Brett Robinson won the Marugame Half Marathon in an Australian record of 59:57, recording the fastest time in four years at the World Athletics Silver Label road race on Sunday (2).
The 28-year-old took the lead at 18km before going on to win, taking more than four minutes off his PB in the process. Meanwhile, world marathon bronze medallist Helalia Johannes smashed her own Namibian record to win the women&rsquo;s race in 1:08:10.
In the men&rsquo;s race, a large pack of runners went through 5km in 14:13 and 10km in 28:26. The real racing started when 2017 Marugame winner Callum Hawkins started to push the pace at 13.5km. By 16.5km the lead pack had been reduced to four runners: Hawkins, Robinson, Yusuke Ogura and Taku Fujimoto.
Robinson took the lead at 18km and Ogura drifted back. Approaching 19km, Hawkins and Fujimoto also fell behind. Then Ogura started to bridge the gap, and took over the third from Fujimoto at 20.6km and second from Hawkins as they entered the stadium.
Robinson held on to the lead, though, and crossed the line in 59:57, taking 59 seconds off the Australian record set by Collis Birmingham at the 2013 edition of this race.
&ldquo;It was a very tough race,&rdquo; said Robinson. &ldquo;The last few kilometres were very, but I&rsquo;m very happy. The Japanese, Kenyan and Scottish runners put up a very good fight to the end.&rdquo;
Ogura took almost two minutes off his PB to finish second in a Japanese record of 1:00:00, taking 17 seconds off the previous mark set by Yuta Shitara, who finished sixth in 1:00:49.
&ldquo;I did not expect such a time,&rdquo; said Ogura. &ldquo;The race was a tune-up for the upcoming Tokyo Marathon. With two kilometres to go I expected the Japanese record to fall, so I was determined to pass Fujimoto in front of me. I am going after the third spot on the Japanese Marathon team in Tokyo.&rdquo; Ogura will have to break the Japanese national record, 2:05:50, to gain the third spot on the team.
Hawkins finished third with 1:00:01, one second short of the PB he set when winning here three years ago, while Fujimoto finished fourth in 60:06, also inside the former Japanese record.
In the first half of the women&rsquo;s race, Mao Ichiyama led Helalia Johannes, but Johannes took over the lead for good at about 12km. Although Charlotte Purdue came as close as 10 seconds at 20km, Johannes won with a personal best of 1:08:10.
It was a two-minute improvement on Johannes&rsquo; previous best, but her recent times at 10km (30:59) and the marathon (2:22:25) had hinted at a big half marathon breakthrough. The Commonwealth champion will defend her Nagoya Women&rsquo;s Marathon title next month.
Purdue finished second in 1:08:23, a PB by 20 seconds, while Choi Kyund-Sun set a Korean record of 1:08:35 in third place.
Ken Nakamura for World Athletics
<h3>Leading results</h3>
Men 1 Brett Robinson (AUS) 59:57 2 Yusuke Ogura (JPN) 1:00:00 3 Callum Hawkins (GBR) 1:00:01 4 Taku Fujimoto (JPN) 1:00:06 5 Masato Kikuchi (JPN) 1:00:43 6 Yuta Shitara (JPN) 1:00:49 7 Erzah Kipketer Tanui (KEN) 1:00:57 8 Kelvin Kiptum (KEN) 1:00:57
Women 1 Helalia Johannes (NAM) 1:08:10 2 Charlotte Purdue (GBR) 1:08:23 3 Choi Kyung-Sun (KOR) 1:08:35 4 Sidnead Diver (AUS) 1:08:50 5 Mao Ichiyama (JPN) 1:08:56 6 Andrea Seccafien (CAN) 1:09:38 7 Ellie Pashley (AUS) 1:10:35 8 Rui Aoyama (JPN) 1:11:36

Brett Robinson won the Marugame Half Marathon in an Australian record of 59:57, recording the fastest time in four years at the World Athletics Silver Label road race on Sunday (2).

Robinson and Johannes break national records to win Marugame Half Marathon

A contingent of 24 will represent Australia at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Kampala 2017 on 26 March.
The team is led by Brett Robinson and Anna Kelly after the duo won the selection trial in Canberra last month.
Robinson is joined on the men&rsquo;s team by NCAA cross-country champion Patrick Tiernan and fellow Olympians Sam McEntee and Liam Adams. The latter will be competing at his eighth consecutive World Cross Country Championships.
National 10,000m champion Bridey Delaney and Australian cross-country champion Virginia Moloney will accompany Kelly on the women&rsquo;s team.
Australia has competed at every edition of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Robinson delivered the best Australian performance in 2015, finishing 28th in the senior men&rsquo;s race.
Athletics Australia for the IAAF
<h3>Australian team for Kampala:</h3>
Senior men: Liam Adams, Sam McEntee, Stewart McSweyn, Jack Rayner, Brett Robinson, Patrick Tiernan
Senior women: Bridey Delaney, Lexy Gilmour, Anna Kelly, Gemma Maini, Virginia Moloney, Emily Ryan
U20 men: Zachary Facioini, David Lean, Callum McClusky, Josh Phillips, Kieran Tall, Edward Trippas
U20 women: Georgia Evans, Courtney Hopkins, Emily Hopper, Amelia Mazza-Downie, Clio Ozanne-Jacques, Lauren Ryan

A contingent of 24 will represent Australia at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Kampala 2017 on 26 March.

