Skip to main content

Ikebe Tops Weekend Overseas Half Marathon Results at Great North Run

by Brett Larner

Three Japanese men from two rival companies were on the roads in Europe this weekend competing over the half marathon distance.  At the Great North Run former Meiji University captain Minoru Ikebe (Team Honda) had the fastest time of the three, running just off his PB in 1:03:48, the fastest time ever by a Japanese man on the Great North Run course even though far off winner 2011 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon winner and London Olympics bronze medalist Wilson Kipsang's winning time of 59:06.  Former Team Denso runner and 2012 Olympic Marathon gold medalist Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia) took 3rd in the women's race behind the outstanding debut of Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) and runner-up Edna Kiplagat (Kenya), the 2011 World Championships marathon gold medalist.

In the Czech Republic at the Usti nad Ladem Half Marathon, 2011 World Championships men's marathon team member Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) ran almost 30 seconds off Ikebe's GNR time, clocking 1:04:18 for 4th, far behind winner Henry Kiplagat's solo 1:01:26.   His teammate Shingo Mishima (Team Toyota) was 30 seconds back in 1:04:48 for 6th.  Another former Team Denso Ethiopian, Betelhem Moges, won the women's race in 1:11:51.

2012 Great North Run Half Marathon
Gateshead, U.K., 9/16/12
click here for complete results

Men
1. Wilson Kipsang (Kenya) - 59:06
2. Micah Kogo (Kenya) - 59:07 - PB
3. Imane Merga (Ethiopia) - 59:56 - debut
4. Mike Kigen (Kenya) - 1:00:18
5. Emmanuel Bett (Kenya) - 1:00:56 - debut
6. Chris Thompson (U.K.) - 1:01:00 - PB
7. Collis Birmingham (Australia) - 1:01:25 - PB
8. Ryan Vail (U.S.A.) - 1:02:04 - PB
9. Nick McCormick (U.K.) - 1:02:44 - PB
10. Mustafa Mohamed (Sweden) - 1:03:12
-----
13. Minoru Ikebe (Team Honda) - 1:03:49

Women
1. Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) - 1:07:35 - debut
2. Edna Kiplagat (Kenya) - 1:07:41
3. Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia) - 1:07:48
4. Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia) - 1:08:09
5. Jo Pavey (U.K.) - 1:09:20
6. Rene Kalmer (South Africa) - 1:10:13
7. Gemma Steel (U.K.) - 1:10:46
8. Caryl Jones (U.K.) - 1:11:18
9. Freya Murray (U.K.) - 1:12:23
10. Amy Whitehead (U.K.) - 1:13:15

2012 Usti nad Labem Half Marathon
Czech Republic, 9/16/12
click here for complete results

Men
1. Henry Kiplagat (Kenya) - 1:01:26
2. Adugna Tekele (Ethiopia) - 1:03:38
3. Boniface Kirui (Kenya) - 1:04:10
4. Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) - 1:04:18
5. John Kiprotich (Kenya) - 1:04:48
6. Shingo Mishima (Team Toyota) - 1:04:48

Women
1. Betelhem Moges (Ethiopia) - 1:11:51
2. Tadelech Bekele (Ethiopia) - 1:12:01
3. Pamela Lisoreng (Kenya) - 1:13:13
4. Olga Kotovska (Ukraine) - 1:15:07
5. Yulia Ruban (Ukraine) - 1:15:30

text and photo (c) 2012 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...
Post a Comment
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
54 comments
Read more

Komazawa University One Step Away From Perfect Season With Hakone Ekiden Day One Win

Already the course record-breaker at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, 2021 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University came one step away from its first-ever triple crown of single-season ekiden wins as it won a highly competitive 2023 Hakone Ekiden Day One over defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University and last year's 6th placer Chuo University . Things got off to an unexpected start when Select Team runner Hayate Nitta of non-qualifier Ikuei University decided to take his one and only Hakone shot and run it up to his ability on the 21.3 km 1st leg even though the rest of the field opted to jog. At one point Nitta had a lead of almost a minute and a half, but as beautiful as it would have been for him to pull it off, Meiji University 's Shunpei Tomita and Komazawa's Kensuke Tsubura still managed to run him down in the final kilometer. Tomita took the stage win in 1:02:44, 1:02:08 half marathon pace vs. his 1:02:10 PB despite the slow s...
4 comments
Read more