Fresh off great Japanese performances at the Berlin Marathon and good ones in the Muenster Marathon and Tokyo World Championships , Ryoma Takeuchi came to today's NN Warsaw Marathon to win it. At July's Gold Coast Marathon he was in 2:07 shape but had a series of setbacks including arriving 24 hours later than planned after heavy rain made him miss his flight, and tripping and falling over the edge of a roundabout near 23 km. Despite that he managed a 2-second PB of 2:08:38 for 3rd. But Takeuchi felt that that didn't reflect the training he'd put in, and he opted to try to fit in another marathon before ekiden season got into full swing. Organizers expected a 2:09:30 race with a lead group of 5-6 up front, but right from the gun Takeuchi was on his own with 2 pacers. Despite excellent weather conditions the pacers struggled to hit the target 3:04/km pace and settled more into a 3:06/km groove, but even that put space between him and the chase group. One lead pacer ...
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