RESOURCES FOR RACE DIRECTORS

Cyrus Njui and Yumiko Hara win sweltering Hokkaido Marathon 

By K Ken Nakamura

Cyrus Njui, a marathon debutante, and Yumiko Hara, running her first marathon since January of 2009, won the men’s and women’s division of Hokkaido marathon in Sapporo, respectively. Njui’s winning time of 2:11:22 is quite impressive considering high temperature (27C at the start) and high humidity (70% at the start). Njui ran the second fastest time in the history of Hokkaido marathon. The Hokkaido marathon record of 2:10:13 was recorded by Ambesse Tolossa of Ethiopia in 1998, when the weather was much more conductive to running a good marathon. 

2010 Hokkaido Marathon, which for women doubles as one of the selection races for the next year’s World Championships, was held on Sunday August 28. The Hokkaido marathon is one of the very few (along with Tokyo Marathon) elite marathon race in Japan, where both men and women compete together. It is also one of the few marathons (along with Tokyo Marathon) in Japan where the masses of runners run behind the elites. Over 8800 runners started the race on Sunday. 

For Yumiko Hara, who is now coached by the legendary coach Yoshio Koide, her last marathon was 2009 Osaka Ladies Marathon, where she was third. She left Kyocera track team after the Osaka marathon in 2009 and trained alone for a year before she sought coaching from Koide in January of 2010. Hara started the Hokkaido Marathon with only four and a half month of solid training under the guidance of Koide. Hara battled it out with Hiroko Miyauchi until 32Km before Hara finally left Miyauchi behind and run the rest of the race alone. “I cannot believe that I came this far. I would like to thank those back home who helped me keep on running when I was running without team,” said Hara after the race. She could be a strong candidate to make the world championships marathon team especially because Daegu is also known for hot and humid weather. Hara who ran in 2005 and 2007 World Championships could be on the 2009 World Championships marathon team as well. 

Cyrus Njui, a Kenyan who attended University in Japan and now runs for Hitachi Cable, does not have impressive time at the shorter distances. His 5000m best is 13:22.76, 10000m best is 27:56.63, and half marathon best is 1:01:03 recorded in 2009 Sapporo half marathon. He has ran 30Km twice, in Kumamoto, but never broken 1:31. In Sapporo Njui ran the smart race, letting Joseph Gitau first and then Mekubo Mogusu go before reel them back to take over the lead at 38Km and won comfortably. 

How the race unfolded: 

Men: 

Because the temperature at the start was 27C and humidity oppressive 70%, the race was expected to go slow. However, the Kenyans ran aggressively despite the weather and made the race very interesting. In the men’s race Joseph Gitau of Kenya and JFE Steel, broke away from the lead pack before 7Km and led the chase pack by 27 seconds by 10Km. Gitau continued to push the pace and coveted 5 to 10Km as well as 10 to 15Km in less than 15 minutes. After 15Km, Mekubo Mogusu, a sub-60 minutes half marathon runner, left the chase pack and started to close the gap on Gitau. Mogusu, Kenyan who attended a high school and University in Japan and now runs for Aidem, caught and passed Gitau around 25.5Km. Soon Gitau was also passed by Cyrus Njui and Harun Njoroge. Mogusu, who dropped out of his debut marathon in Fukuoka in December of 2009, passed 30Km in 1:31:22, nearly two minutes ahead of the Tolossa’s Hokkaido Marathon record pace (1:33:20). Meanwhile Njui and Njoroge ran together and when Mogusu started to slow down, a marathon debutante Njui left Njoroge behind to chase Mogusu alone. At 35Km Njui was more than a minute and 30 seconds behind Mogusu. But as Mogusu hit the wall after 35Km, Njui closed the gap on Mogusu very fast. Njui passed Mogusu soon after 38Km. He was never challenged and won by more than minute and half. Soon Njoroge also passed Mogusu to move into second place, which he was able to keep until the end of the race. 

Women:

Before 10Km the leaders in the women’s race was reduced to three runners – Yumiko Hara, Mizuho Nasukawa and Hiroko Miyauchi. Although Nasukawa was reported to be in the best shape of her life, she started to drift back as Hara started to push the pace. Although Nasuhara regained the contact with the leader when the pace started to slacken, soon Nasukawa again started to drift back. By 25Km Nasukawa was more than 40 seconds behind the leader. At the 25Km water station, Hara surged leaving Miyauchi behind. But soon Miyauchi worked her way back and took over the lead. Their duel continued until 32Km when Hara surged over the uphill and left Miyauchi behind. Although Hara looked visibly tired in the final part of the race, she held on and won by a minute and a half over Miyauchi. Nasukawa, who looked to be in trouble in the middle part of the race worked her way back and almost caught Miyauchi near the finish. 

