Macharia & Timofeyeva Win Nagano Marathon Titles
Posted Sunday, 19 April, 2009
The pre-race favorites Isaac Macharia of Kenya and Irina Timofeyeva of Russia won the 11th Nagano Olympic Commemorative Nagano Marathon, contested over the one-way course from Nagano Sports Park to Nagano Olympic stadium on Sunday April 19. Over 7000 runners started the race at 8:30AM.
Macharia, who won the race in 2:11:21, became the third runner to win the Nagano Marathon more than once, having won the 2005 edition with 2:10:59. Previously, Eric Wainaina won in 2000 and 2003, while Nephat Kinyanjui won thrice from 2006.
For Timofeyeva, who came from behind to win in 2:30:08, it was her first victory at Nagano. Neither Girma Tolla nor Yoshimi Ozaki made an anticipated breakthrough. Tolla finished second, 50 seconds behind Macharia, while early leader Ozaki finished third one minute ten seconds behind the winner Timofeyeva.
Men’s Race:
Masaru Takamizawa, who won the last year’s Hokkaido Marathon, pushed the pace in the early stage of the race. A huge lead pack headed by Takamizawa passed 5Km in 15:44 and 10Km in 31:20 (15:36). By 15Km (46:57 (15:37)), the lead pack was reduced to fourteen runners. Although the pace stayed moderate (20Km in 1:02:38 (15:41)), by half way (1:06:04) the lead pack was down to ten runners.
Of the ten runners, Takamizawa fell behind the pace first, and the front of the lead pack was occupied by invited runners from abroad – Girma Tolla, Yuriy Hychun, Isaac Macharia, Norman Dlomo and Simon Wangai.
Isaac Macharia started to push the pace around 28Km and the lead pack started to break apart. By 30Km (1:34:00 (15:32)) the lead pack was down to five runners, and 2Km later Macharia was running alone in front. By 35Km (1:49:24 (15:24)), Macharia was six seconds ahead of Wangai and Tola. Macharia continued to extend his lead in the next 7Km and won by 50 seconds over Tolla, while Wangai was another 23 seconds behind.
Women’s Race:
Akemi Ozaki led the women’s race in the early stage of the race. She led by 16 seconds at 5Km (17:31), but the gap narrowed to 11 seconds by 10Km (35:14 (17:43)). Ozaki was caught from behind at 13Km, and by 15Km (53:00 (17:46)) four runners – Irene Limika, Irina Timofeyeva, Derartu Tulu and Ozaki – were running together with Tatiana Aryasova running 7 seconds behind.
Soon Aryasova caught the leaders and five runners passed 20Km 1:10:54 (17:54), and half way in 1:14:40. With Derartu Tulu and Akemi Ozaki falling behind in the next four Km, three runners – Limika, Aryasova and Timofeyeva - passed 25Km in 1:28:08 (17:14). The real racing started soon, when Limika broke away from two Russians after 25Km, and by 30Km (1:45:11 (17:03), Limika led by 48 seconds. Although Limika was slowing down, she continued to extend her lead and by 35Km (2:03:05 (17:54)), Limika was one minute 31 seconds ahead of second place Timofeyeva.
However, as Limika slowed down even more (40Km in 2:21 57 (18:52)), Timofeyeva was cutting into Limika’s lead. By 40Km, Timofeyeva was only 19 seconds behind, and as Limika faltered badly Timofeyeva passed her in the final stage of the race and won by 42 seconds ahead of Limika in 2:30:08.
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