Lucas Rotich wins Lake Biwa, A View from Europe, by Alfons Juck

Lucas Rotich, photo by PhotoRun.net

Rotich wins Lake Biwa
LAKE BIWA (JPN, Mar 6): In warm but windless conditions, Lucas Rotich won a close race at the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon in 2:09:11 ahead of Hisanori Kitajima (2:09:16) who was one of four Japanese runners to break the 2:10-barrier on home soil. Tanzania’s Alphonce Felix Simbu comprised the podium in third in 2:09:19 ahead of Suehiro Ishikawa (2:09:25), Takuya Fukatsu (2:09:31) and Fumihiro Maruyama (2:09:39). Yuki Kawauchi was seventh in 2:11:53 while Olympic sixth-placer Kentaro Nakamoto will almost certainly miss out on selection for Rio 2016 in eighth in 2:12:06. Ethiopian teenager Shura Kitata set a blistering early pace and passed through halfway in 62:35 (14:40 5km split from 10-15km) and was on course to break the Japanese all-comers’ record but was caught at 29km and faded to 16th in 2:16:09. “The pace was already fast and I thought he would comeback after 30km, so I decided not to chase him,” said Rotich. Leading European marathon-runner Henryk Szost from Poland dropped out before halfway. With help from Brett Larner / IAAF.

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Editor’s note: Victah Sailer, who should know, told RBR that Lake Biwa has wonderful race coverage. Here is a fine story on the event: http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.jp/2016/03/rotich-wins-wild-lake-biwa-mainichi.html

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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