Robinson and Tiernan lead Australian team for Kampala

Cold blustery winds blew several ambitious plans off course at the Zatopek:10 Classic in Melbourne on Thursday (11).Brett Robinson and Kenya&rsquo;s Veronica Wanjiru won the two classic 10,000m races, Robinson joining his Ballarat Project team-mate Collis Birmingham as a winner of both the junior 3000m and senior 10,000m, but neither was able to achieve a World Championships qualifying standard.Zak Patterson and Kate Spencer won the two junior 3000m races but they, too, were outside the race records, though Spencer gave it a mighty shake despite running on her own for all but the first two laps.The men&rsquo;s 800m, run early in the program, had the worst of the conditions, leaving Alex Rowe, who equalled Ralph Doubell&rsquo;s long-standing national record of 1:44.40 at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco in July, just outside the World Championships qualifying mark in that event.Rowe&rsquo;s was probably the run of the night. Led through 400m in about 52.5 seconds, he battled the wind on his own around the second lap to finish just outside the qualifying standard with 1:46.91.Medical studies will keep Rowe in Australia for most of 2015, so he is hoping to achieve the Beijing standard at home, and as early as possible. His form coming into the Zatopek meeting had been solid, his only previous 800m this domestic season against Jeff Riseley on the final leg of a 4x800m relay having yielded a 1:46.5 split.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t control the conditions. I felt I ran quite strongly,&rdquo; Rowe said. &ldquo;So adverse conditions and I ran 1:46, that&rsquo;s 1.5 quicker than I&rsquo;ve done in any other season-opener, so if I&rsquo;m running that much faster later in the year than what I ran in Monaco, I&rsquo;ll be pretty happy with that.&rdquo;Wanjiru and Eloise Wellings found themselves fighting out the women&rsquo;s Zatopek 10,000m race after breaking away from a leading group of five just before half way.Wanjiru, winner of the 3000m at both the 2005 World Youths and 2006 World Juniors, moved first, followed by Wellings as they pulled away from Madeline Heiner, Celia Sullohern and Commonwealth Games marathon bronze medallist Jess Trengove.Wellings forced the issue over the final four laps, but it was Wanjiru &ndash; competing in her first ever 10,000m race and her first track race since 2012 &ndash; who came up with the decisive finishing burst, sprinting away on the last lap to win 32:22.22 to 32:26.59. In better conditions, both may have been under the Beijing standard of 32:00.00.Wanjiru, who has returned to running from maternity leave, said her immediate goals were to qualify for the 10,000m for Beijing and Rio and to make the Kenyan team for the World Cross Country Championships in the Chinese city of Guiyang next March.Robinson, winner of the de Castella 3000m in 2010 and a finalist in the 5000m at the 2013 World Championships, always looked comfortable through the 54th running of the men&rsquo;s race. But he was made to work hard over the final lap to hold off Duer Yoa, 28:45.36 to 28:46.46.Competing in just his second ever 10,000m, Robinson&rsquo;s winning time shaved 0.03 off his personal best, set at the 2012 edition of this meeting. He also became the first Australian in five years to win the men's 10,000m at the Zatopek:10 Classic.Eritrea&rsquo;s Samson Gebreyohannes set the race going after a slow first half and finished third in 28:49.42.In 11th, Jack Rayner clocked 29:37.21, the fastest time by an Australian junior for 37 years.The two junior 3000m races looked likely to produce good shots at the meeting records with World Junior 1500m finalist Zak Patterson and World Junior 5000m finalist Kate Spencer the favourites.Spencer was first up, the women&rsquo;s race being held in some of the windiest conditions of the evening. Despite that, she set out hard, running through the first 2000m in just under 6:04. She slowed a little, her final time of 9:10.82 putting her just outside the race record held by former steeplechase world record-holder Melissa Rollison.In third and fourth, Annabel McDermott and Amelia Mazza-Downie, both just 15 years old, clocked qualifying marks for next year&rsquo;s World Youth Championships. Both athletes smashed their PBs, clocking 9:27.98 and 9:29.16 respectively.The men&rsquo;s race never got on to Ryan Gregson&rsquo;s race record pace of 8:02.56, but Patterson &ndash; who finished fifth in the 1500m in Eugene &ndash; had to pull out a 56-second final lap to just hold off Jack Stapleton, 8:15.64 to 8:15.83.Len Johnson for the IAAF

Cold blustery winds blew several ambitious plans off course at the Zatopek: 10 Classic in Melbourne on Thursday (11).

Robinson and Johannes break national records to win Marugame Half Marathon

Robinson and Tiernan lead Australian team for Kampala

Wanjiru and Robinson victorious as winds blow Zatopek ambitions off course