Skip to main content

Kipkorir Defends Incheon Songdo International Half Marathon Title


Overcoming humid conditions and competition over two minutes faster than his best, 2016 Incheon Songdo International Half Marathon winner Paul Kipkorir (Kenya) negative splitted his way to his second-straight Incheon title, winning in 1:02:32.

Conditions just before the start were good, cool and breezy with light clouds. Even so, the early pace was unexpectedly slow given a field that included sub-60 men Edwin Rotich (Kenya) and Adunga Bikila (Ethiopia), Kipkorir, 2015 winner Isaac Kiplagat (Kenya) and five men with 62-minute bests including 19-year-old Japanese runner Tomoki Ota (Waseda Univ.). Running 3:01-02 per km kilometer for 5 km, a push from Kipkorir at the turnaround near 9 km was enough to shake off Ota and a few others but still took the lead pack through 10 km dead on 30:00.

Over the second half the humidity rose rapidly as the cloud cover shifted to mist, and one by one the contenders in the lead pack dropped off. In the final kilometers it came to a race between Kipkorir and Seifu Abdiwak (Ethiopia), but Kipkorir had the experience to seal it and open a winning margin of 26 seconds over Abdiwak.

Timothy Kattam (Kenya) took 3rd in 1:03:24, a PB by nearly two minutes as those around him suffered. Ota, who ran 1:02:48 at last November's Ageo City Marathon in his debut at the distance, faded badly as the conditions worsened, ultimately taking 13th in 1:07:16, his worst time in three half marathons to date. 2017 New Caledonia Marathon winner Yoshiki Koizumi (Raffine) experienced breathing difficulties and was never a factor, finishing far back in the pack among the amateur-level South Korean men. With no international women's field in the race the top woman among the seven South Koreans to start was Sook-Jeong Kim in 1:18:08.


Incheon Songdo Half Marathon

Songdo, Incheon, South Korea, 9/24/17

Men
1. Paul Kipkorir (Kenya) - 1:02:32
2. Seifu Abdiwak (Ethiopia) - 1:02:58
3. Timothy Kattam (Kenya) - 1:03:24 - PB
4. Mohammed Ziani (Morocco) - 1:03:31
5. Isaac Korir (Bahrain) - 1:04:04
6. Adunga Bikila (Ethiopia) - 1:04:24
7. Reuben Narry (Kenya) - 1:04:29 - PB
8. Namakoe Nkhasi (Lesotho) - 1:04:42
9. Taher Belkorchi (Morocoo) - 1:04:52
10. Mulue Andom Barhe (Eritrea) - 1:05:28
-----
13. Tomoki Oda (Japan/Waseda Univ.) - 1:07:16
22. Yoshiki Koizumi (Japan/Raffine) - 1:10:53

Women
1. Sook-Jeong Kim (South Korea) - 1:18:08

text and photos © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Comments

Metts said…
Was registered for the 10K but decided not to run it or even show up this morning. Ran later in the day. If I had known you were going to be there I would have gone just to meet you. Maybe some other time in Tokyo.
Brett Larner said…
My first time in mainland Korea. A nice weekend.

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

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters