Catherine Ndereba wins the women's marathon (© Getty Images)
2003 World Marathon Champion Catherine Ndereba won the Kobe Women’s Half Marathon in 1:12:10. “After Athens, I had a month and half break from training, so I am very pleased with the win today,” said Ndereba. It was her first race since Athens.
The race was run on Sunday November 7 on the point to point course in Kobe under the sunny sky. Esther Wanjiru of Kenya, who was fourth in the Sydney Olympic Marathon, led in the early part of the race. The pack of eleven runners led by Wanjiru passed 5 km in 17:16. By 10 km (34:18), while the lead pack was reduced to nine runners, Ndereba moved to the front to control the race.
Yamazaki and Terada moved into the lead momentarily around 13.5 km but Ndereba soon took back the lead. After passing 15 km in 51:48, the race of attrition started in earnest. Esther Wanjiru was the first casualty. Two more runners were left behind in the next 2 km.
The real racing started at 17.5 km, when Maya Nishio, who was shadowing Ndereba for the last 4 km, surged into the front. “I just ran the ekiden race last week, so I was only suppose to enjoy this race, but running with Ms Ndereba, I felt competitive during the race,” said Nishio after the race.
The pack was reduced to four runners – Nishio, Ndereba, Okunaga and Yamazaki. A kilometre later Okunaga fell behind, followed by Yamazaki 500m later. Soon afterward, Ndereba surged away from Nishio. “She was too fast,” said Nishio.
By 20 km, Ndereba led Nishio by 5 seconds, and at the end the 2004 Olympic silver medalist won by 15 seconds. Nishio, who said, “I was quite impressed by her tenacity, her persistence for victory,” finished second.
Results (JPN unless otherwise noted):
1) Catherine Ndereba (KEN) 1:12:10
2) Maya Nishio 1:12:25
3) Mika Okunaga 1:12:33
4) Chieko Yamazaki 1:12:38
5) Kei Terada 1:13:08
6) Yurika Nakamura 1:13:12
7) Minori Hayakari 1:13:23
8) Junko Kumagai 1:13:35
9) Tomoe Yokoyama 1:14:01
10)Esther Wanjiru (KEN) 1:14:10
Splits:
5 km 17:16
10 km 34:18 (17:02)
15 km 51:48 (17:30)
20 km 1:08:40 (16:52)
Assisted by Akihiro Onishi from Kobe
