Skip to main content

2-Time Olympic Medalist Wainaina Wins Lake Saroma 100 km Ultra in Kenyan National Record Time

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2010062700268
http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/sports/238878.html
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/other/100627/oth1006272249014-n1.htm

translated and edited by Brett Larner

In his first attempt at the distance, two-time Olympic marathon medalist Erick Wainaina (Kenya) won the 25th anniversary Lake Saroma 100 km ultramarathon in Hokkaido on June 27. Wainaina, the 1996 Olympic marathon bronze medalist and 2000 silver medalist, covered the certified course in a time of 6:39:52, with runner-up Noriyuki Araki (Wings AC) a short distance behind in 6:41:07. Tokyo-based Emi Matsushita, formerly Emi Iwasaki, took her second-straight and third-ever women's Saroma title with a time of 7:49:31.

Between the 50 km and 100 km divisions 3656 runners started the race. With temperatures reaching 30 degrees, only 1949 were able to complete their distance.

Translator's note: This is genuinely surprising news. Based on what I've been able to track down Wainaina's time is a world leader for 2010 and seems to be a new Kenyan national record. The former national record appears to have been 8:37:15 by Andrew Tumo in 1990. The second newspaper article linked above has a photo of Wainaina at the finish line.

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
Ummm...that's 10 40-minute 10Ks. In 30C/86F heat.
Or 2:48 marathon pace x 2.36.

Looking at the list of men's and women's records confirms for me again that Tomoe Abe's 6:33 is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, running performances of all time.

Most-Read This Week

10000 m National Championships Preview

  Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a

Golden Games in Nobeoka Top Results

  For everyone not running yesterday's 10000 m National Championships , where the Asahi Kasei corporate team dominated the men's race with four out of four men sub-28 including winner Jun Kasai , 27:17.46, the grand dame of Japan's long distance time trial circuit was happening on AK's home ground in Miyazaki at the Golden Games in Nobeoka . Not including kids' races, a total of 74 women and 227 men ran in 14 heats of 5000 m, with a packed-in crowd of fans lining the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons. It's a pretty awesome meet, and memorable performances included: National champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. standout Caroline Kariba continued to kill it in the second month of her corporate league career, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 15:00.95 in a race where 3 out of the top 4 including her ran PBs. National champion Meijo University seemed flat at this point in the season, with none of its people under 16 minutes and star Nanase Tanimoto leading