Workneh Over Shimoda at Beppu-Oita, Preisner Runs 2:08:58 for CAN #2

It's a rare year that there's no wind at all at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, and the field took advantage of it with a pack run that lasted until the very last stage of the race. It really was a race of pure attrition, steady between 2:07:15 and 2:07:30 pace as it shook down from a lead group of over 30 to just 8 by the time the last two pacers stopped at 30 km: Japanese runners Yuta Shimoda (GMO), Hironori Kishimoto (GMO), Tomoki Yoshioka (Kyudenko), Takanori Ogata (Toyota Kyushu) and Yuichi Yasui (Toyota), former Takushoku University captain Workneh Derese (Ethiopia/Hiramatsu Byoin), and internationals Ben Preisner (Canada) and Hicham Laqouahi (Morocco). Their split of 1:30:31 put Preisner 39 seconds up on Cam Levins' 30 km NR and on track for 2:07:19, 51 seconds under the Paris Olympics qualifying time.

Shimoda took over once the pacers were out, a 2:59 for the 31st km enough to get rid of Ogata and Yasui. Yoshioka was next, and just past 32 km Laquoahi dropped too to make it a four-way race up front. Between 34 and 35 km the pace slowed enough that in was clear Preisner would need to turn it around to still have a chance at the Olympic standard, the lead group's 1:45:57 split at 35 km projecting to 2:07:44. Shimoda gestured for Workneh to take over, and even though he did the pace still slacked. Shimoda took over again at 37 km with a hard surge that gapped Kishimoto and Preisner, but Workneh answered and pulled away with what ended up being his winning move, taking almost 3 minutes off his best to win in 2:07:58.

Shimoda held on to 2nd in 2:08:24, with Kishimoto finding a 2:08:38 in himself in his debut for 3rd. Preisner could only watch as the Olympic standard slipped away, but his 2:08:58 PB for 4th was good enough to land him at 2nd in the Canadian record books. Yasui gutted out a 2:09:30 for 5th after dropping off earlier, but maybe the grittiest run came from Laqouahi, who was lying on the road with less than 5 km and staggering when he got back up but still managed a 2:11:42 for 10th. Happy with his victory after struggling with the marathon since his sub-2:11 debut in 2019, Workneh gave his winning interview in fluent Japanese. "I had good altitude training for this, and I'm not surprised that I won," he said.

The Beppu-Oita women's field is always small, and this year only two women were under 2:50. Social media influencer Aoi Makara followed up a couple of recent good half marathons with a 9-minute PB of 2:40:31 for the win. In the T11 class men's race, Shinya Wada took 1:02 off his own WR with a new mark of 2:23:27.

72nd Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon

Beppu, Oita, 4 Feb. 2024

Women

1. Aoi Makara (unattached) - 2:40:31 - PB

2. Rieko Koshi (unattached) - 2:43:40

3. Sonoka Nakayama (unattached) - 2:50:22 - PB

Men

1. Workneh Derese (Ethiopia/Hiramatsu Byoin) - 2:07:58 - PB

2. Yuta Shimoda (GMO) - 2:08:24

3. Hironori Kishimoto (GMO) - 2:08:38 - debut

4. Ben Preisner (Canada) - 2:08:58 - PB

5. Yuichi Yasui (Toyota) - 2:09:30

6. Tomoki Yoshioka (Kyudenko) - 2:10:03 - PB

7. Yuki Muta (Logisteed) - 2:10:28 - debut

8. Takanori Ogata (Toyota Kyushu) 2:10:47 - PB

9. Reo Kuniyuki (SGH) - 2:11:27

10. Hicham Laqouahi (Morocco) - 2:11:42

11. Fumihiro Maruyama (Asahi Kasei) - 2:12:28

12. Shota Saito (JFE Steel) - 2:12:39

13. Akito Terui (Subaru) - 2:13:57

14. Genta Kuramoto (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 2:14:01 - debut

15. Ryo Osaki (Komori Corp.) - 2:14:18

16. Daigo Tomimura (unattached) - 2:14:50 - PB

17. Yuta Koyama (Toenec) - 2:15:03

18. Kazuma Taira (Kao) - 2:15:10 - PB

19. Kosuke Yamada (Toyota Boshoku) - 2:15:25 - PB

20. Kensuke Yamaguchi (Toyota Kyushu) - 2:15:34 - PB

21. Shogo Kanezane (Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:16:23

22. Tatsunori Hamasaki (Nanji AC) - 2:16:54

23. Shinya Kotabe (Kurosaki Harima) - 2:16:56 - debut

24. Tomohiro Okuyama (unattached) - 2:18:31 - PB

25. Tatsuki Ishii (Track Tokyo) - 2:19:29 - PB

26. Shunpei Oda (Komanechi RC) - 2:19:41

-----

DNF - Aychew Bantie (Ethiopia)

DNF - Mohamed Reda El Aaraby (Morocco)

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How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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