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Benard Koech Breaks 10 Mile World Best in Kosa


Continuing a stellar season that saw him run a 26:55.04 10000 m best in October, Benard Kibet Koech (Kyudenko) took 20 seconds off Haile Gebrselassie's world best for 10 miles with a 44:04 win at the Kumamoto Kosa 10-Mile Road Race on Sunday. Alone early, Koech checked his watch repeatedly as he hammered the course, his only competition the great Gebrselassie's 17-year-old record. In the end nobody came within a minute and a half of him, Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) winning a three-way race for 2nd in 45:47 and Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko) 3rd in 45:49. Takashi Namba (Toenec) was 4th in 45:50, just 10 seconds off Masanari Shintaku's 45:40 national record from 1984. Kento Nishi (Osaka Gas) and Masashi Nonaka (Osaka Gas) were both under 46 minutes, and altogether 100 people were under 49:30, making it one of the deepest 10-milers in history.

The high school boys' 10 km was also solid, with the top 9 all under 30 minutes. Maynard Nganga (Senshu Tamana H.S.) got the win in 29:20, beating Shu Nagamoto (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) by just 5 seconds. NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) had a perfunctory win in the women's 5 km, running 15:53 to win by 28 seconds.

47th Kumamoto Kosa 10-Mile Road Race

Kosa, Kumamoto, 4 Dec. 2022

Men's 10 Miles
1. Benard Kibet Koech (Kyudenko) - 44:04 - WB
2. Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) - 45:47
3. Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko) - 45:49
4. Takashi Namba (Toenec) - 45:50
5. Kento Nishi (Mazda) - 45:54
6. Masashi Nonaka (Mazda) - 45:57
7. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) - 46:05
8. Naoki Aiba (Chudenko) - 46:07
9. Kohei Futaoka (Chudenko) - 46:08
10. Shohei Otsuka (Kyudenko) - 46:09
11. Taiga Nakanishi (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 46:09
12. Akito Terui (Subaru) - 46:09
13. Kento Otsu (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:10
14. Kyuma Yokota (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:13
15. Ayumu Yamamoto (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 46:16
16. Hiroto Fujimagari (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:16
17. Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) - 46:19
18. Kira Migita (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:21
19. Yudai Shimazu (Soka Univ.) - 46:24
20. Shunsuke Nagata (Subaru) - 46:27
21. Benuel Mogeni Magoma (Asahi Kasei) - 46:27
22. Kazuki Muramoto (Sumtomo Denko) - 46:31
23. Kiyoto Suzuki (Asahi Kasei) - 46:33
24. Ryo Fujimoto (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 46:33
25. Rui Aoki (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 46:34
-----
50. Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko) - 47:14
75. Sota Ito (Kyudenko) - 47:51
100. Keiya Arima (Mazda) - 49:20
-----
DNF - Allan Biwott (Mazda)

High School Boys 10 km
1. Maynard Nganga (Senshu Tamana H.S.) - 29:20
2. Shu Nagamoto (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) - 29:25
3. Ibuki Sugiyama (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) - 29:34
4. Kango Urakawa (Kaishin H.S.) - 29:48
5. Yuta Kanno (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) - 29:49
6. Masahiro Ikeda (Chiharadai H.S.) - 29:51
7. Yamato Yoshida (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) - 29:54
8. Shiryu Hanamoto (Omuta H.S.) - 29:56
9. Jusemu Yamanaka (Miyazaki Nichidai H.S.) - 29:57
10. Aoi Funakoshi (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) - 30:01

Women's 5 km
1. Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Kyushu) - 15:53
2. Miku Sakai (Higo Ginko) - 16:21
3. Sumika Tsutsumi (Higo Ginko) - 16:25
4. Yuki Akiyama (Higo Ginko) - 16:42
5. Riku Kikuchi (Higo Ginko) - 16:42

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Rigajags said…
I managed to watch the live streaming and Koech was amazing.

Hard to say more than that as the coverage only had one camera who was in front of Koech and After a few kilometres there was no one else in sight and i had no idea what was going on behind him.

There was also no live timing on the screen coverage so i started taking note of it myself based on some light blue signs next to the road that i figured were signs for every km mark.

His splits were amazing and i had to double check at 10 km to make sure that was the correct pace i was looking at:It was!

As said there was no way of finding out what was going on behind him:

Ryuji Miura was there, so were Yamamoto and Shimazu from main college names.
Miura was a complete no factor from the start, already after 1.5/2km he was losing contact with the First group of kenyan and some japanese and among those i could spot Shimazu.

I then only saw them at the finish line After the camera lost track of the group behind Koech After around 5/6 km.

Yamamoto had a solid putting, Shimazu look hammered at the end but Miura was way back, i think he finished around 47 minutes, looked good as usual on the last sprint but he really never was in the mix other than at the starting line.

Kudos to Koech, he looked amazing and relentless.
December 4, 2022 at 5:31 PM
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