4 MARCH 2007: LAKE BIWA MAINICHI MARATHON, JAPAN – LOS ANGELES MARATHON, USA

Samson Ramadhani of Tanzania sprinted away from William Kiplagat of Kenya in the last 200m to win the 62nd Lake Biwa Marathon writes Ken Nakamura. For both Tokyo and Lake Biwa qualifiers for the World Championships no Japanese gained automatic selection.

Four pace makers were asked to pace at 3:03/3:04 per kilometre but with the temperature rising above 20°C, they fell behind schedule. It was sunny, unseasonably warm (17.9°C at race start) and humidity was 49%. At 10km 35 runners passed in 30:42 and 5km later (46:16) two more had joined them.

The first major casualty was Dmitriy Semenov of Russia, who fell off the pace at 19km. After 20km Luis Jesus, one of the pacers, dropped out and marathon debutant Tomoo Tsubota picked up the pace and a battle of attrition started. After halfway (1:03:50) the pack was down to 22 runners. Defending champion Jose Rios dropped out just before 25km (1:17:32). After 26km Isaac Macharia was the only remaining pacemaker, and by 27km, the lead pack was reduced to 17.

From 29km there were five domestic runners and six foreign runners left. The four Kenyans and Ethiopia’s Ambesse Tolossa were driving the pack, while Tsubota started to drift back. Macharia dropped out at 30km (1:33:04) and Kiplagat took over. The remaining three Japanese and Dutchman Maase were now hanging on to the African quartet. At 32km Laban Kagika, who runs for JFE team in Japan, surged strongly and a gap opened up between the Africans and non-Africans, although Abe briefly managed to close it down before being passed by Maase as he dropped back again after 34km.

Kiplagat, Ramadhani and Tolossa dropped Kagika at 36km and the trio exchanged the lead. Tolossa surged hard at 39km and Kiplagat momentarily fell back but with 1500m left he made his own bid for victory. The 41st kilometre was run in 2:58. Tolossa was left behind and Ramadhani lost 10m, but caught Kiplagat again to enter the Ojiyama stadium side by side.

In the last 600m on the track, the lead changed several times. The last lap was as if in a 10000m race. Ramadhani only finally took the lead for good in the last 200m and won by four seconds. „It was a very hard race. I had to survive (many surges) to be competitive at the end,“ said Ramadhani.
Mitsuru Kubota, who had fell off the pace earlier, moved passed Abe and finished in sixth, and the first Japanese.

MEN:
1 Samson RAMADHANI TAN 2:10:43
2 William KIPLAGAT KEN 2:10:47
3 Ambesse TOLOSSAT ETH 2:11:15
4 Laban KAGIKA KEN 2:12:36
5 Kamiel MAASE NED 2:12:40
6 Mitsuru KUBOTA JPN 2:12:50
7 Yuki ABE JPN 2:13:47
8 Kenjiro JITSUI JPN 2:14:08
9 Tetsuo NISHIMURA JPN 2:14:22
10 Toshihiro IWASA JPN 2:14:41

4 MARCH 2007: LOS ANGELES MARATHON, USA
The Los Angeles Times called the first run on the Marathon’s new point-to-point course „flawless. Congratulations to the nearly 25,000 people who made history with us on March 4.

MEN:
1 Fred MOGAKA KEN 2:17:14
2 Moses KORORIA KEN 2:17:18
3 Christopher KIPJEGO KEN 2:18:21
4 Christopher Kipkoech RUTTO KEN 2:18:45
5 Wilson KOMEN KEN 2:20:39
6 J T SERVICE USA 2:24:57
7 Cristian VILLAVICENCIO USA 2:28:16
8 Sergio REYES USA 2:29:29
9 Ricky MOORE USA 2:31:52
10 Tim FAHEY USA 2:32:13

WOMEN:
1 Ramilia BURANGOLOVA RUS 2:37:54
2 Alena VINITSKAYA BLR 2:42:54
3 Abebe TOLA ETH 2:45:16
4 Jennifer DEREGO 2:48:40
5 Nathalie HIGLEY USA 2:51:39
6 Maria Teresa RAMOS 3:03:26
7 Katie SOBCZAK USA 3:06:10
8 Petra GRAEN CAN 3:08:51
9 Erin KASPAR USA 3:11:01
10 Annie SEAWRIGHT USA 3:14:23

Source:
www.aims-association.org
AIMS