Tiki Gelana wins Half-Marathon race in Japan

Marugame, Japan – (IAAF) Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia broke away after 5Km and won the 66th annual Kagawa-Marugame Half Marathon race here today by nearly two minutes in 1:08:48.  As expected, Gelana set a huge personal best, which stood at 1:10:22 until this morning.

Meanwhile, a race of attrition was in progress in the large chase pack behind the Ethiopian. By 20Km the chase pack was reduced to Kaoru Nagao, Sayo Nomura, Misato Horie and Mai Ito, and eventually, they finished second, third, fourth and fifth, respectively.  First four finishers all set personal bests.  Although the Tokyo Marathon is not an Olympic qualifying race for women, Nagao will be running the race in three weeks’ time and may be ready to improve her Marathon personal best.

In the men’s race, pre-race favourite Matthew Kisorio of Kenya collected a convincing win after breaking away from the field just four kilometres into the race.

Women –

1. Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia)  1:08:48 PB

2. Kaoru Nagao (Japan)  1:10:32 PB

3. Sayo Nomura (Japan) 1:10:34 PB

Men –

1. Matthew Kisorio (KEN)  1:00:

2. Daniel Gitau (KEN)     1:01:01 PB

3. Jacob Wanjuki (KEN)     1:01:02 PB