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Wambui Collapses Before Hokkaido Marathon Finish Line, Sawahata Takes Women's Race


With temperatures climbing over 30˚C, strong winds and at times heavy rain, 20,000 people ran the Hokkaido Marathon Sunday in Sapporo, which for the first time featured a two-wave start. Former Nihon University Hakone Ekiden runner Patrick Mathenge Wambui, now with the NTT Nishi Nihon corporate team, broke away from the rest of the field in his marathon debut and looked set for an easy win. But the hot and humid conditions hit him hard at the end of the race, and as he staggered in the home straight Wambui collapsed to the ground. He managed to get up and finish, just holding off the fast-closing Takumi Iwata (JFE Steel), a superb effort that outweighed his winning time of 2:20:54 being the second-slowest winning time in Hokkaido history. Iwata was 2nd in 2:20:59, with Shoma Hosoya (Logisteed) 3rd in 2:22:24.

Tomomi Sawahata, an amateur runner and veterinarian in Tokorozawa, Saitama, took the women's race in 2:38:18, the fourth-slowest women's winning time. "I don't like cold weather and prefer heat. There aren't many summer marathons, so that why I wanted to run Hokkaido. The conditions here were hot but just right for me. It was a great experience to get to race high-level corporate league runners, but my main competition is myself and I want to keep improving my PB." Ayano Ikeuchi (Denso) was 2nd in 2:40:00 and Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) 3rd in 2:46:21.

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translated and edited by Brett Larner

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