Skip to main content

Volkswagen Prague Marathon Preview

by Brett Larner


Japan's Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) will run Sunday's Volkswagen Prague Marathon with support from JRN in preparation for August's London World Championships marathon. At the pre-race press conference organizers expressed their hopes of seeing a 2:06 men's race, led by past 2:06 men Lani Kiplagat Ruto and Frankline Chepkwony of Kenya.  For his part Kawauchi said that his goal is to break his 2:08:14 PB dating back to 2013.  "I haven't broken my PB for four years, so I'm here to run 2:07," he said.

Organizers were even more optimistic about the potential outcome of the women's race, which features 2:20 women Feyse Tadese and Amane Beriso, two other Ethiopians with bests under 2:23, and 1:07:50 half marathoner Valary Jemeli Aiyabei. With the quality of field assemble, favorable weather conditions and the split timing and finish time projection system devised by Dr. Helmut Winter and used at the London, Berlin, Chicago and Dubai Marathons in place for the women, the hope is that Prague will see its first-ever women's 2:19 clocking. At the very least an update to the 2:22:34 course record looks to be in the works.

Volkswagen Prague Marathon Elite Field Highlights
Prague, Czech Republic, 5/7/17
times listed are athlete's best within last three years except where noted

Men
Lani Kiplagat Rutto (Kenya) - 2:06:34
Frankline Chepkwony (Kenya) - 2:06:51
Bazu Worku (Ethiopia) - 2:07:09
Stephen Kwelio Chemlany (Kenya) - 2:07:37
Gebrstsadik Abraha (Ethiopia) - 2:08:17
Raymont Choge (Kenya) - 2:08:39
Evans Kipkosgei Ruto (Kenya) - 2:08:55
Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) - 2:09:01
Oleksandr Sitkovskyy (Ukraine) - 2:09:11
Laban Kipkemboi Mutai (Kenya) - 2:09:16
Mekuant Ayenew (Ethiopia) - 2:09:23
Salah Eddine Bounasr (Morocco) - 2:10:25
Benson Kipruto (Kenya) - 2:13:24
Moses Mengich (Kenya) - 2:14:04
Edwin Kemboi (Austria) - 2:14:05
Nicolas Cuestas (Uruguay) - 2:15:31

Debut
Geoffrey Kipyego (Kenya) - 1:02:39
Said ait Addi (Morocco) - 1:03:25
Fred Musobo (Uganda) - 1:03:31
Blair Morgan (Canada) - 1:05:55

Women
Feyse Tadese (Ethiopia) - 2:20:27
Amane Beriso (Ethiopia) - 2:20:48
Mulu Seboka (Ethiopia) - 2:21:56
Tadelech Bekele (Ethiopia) - 2:22:51
Valary Jemeli Aiyabei (Kenya) - 2:24:48
Hirut Tibebu (Ethiopia) - 2:25:12
Sarah Jebet (Kenya) - 2:27:07
Beatrice Toroitich (Kenya) - 2:30:35
Rosa Chacha (Ecuador) - 2:35:39

Debut
Carlo Salome Rocha (Portugal) - 1:13:01
Sonia Cekini (Greece) - 1:16:08

text and photo © 2017 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that  Sis
Post a Comment
Read more

The Ivy League at the Izumo Ekiden in Review

Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43
Post a Comment
Read more

Hirabayashi Runs PB at Shanghai Half, WR Holder Nakata Dominates Fuji Five Lakes - Weekend Road Roundup

Returning to the roads after his 2:06:18 win at February's Osaka Marathon, Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin University) took 5th at Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon in a PB 1:01:23, just under a minute behind winner Roncer Kipkorir Konga (Kenya) who clocked a CR 1:00:29. After inexplicably running the equivalent of a sub-59 half marathon to win the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage, Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was back to running performances consistent with his other PBs with a 1:02:30 for 8th. His AGU teammate Kyosuke Hiramatsu was 10th in 1:04:00. Women's winner Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) also set a new CR in 1:09:57. Aoyama Gakuin runners took the top four spots in the men's half marathon at the Aomori Sakura Marathon , with Hakone alternate Kosei Shiraishi getting the win in 1:04:32 and B-team members Shunto Hamakawa and Kei Kitamura 2nd and 3rd in 1:04:45 and 1:04:48. Club runners took the other division titles, Hina Shinozaki winning the women's half
Post a Comment
Read more