Skip to main content

Kawauchi 2:11:52 CR in Sydney For Second Marathon Win in 3 Weeks

by Brett Larner
photo by Adrian Miles

Lining up for his sixth marathon of the year after a late Friday night flight, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) turned in his second win in three weeks as he set a 2:11:52 course record to lead a Japanese sweep at the Sept. 16 Sydney Marathon.

Just three weeks after winning the hot and humid Hokkaido Marathon in 2:18:38, Kawauchi set off in a small lead pack on pace to break the 2:14:12 Sydney course record set back in 1994.  Splitting 1:06:08 for the first half, he soon dropped Kenyan Felix Kandie and was on his own as he pushed on to run a negative split despite the challenging nature of the Sydney course which some estimates put at two to three minutes slow.  Kawauchi crossed the line with a margin of more than four minutes over Kandie, his time of 2:11:52 taking nearly two and a half minutes off the course record and the third-best time of his career.  Next up Kawauchi will run October's World Half Marathon Championships before pursuing a 2:07 at December's Fukuoka Marathon.

Alongside Kawauchi's win, Japanese runners took the titles in the women's marathon and both the men's and women's races in the half marathon.  Mountain runner Mitsuko Hirose ran a remarkably steady 4 min/km pace in the women's marathon, splitting 1:24:23 on her way to a 2:48:49 win with Yukie Tamura five minutes back in 2nd.  2011 Ichinoseki International Half Marathon winner Takahiro Gunji of Hakone Ekiden powerhouse Komazawa University outran Australians Scott Wescott and Ben St. Lawrence for the men's half in 1:04:19, Natsumi Matsumoto taking the women's honors in 1:15:03.

Update: The same day that Yuki Kawauchi won Sydney his younger brother Koki Kawauchi (Takasaki Keizai Univ.) won the Tazawako Marathon.

2012 Sydney Running Festival
Sydney, Australia, 9/16/12
click here for complete results

Men's Marathon
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 2:11:52 - CR
2. Felix Kandie (Kenya) - 2:16:12
3. Joel Kiprimo Kemboi (Kenya) - 2:18:34

Women's Marathon
1. Mitsuko Hirose (Japan) - 2:48:49
2. Yukie Tamura (Japan) - 2:52:33
3. Risper Kemaiyo (Kenya) - 2:54:04

Men's Half Marathon
1. Takahiro Gunji (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:19
2. Scott Wescott (Australia) - 1:04:47
3. Ben St. Lawrence (Australia) - 1:05:45

Women's Half Marathon
1. Natsumi Matsumoto (Japan) - 1:15:03
2. Sinead Driver (Australia) - 1:16:02
3. Lauren Shelley (Australia) - 1:16:30

(c) 2012 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

photo (c) 2012 Adrian Miles
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters