by Brett Larner
photo by Adrian Miles
Lining up for his sixth marathon of the year after a late Friday night flight, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) turned in his second win in three weeks as he set a 2:11:52 course record to lead a Japanese sweep at the Sept. 16 Sydney Marathon.
Just three weeks after winning the hot and humid Hokkaido Marathon in 2:18:38, Kawauchi set off in a small lead pack on pace to break the 2:14:12 Sydney course record set back in 1994. Splitting 1:06:08 for the first half, he soon dropped Kenyan Felix Kandie and was on his own as he pushed on to run a negative split despite the challenging nature of the Sydney course which some estimates put at two to three minutes slow. Kawauchi crossed the line with a margin of more than four minutes over Kandie, his time of 2:11:52 taking nearly two and a half minutes off the course record and the third-best time of his career. Next up Kawauchi will run October's World Half Marathon Championships before pursuing a 2:0…
photo by Adrian Miles
Lining up for his sixth marathon of the year after a late Friday night flight, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) turned in his second win in three weeks as he set a 2:11:52 course record to lead a Japanese sweep at the Sept. 16 Sydney Marathon.
Just three weeks after winning the hot and humid Hokkaido Marathon in 2:18:38, Kawauchi set off in a small lead pack on pace to break the 2:14:12 Sydney course record set back in 1994. Splitting 1:06:08 for the first half, he soon dropped Kenyan Felix Kandie and was on his own as he pushed on to run a negative split despite the challenging nature of the Sydney course which some estimates put at two to three minutes slow. Kawauchi crossed the line with a margin of more than four minutes over Kandie, his time of 2:11:52 taking nearly two and a half minutes off the course record and the third-best time of his career. Next up Kawauchi will run October's World Half Marathon Championships before pursuing a 2:0…