iwatani Sangyo) and Saki Tokoro (Kyocera) might be able to work together to stay under 2:29 pace, but when Tokoro fell off Imada began to lag. A rally from 30 to 35 km gave her a chance of clearing the qualification cutoff by about 30 seconds, but despite taking almost 2 1/2 minutes off her best Imada came up just short with a 2:29:35 for 4th.

London World Championships team member Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) overtook Tokoro for 5th in 2:31:07, with Tokoro setting a new PB of 2:32:11 for 6th. Opting again this year to run the mass-participation race starting 30 minutes after the elite race after winning it three years in a row, local amateur Tomomi Sawahata (Sawahatters) took over 4 minutes off her best to win in a course record 2:35:58. Her time would have put her 9th in the elite race just behind the equally interesting Hiroko Yoshitomi (Memolead), who was 8th in the elite race in 2:34:47 in her fourth marathon in four weeks. There is a world of different motivations out there, and not everyone wants to follow the same dream.

With Saitama the elite-level Japanese women's marathon season pretty well comes to an end for 2018, the absolute last shot coming at the minor Hofu Yomiuri Marathon next weekend. The Japanese women's average of their ten fastest marathons of the year was 2:24:59, their best since 2005 and fourth-best ever. But with With Gosa and Habtegebrel's pair of times the Bahraini women's average for 2018 came to 2:24:37, surpassing the Japanese women for the first time. Bahrain ends the year ranked #3 behind the homelands of its athletes, Ethiopia and Kenya.

4th Saitama International Marathon

Saitama, 12/9/18
complete results

Elite Women - 9:10 a.m. start
1. Dalila Gosa (Bahrain) - 2:25:35 - PB
2. Shitaye Habtegebrel (Bahrain) - 2:25:39
3. Sylvia Jebiwot Kibet (Kenya) - 2:28:38
4. Marie Imada (Japan/Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:29:35 - PB
5. Mao Kiyota (Japan/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:31:07
6. Saki Tokoro (Japan/Kyocera) - 2:32:11 - PB
7. Miharu Shimokado (Japan/Brooks) - 2:34:21
8. Hiroko Yoshitomi (Japan/Memolead) - 2:34:47
9. Yuko Mizuguchi (Japan/Denso) - 2:36:59
10. Asami Furuse (Kyocera) - 2:41:36
-----
DNF - Fatuma Sado (Ethiopia)

Mass-Participation Women - 9:40 a.m. start
1. Tomomi Sawahata (Sawahatters) - 2:35:58 - CR, PB

Mass-Participation Men - 9:40 a.m. start
1. Naoki Inoue - 2:20:03

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Metts said…
Sawahata and Yositomi just keep going.
December 10, 2018 at 8:42 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...
3 comments
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...
Post a Comment
Read more

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .
Post a Comment
Read more