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Njenga wins Tokyo Marathon

Posted February 18th, 2007 at 10:12 AM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Marathons

The man who was reduced to tears when he narrowly finished second at last October’s LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, Daniel Njenga of Kenya, easily won today’s Tokyo International Marathon, leading a field of 25,000 in the first mass edition of this race.

Njenga, 30, who runs for the Japanese corporate team, Yakult, pulled away from the field off of a slow pace around 25 km into the race, winning by more than a minute and one-half over Tomoyuki Sato of Japan. Njenga clocked 2:09:45 on a new point-to-point course to Sato’s 2:11:22. Sammy Korir, the second-fastest marathoner of all-time, faded from contention after 15 km and did not finish in the top-10.

The race was the first very large, mass marathon in Japan, which welcomed 25,000 entrants (plus another 5000 in a companion 10-K). Although it was technically the 28th edition of the Tokyo International Marathon, the previous 27 editions only had a few hundred runners, all of them elite. The previous largest marathon in Japan, known to Race Results Weekly, was the Tsukuba Marathon with 9708 finishers last year.

The race also served as a selection event for the Japanese team for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics which will be held in Osaka in late August and early September. Sato would have nailed a guaranteed berth on the team had he run at least 2:09:30, but now he must wait for the results of the final selection race, the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon scheduled for Sunday, March 4 in Otsu, to see if he makes the team.