23-year-old Yuki Nakamura broke by way of to the higher ranges of Japanese girls’s marathoning, taking on 6 minutes off her PB to win Australia’s Gold Coast Marathon in a course report 2:24:22. Coming into the race with a better of solely 2:30:31 from Nagoya in March, the evening earlier than the race Nakamura’s teaching employees advised JRN that her purpose was to clear 2:26 and that she’d go together with the lead group on 2:24 tempo and see what she might do. Helped by a big group of males to interrupt the wind, the pack of 5 quickly shook down to simply Nakamura, favourite Visiline Jepkesho of Kenya and a pair of:26 Ethiopian Sichala Kumeshi. Nakamura seemed comfy and underneath management, even like she was holding again, by way of the primary 2/3 of the race. A transfer from Jepkesho earlier than 30 km opened a ten m hole between the 2 Africans and Nakamura, however Nakamura labored the small hill simply after 31 km to catch again up and even go to the entrance.
From there Nakamura threw in a sequence of surges, first breaking Kumeshi after which Jepkesho. From earlier than the 36.6 km turnaround she was on her personal, and regardless that she needed to battle a headwind over the past 5 km and a darkish second between 39 and 41 km, Nakamura dug deep to take 21 seconds off American Lindsay Flanagan‘s CR from two years in the past, turning into the primary Japanese lady to win the Gold Coast Marathon since Misato Horie in 2016.
Jepkesho tanked after getting dropped, with Kumeshi working her down for 2nd in a PB of two:25:25 to Jepkesho’s 2:26:17. The quickest Japanese lady within the race earlier than it began, Rie Kawauchi was ninth in 2:36:57, with the final Japanese lady to make the highest 3 at Gold Coast, Shiho Kaneshige, thirteenth in 2:43:50 after an emergency mid-race rest room cease, and Horie twenty second in 2:52:38.
The lads’s tempo trio struggled to hit its goal of three:01/km for CR tempo, managing extra within the 3:02-03 vary earlier than all three stopped between 23 and 25 km. Ethiopian Belay Tilahun and Kenyans Timothy Kipkorir Kattam and Felix Kandie have been nonetheless within the lead group on the level together with over a half dozen Japanese males. Naoki Aiba made the primary transfer to interrupt issues up after the pacers stopped, and shortly it was down to simply him, the three Africans, and fellow 2:08 marathoners Kiyoshi Koga and Mizuki Higashi. As much as 35 km Higashi was the one one who did not go to the entrance, however when the ekiden specialist Koga threw in a giant surge coming as much as the 36.6 km turnaround it instantly killed off Kandie and Higashi.
Koga opened a small lead, however on the turnaround level the others caught again up. Aiba dropped, and over the following 3 km it was a three-way race till Koga misplaced contact. Kattam did many of the main from there, gesturing for Tilahun to tug up subsequent to him within the final km. However in the identical model seen in a whole lot of previous years at Gold Coast, he kicked on the nook with 400 m to go and pulled away to win in 2:08:52, Tilahun falling 6 seconds again for 2nd in 2:08:58, a PB by nearly 3 minutes. Koga pale to third in 2:09:22, making it the primary time since 2015 {that a} Japanese man hasn’t made high 2 at Gold Coast.
Aiba and Kandie held on for 4th and fifth in 2:10:26 and a pair of:10:47, however Higashi was run down by Akihiro Kaneko for sixth, Kaneko getting underneath 2:11 for the primary time with a brand new 2:10:58 PB. Anticipated to be the primary Japanese contender, 2:07 man Yuta Koyama was twelfth in 2:14:53. Submit-race he advised JRN, “I simply felt like I used to be out of fuel after about 27 or 28 km.” 2013 winner Yuki Kawauchi was 145th amongst males and 157th general in 2:42:23, the most recent in a steep decline in his performances this 12 months.
forty fourth Gold Coast Marathon
Gold Coast, Australia, 7 July 2024
Girls
1. Yuki Nakamura (Japan/Panasonic) – 2:24:22 – CR, PB
2. Sichala Kumeshi (Ethiopia) – 2:25:25 – PB
3. Visiline Jepkesho (Kenya) – 2:26:17
4. Irene Jerobon (Kenya) – 2:31:47
5. Sarah Klein (Australia) – 2:31:55
6. Abigail Nordberg (Australia) – 2:34:54 – debut
7. Milly Clark (Australia) – 2:36:44
8. Riine Ringi (Australia) – 2:36:51 – PB
9. Rie Kawauchi (Japan/Otsuka Seiyaku) – 2:36:57
10. Ai Ikemoto (Japan/unattached) – 2:39:46
—–
13. Shiho Kaneshige (Japan/GRlab Yamaguchi) – 2:43:50
22. Misato Horie (Japan/Sysmex) – 2:52:38
35. Aoi Makara (Japan/unattached) – 2:58:30
Males
1. Timothy Kipkorir Kattam (Kenya) – 2:08:52
2. Belay Tilahun (Ethiopia) – 2:08:58 – PB
3. Kiyoshi Koga (Japan/Yasukawa Denki) – 2:09:22
4. Naoki Aiba (Japan/Chudenko) – 2:10:26
5. Felix Kandie (Kenya) – 2:10:47
6. Akihiro Kaneko (Japan/Comodi Iida) – 2:10:58 – PB
7. Mizuki Higashi (Japan/Aisan Kogyo) – 2:11:21
8. Liam Boudin (Australia) – 2:13:56 – debut
9. Kenji Yamamoto (Japan/Mazda) – 2:14:23
10. Keisuke Yokota (Japan/unattached) – 2:14:29
—–
12. Yuta Koyama (Japan/Toenec) – 2:14:53
15. Yudai Fukuda (Japan/unattached) – 2:15:56
16. Masaki Tsuda (Japan/Nishitetsu) – 2:16:05
17. Tomohiro Kaijo (Japan/unattached) – 2:16:44
20. Takemaru Yamasaki (Japan/unattached) – 2:19:11
21. Yuki Nakamura (Japan/Sumitomo Denko) – 2:20:22
23. Daiji Kawai (Japan/Toenec) – 2:20:51
25. Rintaro Takeda (Japan/Yakult) – 2:21:59
145. Yuki Kawauchi (Japan/ANDS) – 2:42:23
© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
