Kenya’s Ndungu wins Lake Biwa marathon

OTSU (Japan): Japanese-based Kenyan runner Samuel Ndungu made a perfect marathon debut yesterday by winning the Lake Biwa race.

Ndungu, 23, broke away from the eight-man front-running group shortly before the 32km point to take the lead and never faced a serious challenge afterwards, crossing the line in 2’07:4.

Henryk Szost set a new Polish national record of 2’07:39 to finish second, followed by Abdellah Taghrafet of Morocco in 2’08:37.

“This is my first marathon. I’m really happy to win it,” said a jubilant Ndungu, who is a member of an athletics club in Aichi, central Japan.

“It was cold in the beginning. I felt cold in the first 10km and I was able to run comfortably after the 20km. I did my best,” he added.

The race was led by two Kenyan pace-setters until the 25km mark, when competition hotted up.

Nicholas Manza of Kenya and Bekana Daba of Ethiopia suddenly picked up speed, with Daba taking a solo lead one kilometre later before seven runners caught up with him at the 28km point.

In the Japanese qualification race for the Olympics, Ryo Yamamoto overtook front-running Kentaro Nakamoto in the last 400m to secure fourth place in 2’08:44 and take a big step towards winning a ticket to London. Nakamoto was fifth in 2’08:53. “I kept telling to myself ‘the Olympics, the Olympics’ in my mind and I desperately chased him (Nakamoto), trying to finish top among the Japanese runners,” said Yamamoto, 27.