Skip to main content

Berlin Marathon - Japanese Results

by Brett Larner

With decent performances in Chicago and Frankfurt and a 2:09:21 PB at this year's Tokyo Marathon behind him, Koji Gokaya (Team JR Higashi Nihon) turned in the fastest marathon of the year by a Japanese man outside Japan, running 2:10:58 for 9th at the Berlin Marathon.  Gokaya, sub-2:10 men Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) and Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko) and track star Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) ran the entire race inside the third pack just under 2:10 pace, Morita and Sakai tending toward the front of the group and Gokaya and Sato relaxing out back.  A late-race move by Reid Coolsaet in a bid for the Canadian national record pulled Sato along, but after 40 km he faded badly and was easily run down by Gokaya.  Sato, in his third marathon, still managed a sizable PB of 2:12:32 for 14th, while Sakai and Morita dropped to 22nd and 33rd in 2:14:52 and 2:15:57.

In the women's race, 2014 Asian Games team member Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto) started near PB pace in the second group, with 2014 Yokohama International Women's Marathon winner Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) leading off more conservatively on high 2:27 pace.  Tanaka ran evenly throughout the race and overtook Hayakawa early in the second half, looking like she might make top 5th but stalling in her advance at 8th and crossing the finish line in 2:28:00.  Hayakawa ended up 14th in 2:31:27, with Mayumi Uchiyama (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) taking the third Japanese women's spot in 2:44:30 for 39th.

Berlin Marathon
Berlin, Germany, 9/27/15
click here for complete results

Men
1. Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) - 2:04:00
2. Eliud Kiptanui (Kenya) - 2:05:21
3. Feyisa Lilesa (Ethiopia) - 2:06:57
4. Emmanuel Mutai (Kenya) - 2:07:46
5. Geoffrey Mutai (Kenya) - 2:09:29
6. Reid Coolsaet (Canada) - 2:10:28
7. Koen Naert (Belgium) - 2:10:31
8. Yared Shegumo (Poland) - 2:10:47
9. Koji Gokaya (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:10:58
10. Scott Overall (Great Britain) - 2:11:24
-----
14. Yuki Sato (Japan/Nissin Shokuhin) - 2:12:32
22. Masanori Sakai (Japan/Kyudenko) - 2:14:52
33. Tomoyuki Morita (Japan/Kanebo) - 2:15:57

Women
1. Gladys Cherono (Kenya) - 2:19:25
2. Aberu Kebede (Ethiopia) - 2:20:48
3. Meseret Hailu (Ethiopia) - 2:24:33
4. Tadelech Bekele (Ethiopia) - 2:25:01
5. Andrea Deelstra (Netherlands) - 2:26:46
6. Maja Neuenschwander (Switzerland) - 2:26:49
7. Lisa Nemec (Croatia) - 2:27:57
8. Tomomi Tanaka (Japan/Daiich Seimei) - 2:28:00
9. Sonia Samuels (Great Britain) - 2:28:04
10. Fate Tola (Ethiopia) - 2:28:24
-----
14. Eri Hayakwa (Japan/Toto) - 2:31:27
39. Mayumi Uchiyama (Japan/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 2:44:30

(c) 2015 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...

Route Inn Hotels Win National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier for First Time

After Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race in Tokyo, 2nd-tier corporate women's teams were in Fukuoka for their own national championships qualifying race, the Princess Ekiden . With Queens Ekiden 19-placer Otsuka Seiyaku a DNS, 30 teams lined up for the 6-stage, 42.195 km race where the top 16 would go on to join the top 8 from last year's Queens Ekiden at next month's national race. Coming right in the middle of the international fall marathon season several teams had people still tired from Berlin and Chicago, with Daihatsu fielding Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori from Berlin, Tokyo Metro sending out its own Berlin duo of Mao Uesugi and Ayumi Morita , and Kraftia not playing its top member Yuka Akasaki after her solid run in Chicago last week. After a fast start from eventual 9th-placer Denso 's Rio Matsutani , Daihatsu took over on the Second Stage and held it until the Fifth, where a tired Omori dropped to 3rd. Mayuka Fujita from Route Inn H...