Yemane Tsegay of Ethiopia won the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon on Sunday, winner the race in 2:09:34. The Lake Biwa Marathon is celebrating its 65th edition anniversary this year, and is the oldest marathon event in Japan. It is also an IAAF Gold Label Road Race. Japanese drought continued for the 9th year running, with local runners unable to achieve the cherished top position.
Less than ideal weather paid to rest any attempt at the course record, which was quite on till the half way mark and even upto the 30KM mark. Japan’s Tomoyuki Sato was runner-up in 2:10:07, with Abraham Tadesse of Eritrea third in 2:10:46. Winner Tsegay was fourth in last years World Championships at Berlin.
Lake Biwa Marathon is strictly an elite marathon with stringent entry criteria (marathon time of 2:30 or faster). A total of just about 300 runners ran this years race.
Results Summary
- Yemane Tsegay (ETH) 2:09:34
- Tomoyuki Sato (JPN) 2:10:07
- Abraham Tadesse (ERI) 2:10:46
- Yukihiro Kitaoka (JPN) 2:10:51 (debut)
- Naoto Yoneda (JPN) 2:11:00 (debut)
- Ken-ichiro Setoguchi (JPN) 2:11:44
- Satoshi Yoshii (JPN) 2:12:24
- Tomoya Shimizu (JPN) 2:13:25
- Munehiro Sugaya (JPN) 2:15:07
- Takeshi Ueno (JPN) 2:15:26
