by Brett Larner
Despite thunderstorms bringing heavy rain that shut down highways and roads in the area, the Honda corporate team came through with its second-straight win today at the 67th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden in Akita. The rain may actually have helped the situation by alleviating Towada's normal summer heat as times were fast across the board compared to other years. None was faster than Honda's William Malel (Kenya), who covered the 13.4 km, 180 m downhill Second Stage in 35:27 and took an incredible 45 seconds off the stage record set just last year. Malel started the Second Stage in 7th, but by the time he handed off to Honda's third man Hiroaki Sano he had a lead of 33 seconds and from there Honda never looked back.
Sano, the top Japanese man at last year's Chicago Marathon, extended the lead to 1:29, running 46:23 for the 16.2 km Third Stage. Honda's Keita Baba ran 49:17 for the 16.4 km Fourth Stage, its fastest mark by over a minute, to put the te…
Despite thunderstorms bringing heavy rain that shut down highways and roads in the area, the Honda corporate team came through with its second-straight win today at the 67th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden in Akita. The rain may actually have helped the situation by alleviating Towada's normal summer heat as times were fast across the board compared to other years. None was faster than Honda's William Malel (Kenya), who covered the 13.4 km, 180 m downhill Second Stage in 35:27 and took an incredible 45 seconds off the stage record set just last year. Malel started the Second Stage in 7th, but by the time he handed off to Honda's third man Hiroaki Sano he had a lead of 33 seconds and from there Honda never looked back.
Sano, the top Japanese man at last year's Chicago Marathon, extended the lead to 1:29, running 46:23 for the 16.2 km Third Stage. Honda's Keita Baba ran 49:17 for the 16.4 km Fourth Stage, its fastest mark by over a minute, to put the te…