Skip to main content

Kawauchi 6th in French Debut at Marathon des Alpes-Maritimes Nice-Cannes


Returning to its regular starting point on the Promenade des Anglais this year for its tenth anniversary running, France's Marathon des Alpes-Maritimes Nice-Cannes experienced wild winds and rain for much of the race. Running in France for the first time, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) hoped to become the first non-African winner in event history. Staying in the middle of a lead pack of five Kenyans and two Ethiopians, Kawauchi and the rest of the group were just off the planned sub-2:10 pace through halfway as pacer Cosmas Birech struggled to deal with winds that shifted in every direction. Daniel Yator was the first casualty of the tough conditions.

At 22 km the course moved away from the open beachfront, blocking the wind enough for Birech to pick it up to the planned 3:04/km. But as he did Kawauchi found himself unable to respond, and within a kilometer he had dropped ten seconds off the lead sextet. From there it was a struggle for him to hold off Yator, who beat Kawauchi at June's Stockholm Marathon, and to try to get forwardly mobile again.

The lead group dropped former Honda runner Asmeraw Mengistu heading into the hills after 25 km and remained a quintet all the way until 39 km. Ethiopian Dejene Kelkilew went to the front for the first time and began to push, and the rest of the group dropped off one by one until Kelkilew was left by himself in the final kilometer to win in 2:12:09. The next three finishers, all Kenyan, came through in 10-15 second intervals, with Emmanuel Sikuku rounding out the top five a ways back in 2:13:52.


Kawauchi lost two minutes to the lead group by 30 km, but from there to the finish the margin didn't change dramatically. With his characteristic strength over the last 2 to 3 km he ran down Megistu to finish 6th in 2:15:02, the 59th sub-2:16 of his career. "I'm not sure what was wrong," he told reporters after the race. "After 10 km my legs weren't moving right and I had to push it to cope with the wind. When it got faster at 22 km I didn't have another gear. It was really a struggle from there all the way to the finish. I came here to win, so it's hard to find any satisfaction in this result."


In the women's race, first-timer Tejitu Siyum led compatriots Meseret Gola and Tigist Shetu in an Ethiopian sweep of the podium, winning her debut in a 2:33:21 time solid for the conditions. French women fronted by Aline Camboulives' 2:45:50 filled out the rest of the top ten.

10th Marathon des Alpes-Maritimes Nice-Cannes

Nice, France, 11/5/17

Men
1. Dejene Kelkilew (Ethiopia) - 2:12:09
2. Cosmas Birech (Kenya) - 2:12:20
3. Alfred Kering (Kenya) - 2:12:31
4. Alex Bartilol (Kenya) - 2:12:46
5. Emmanuel Sikuku (Kenya) - 2:13:52
6. Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) - 2:15:02
7. Asmeraw Mengistu (Ethiopia) - 2:15:47
8. Daniel Yator (Kenya) - 2:20:11

Women
1. Tejitu Siyum (Ethiopia) - 2:33:21 - debut
2. Meseret Gola (Ethiopia) - 2:36:36
3. Tigist Shetu (Ethiopia) - 2:43:59
4. Aline Camboulives (France) - 2:45:50
5. Agnes Portier (France) - 2:53:48 - debut

text, photos and video © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more