Weather: Temperature 27C, Humidity 70%, no wind 

Men: 
1) Cyrus Njui (KEN) 2:11:22 
2) Harun Njoroge (KEN) 2:13:04 
3) Mekubo Mogusu (KEN) 2:16:38 
4) Masaru Takamizawa 2:18:17 
5) Tetsuo Nishimura 2:18;31 
6) Masaki Shimojyu 2:20:06 
7) Chiharu Takada 2:20:30 
8) Yoshiki Otsuka 2:21:54 
9) Joseph Gitau (KEN) 2:21:54 
10) Takayuki Tagami 2:22:29 
11) Hiromasa Fukushima 2:22:32 
12) Akihiro Nomiya 2:24:55
13) Yoshiharu Tateishi 2:24:59 
…
20) Hiroyuki Horibata 2:26:55
…
31) Daniel Njenga (KEN) 2:32:34 
….
33) Kazuo Ietani 2:32:59

Women: 
1) Yumiko Hara 2:34:12 
2) Hiroko Miyauchi 2:35:42
3) Mizuho Nasukawa 2:36:07 
4) Chinami Fukaminato 2:40:28 
5) Ikuyo Yamashita 2:41:19 
6) Sumiko Suzuki 2:42:28 
7) Yuri Yoshizumi 2:43:14 
8) Misuzu Okamoto 2:48:14 
9) Chihiro Tanaka 2:49:34 
10) Hiroko Yoshitomi 2:53:27 
11) Mai Fujisawa 2:54.34 
12) Chinatsu Maruoka 2:55:12 
13) Hiromi Miyata 2:57:22 
14) Noriko Toyashima 2:58:16 
15) Akiko Masuda 2:59:41 
16) Noriko Hirao 2:59:58 

Splits: 
Men 
5Km 15:37 Takashi Nakata 
15:39 Joseph Gitau 
15:39 Harun Njoroge 
15:39 Cyrus Njui 
15:39 Mekubo Mogusu 
10Km 30:28 (14:51) Joseph Gitau 
30:55 Harun Njoroge
30:55 (15:16) Mekubo Mogusu 
30:55 (15:16) Cyrus Njui 
30:55 Hiroyuki Horibata 
30:55 Daniel Njenga 
15Km 45:20 (14:52) Joseph Gitau 
46:16 Harun Njoroge 
46:16 (15:21) Mekubo Mogusu 
46:16 Hiroyuki Horibata 
46:16 (15:21) Cyrus Njui 
46:41 Masaru Takamizawa
20Km: 1:00:19 (14:59) Joseph Gitau 
1:01:18 (15:02) Mekubo Mogusu 
1:01:40 Harun Njoroge 
1:01:40 Cyrus Njui 
1:01:54 Hiroyuki Horibata 
1:02:50 Masaru Takamizawa 
25Km ? Joseph Gitau 
1:16:12 (14:54) Mekubo Mogusu
30Km 1:31:22 (15:10) Mekubo Mogusu 
1:33:03 Cyrus Njui 
1:33:03 Harun Njoroge 
1:34:27 Joseph Gitau 
1:35:18 Hiroyuki Horibata 
35Km 1:47:29 (16:07) Mekubo Mogusu 
1:49:00 (15:57) Cyrus Njui
1:49:10 Harun Njoroge 
1:53:07 Tetsuo Nishimura 
1:53:08 Masaru Takamizawa
40Km 2:04:29 (15:29) Cyrus Njui 
2:05:33 Harun Njoroge 
2:06:34 (19:05) Mekubo Mogusu 
2:10:44 Tetsuo Nishimura 
2:11:08 Masaru Takamizawa 
42.195Km 2:11:22 (6:53) Cyrus Njui

Women
5Km 18:08 Yumiko Hara 
18:08 Hiroko Miyauchi 
18:08 Mizuho Nasukawa
18:09 Chinami Fukaminato 
18:09 Chiharu Matsuo 
10Km 35:31 (17:23) Yumiko Hara 
35:32 Hiroko Miyauchi 
35:34 Mizuho Nasukawa 
35:53 Chinami Fukaminato 
15Km 53:07 (17:36) Hiroko Miyauchi 
53:07 Yumiko Hara 
53:09 Mizuho Nasukawa 
54:04 Sumiko Suzuki 
20Km 1:11:07 (18:00) Hiroko Miyauchi 
1:11:08 Yumiko Hara 
1:11:10 Mizuho Nasukawa 
1:12:30 Ikuyo Yamashita 
25Km 1:29:19 (18:12)? Hiroko Miyauchi 
30Km 1:47:57 (18:38) Hiroko Miyauchi 
1:47:57 Yumiko Hara 
1:48:53 Mizuho Nasukawa 
1:51:19 Sumiko Suzuki 
35Km 2:06:58 (19:01) Yumiko Hara 
2:07:31 Hiroko Miyauchi 
2:08:18 Mizuho Nasukawa
2:11:08 Chinai Fukaminato 
40Km 2:25:51 (18:53) Yumiko Hara 
2:27:16 Hiroko Miyauchi 
2:27:55 Mizuho Nasukawa
2:31:33 Chinami Fukaminato 
42.195Km 2:34:12 (8:21) Yumiko Hara