African Athletics

Kenya’s Daniel Gitau and Australian Nikki Chapple were crowned men’s and women’s title holders at the Marugame Half Marathon in Japan.  

The 22 year old Gitau used an aggressive front running style to lead for most of the race right from the starter’s gun. He covered the distance in 1:01:08. Fellow Kenyans Mekubo Mogosu (1:01:43) and Joseph Mwaniki (1:01:49 were a distant second and third respectively.

In the women’s race Australian Mikki Chapple blew away the field and won the race in a life time best of 1:08:37. Japan’s Yoko Miyauchi (1:09:51) followed.

LEADING RESULTS

MENS 

1 Daniel Gitau (Kenya)  1:01:08; 2 Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya)  1:01:43; 3 Joseph Mwaniki (Kenya) 1:01:49;  4 Yuichiro Ogawa (Japan) 1:01:53; 5 Kosuke Takabayashi (Japan) 1:01:54; 6 Muryo Takase  (Japan )1:01:57; 7 Tomoyuki Morita (Japan) 1:02:02; 8 Shota Hiraga (Japan) 1:02:08; 9 Tomoaki Bungo  (Japan)1:02:15; 10 Satoshi Irifune  (Japan)1:02:18;

WOMEN
 1 Nikki Chapple (Australia) 1:08:37; 2 Yoko Miyauchi (Japan) 1:09:51; 3 Hiroko Miyauchi (Japan)1:10:01; 4 Megumi Seike (Japan) 1:10:17; 5 Hiromi Ominami (Japan)1:10:37; 6 Mara Yamauchi (Britain) 1:10:46; 7 Noriko Higuchi (Japan) 1:10:51; 8 Miho Notagashira (Japan) 1:11:16; 9 Kim Sung-Eun (South Korea)  1:11:34; 10 Asami Yamane  (Japan) 1:11:46

Filed under: Half Marathon