Mayumi Ichikawa and Dionisio Ceron win the 2000 Hokkaido Marathon

Mayumi Ichikawa and Dionisio Ceron win the 2000 Hokkaido Marathon
K. Ken Nakamura for IAAF

28 August 2000 - Mayumi Ichikawa of Japan and Dionisio Ceron of Mexico won the 2000 Hokkaido marathon in Sapporo on August 27. The race on the one way course from Makomani stadium to Nakajima Park were run under adverse weather condition. The temperature at the start time was 30C, with humidity of 40%. It was also quite windy.

Ichiakawa made her marathon debut at the 1997 Berlin marathon where she finished sixth in 2:30:26. Her second marathon was at the 1999 Nagoya marathon. In Nagoya, after running conservatively during the early stage of the race, she was able to move up several places during the last half of the race to finish second in 2:27:57. For this effort she was selected for the 1999 World Championships' marathon team. Unfortunately, because of a fall (after 10Km) and blisters, she finished a disappointing 17th place in 2:32:01. She had further setbacks earlier this year; she could hardly walk without pain for two months due to injury to her right knee. As a consequence, she was not able to run in any of the Olympic qualifying races during the past winter. She entered the 2000 Hokkaido marathon to redeem herself from her past disappointments.

The women's race started uncharacteristically fast considering the adverse weather condition, reports Toshiro Tazaki. The first 5Km were covered in 17:26 by threesome of Mayumi Ichikawa, Rie Matsuoka and Naoko Sato. Sato is a training partner of Naoko Takahashi, while Rie Matsuoka is a teammate of Eri Yamaguchi. Takahashi and Yamaguchi will be running an Olympic marathon in a month. When three runners passed 10Km in 34:21 (16:55 for 5Km to 10Km), Tomoe Abe who recently set a World Best of 6:33:11 at the 100Km race in nearby Lake Saroma was already losing contact with the leaders. She was 10 seconds behind by 10Km mark; she eventually finished third in 2:35:21. Twenty-three years old Matsuoka who improved her 10000m Personal Best from 32:24.30 to 31:52.50 this year was making her marathon debut. After 10Km she started to break away from the lead pack and by 13Km, she led Ichikawa by 5 seconds. But Ichikawa worked her way back and caught Matsuoka by 15Km (51:54, 17:33 for 10Km to 15Km). They ran together for the next 10Km, but after 20Km, it was obvious that Matsuoka was barely hanging on with Ichikawa. Yet, Matsuoka stayed close to Ichikawa until 25Km (1:27:26); unfortunately when Matsuoka finally started to lose contact with Ichikawa after 26Km, she lost ground quickly. As the temperature continue to rise, Ichikawas's pace also slowed down, but she won comfortably in 2:32:30, a quite a fast time considering the adverse condition.

It is reported that Ichikawa along with her teammates - Reiko Tosa, Yoko Shibui and Naomi Sakashita - at the Mitsui Kaijyo track team have a grand scheme of winning all four domestic marathons (Hokkaido, Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya). Reiko Tosa who finished second to Naoko Takahashi in the 2000 Nagoya marathon with 2:24:36 will be running the Tokyo Ladies marathon. Yoko Shibui and Naomi Sakashita will be making a marathon debut at Osaka Ladies marathon and Nagoya Ladies marathon respectively. Shibui and Sakashita are both top 10000m runners with 31:48.89 and 31:53.40 respectively.

In the men's race Dionisio Ceron broke away from the lead pack at 33Km, and won by six seconds, holding off the late challenge from fast closing Toshiaki Kurabayashi. They both ran in the 1995 World Championships in Goteborg. Ceron finished second, while Kurabayashi was dismal 41st. 

Results (JPN unless otherwise indicated)