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Nov-18-2010
Gharib Leads Fukuoka Marathon Entry List
by David Monti
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
Two-time world marathon champion and Olympic silver medallist Jaouad Gharib of Morocco leads the entry list for the 64th Fukuoka International Open Marathon Championships set for Sunday, December 4 in Japan. The event, Japan's most competitive marathon for men, will serve as a qualifying race for Japanese men wishing to run the 2011 IAAF World Championships Marathon in Daegu, Korea, next summer.
"For Japanese, it is trial race for WC2011," explained the event's professional athletes manager, Wataru Ogushi, in an e-mail message to Race Results Weekly. "The top Japanese finisher is automatically confirmed if he runs under 2:09:30."
For Gharib, 38, who holds the Moroccan marathon record with a 2:05:27 personal best, this year's race will mark his second appearance at Fukuoka.
He also ran the race in 2006 when he finished third in 2:07:19 behind Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie (2:06:52) and Ukrainian Dmytro Baranovsky (2:07:15 NR). Ogushi said that Baranovsky would also return to the race for the third time (he was also third last year in 2:08:19).
The remaining overseas athletes contracted by Ogushi are Tekeste Kebede of Ethiopia (2:07:23 PB), Adam Draczynski of Poland (2:10:49), Dmitry Safronov of Russia (2:11:51), Luis Feitera of Portugal (2:11:57), Andrew Lemoncello of Great Britain (2:13:40), Kim Min of Korea (2:13:11), and Fasil Bizuneh of the United States (2:16:47).
Competition amongst the Japanese athletes for the guaranteed World Championships team berth will be fierce, and several will be contending for the overall title. Tomoaki Kunichika is probably the best, but hasn't shown his best form in the last two years (he finished 18th at this year's Tokyo Marathon). He was the Fukuoka champion in 2003 when he ran a career best 2:07:52, making the 2004 Japanese Olympic team. His Olympic teammate, Toshinari Suwa, finished just three seconds behind him in Fukuoka in 2003 in his personal best time and was the sixth place finisher in the 2004 Olympic Marathon. He is also in the field along with 2004 Fukuoka champion Tsuyoshi Ogata (2:08:37 PB), and veteran Satoshi Irifune (2:09:23 PB). In all, 18 Japanese athletes are in the invited field.
Fukuoka organizers have stuck with a tried and true formula for managing their event: keep the race all-elite (there were just 488 finishers last year), invite a small international field backed up by a large group of Japanese corporate team athletes, keep all prize money and bonus payments secret, and provide aggressive pacemaking. According to Ogushi, Kohei Matsumura of Japan (half-marathon PB of 1:03:58), Eliud Kiptanui of Kenya (marathon PB of 2:05:39), Samson Ramadhani of Tanzania (2:08:01), and Nicholas Kiprono of Uganda (1:00:25), will be pacing the race. The course record is 2:05:18 by Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede, the 2010 Virgin London Marathon champion.
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