Skip to main content

Yoshimatsu 2nd in Harmony Geneva Marathon


Recording what may have been the only negative split in the entire field on a hot day illuminated by piercing sunshine, Japan's Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) ran down half the Harmony Geneva Marathon elite women's field in the last 15 km of the race to take 2nd in 2:39:30.

Running with support from JRN, Yoshimatsu and 2017 Osaka Marathon runner-up Mitsuko Ino (Team R2), a late addition to the field a week before the race after another athlete scratched, fell off the African quartet of Ruth Waithera (Kenya), Fekadu Amelework (Ethiopia), Lema Alemitu (Ethiopia) and Berha Lemelem (Ethiopia) in the first few km. Running her marathon debut, Waithera made an early break to drop the Ethiopian trio. The Japanese pair worked together through the first half but were over three minutes behind the leaders at the halfway mark.

From there Yoshimatsu went to work on the course's long downhill stretch along the French border, dropping Ino and overtaking Lemelem. The remaining trio were still over a kilometer away as she headed for the steeper downhill the final lakeside kilometers, but as Yoshimatsu accelerated toward central Geneva first a fading Waithera and then Alemitu came back into sight. Amelework stopped the clock first in 2:38:05, but Yoshimatsu was close behind. Splitting 1:21:32 at halfway, Yoshimatsu's final finish time gave her a second half of 1:17:58, no small feat given the tough conditions.

Behind her Ino struggled in the heat but maintained position, overtaking Lemelem for 5th just before Lemelem dropped out and holding that spot all the way to a 2:48:18 finish. "Hot weather kills me," she said post-race. "I have to find a really cold race to run later in the year."

Most of the men ended up feeling exactly the same way. The opening 2:08 pace was too hot for 2:10:13 man Asuka Tanaka (Yutori RC), who sat back in 8th with first-timer James Kiplagat (Kenya) in hopes that the lead pack would fracture later in the race. Which it did, piece by piece, shaking down by halfway to a duel between defending champ William Yegon (Kenya) and 2:08 man Joseph Aperumoi (Kenya).

Yegon tried to push the gentler downhill slopes early in the first half to keep things on sub-2:10 pace, but along the lakeside he slowed, particularly after Aperumoi dropped way. His win was never in question, though, a 2:12:10 good enough to give him a second-straight Geneva title. Aperumoi faded to 2:13:54 for 2nd, with only two other runners clearing 2:20. Farther back, Tanaka experienced some internal problems and had to stop in a toilet at 28 km. Even so he got back on track well enough to run down two people in the last 5 km, picking up 6th in his international marathon debut despite a 2:26:29 finishing time.

14th Harmony Geneva Marathon for Unicef

Geneva, Switzerland, 5/6/18
click here for complete results

Women
1. Fekadu Amelework (Ethiopia) - 2:38:05
2. Hisae Yoshimatsu (Japan) -2:39:30
3. Lema Alemitu (Ethiopia) - 2:43:01
4. Ruth Waithera (Kenya) - 2:45:01
5. Mitsuko Ino (Japan) - 2:48:18
6. Anna Nasik (Poland) - 2:58:31

Men
1. William Yegon (Kenya) - 2:12:10
2. Joseph Aperumoi (Kenya) - 2:13:54
3. Wycliff Biwott (Kenya) - 2:17:40
4. Saji Abdelkabir (Morocco) - 2:19:42
5. Wilfred Murgor (Kenya) - 2:25:27
6. Asuka Tanaka (Japan) - 2:26:29

text and photos © 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

Restaurant Owner Selected as Olympic Torchbearer Dies in Fire After Becoming Despondent Over Impact of Coronavirus Crisis (updated)

On the evening of Apr. 30, the 54-year-old male owner of a restaurant in Tokyo's Nerima ward specializing in tonkatsu deep fried pork cutlets died from full-body burns in a fire at the restaurant. The man had been one of the people chosen as a torchbearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics torch relay. With the coronavirus crisis causing both the postponement of the Olympics and a loss of business at the restaurant, the man had recently started talking pessimistically about the future to those around him. With evidence of the man's body having been doused in tonkatsu cooking oil, metropolitan police from the Hikarigaoka Police Station are carefully examining the cause of the fire. At around 10:00 p.m. on the 30th, the fire broke out in the tonkatsu restaurant on the first floor of a three-story building. A neighborhood resident who noticed smoke called the fire department. Firefighters found the floor and part of a wall burning, with the man lying on the floor in the customer seat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kawauchi Wins Inaugural Kawauchi Half Marathon

http://www.minyu-net.com/sports/running/FM20160501-070419.php translated by Brett Larner 川内優輝ロード pic.twitter.com/rEJk7CQPFV — みとっぽ (黒) (@mitoppo_tmyk) April 30, 2016 Yuki Kawauchi Road in Kawauchi, Fukushima Held to inspire former residents to return to the area after the nearby TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident five years ago, the village of Kawauchi held the first " Kawauchi no Sato Kaeru Half Marathon - From Reconstruction to Creation " on April 30.  The course started and finished at the village heliport.  1188 runners from across the country gathered to celebrate the village's revival as they ran through its springtime streets. The event's organizing committee was made up of local government and board of education members with support from the Fukushima Minyu Newspaper and other sponsors.  The race's purpose was to transmit the vitality and charm of the reconstructing Kawauchi village to the rest of the nation in hopes of helpin...
Post a Comment
Read more