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IAAF org:Joseph Riri wins Lake Biwa Marathon
Finishing second in the race, three seconds back, was the defending champion Jose Rios of Spain
2005-03-08
Monday 7 March 2005 Despite turning prematurely just before the entrance of the Ojiyama stadium, so increasing the distance he had to run, Joseph Riri of Kenya, won yesterday’s 60th Lake Biwa Marathon in 2:09:00 (Sunday 6).Finishing second in the race, three seconds back, was the defending champion
Jose Rios of Spain. Finishing third, but more importantly the first Japanese in
the race with 2:09:10 clocking, was Michitaka Hosokawa, so automatically
qualifying for the marathon team for Helsinki.
Two other Japanese, Wataru Okutani and Yuko Matsumiya followed closely in
2:09:13 and 2:09:18 respectively and thus also have good chance to make team.
The time was relatively slow because of the strong headwind after
31Km.
How the race unfolded
The three pacemakers, Lee Troop of Australia, Eluid Lagat of Kenya and Pablo
Olmedo of Mexico, had been asked to lead the race with the pace of 15:05/Km,
and did a good job during the early part of the race. After passing each of the
first two Km in 2:58, the huge pack of 59 runners passed 5Km in 15:00. The many
of these runners stayed together until the half way. Although the temperature
during the race was around 9C, some of the runners had already started sweating
by 6Km into the run.
The first major contender to lose contact with the leaders was Francisco
Cortes of Spain; he was gone from the lead pack by 9Km, and the remaining 44
runners passed 10Km in 29:59. Nearing 11Km, Olympic bronze medallist Vanderlei
de Lima of Brazil moved into the lead to be ready for the aid
station.
In the early part of the race, tail wind was helping the runners, but after
13.6Km, the course turned toward north and thus the wind started to slow the
runners. The 15Km split was 45:08, at which point Lee Troop, one of the pace
maker who was suppose to lead until 30Km, dropped out. A pack of 41 runners was
still together at 15Km.
De Lima dropped ...
At 20Km (1:00:29), the leading group still included 38 runners
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