Posted: December 5, 2004

Athletics: Ogata Wins Fukuoka Marathon

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

Tsuyoshi Ogata of Japan won today's 58th Fukuoka Marathon, according to the wire service, Agence France-Press.

Ogata, 31, set back the second-fastest man ever over the standard 42.195 km marathon distance, Sammy Korir of Kenya, to become only the fifth Japanese man to win Fukuoka since 1988. He ran 2:09:10, followed by countryman Satoshi Osaki (2:10:56) and Korir (2:11:45). His time was well off of Atsushi Fujita's course record of 2:06:51 set in 2000.

Last year in Berlin, Korir ran 2:04:56, the second-fastest time ever in history, trailing countryman Paul Tergat by just one second. Korir had been hired as a pacemaker at the Berlin race --to assist Tergat with his world record assault-- but decided to finish.

Gert Thys of South Africa (2:14:27) and Takakatsu Mukae of Japan (2:15:27), rounded out the top-5 in Fukuoka today.

With his victory, Ogata secured a spot on Japan's team for the 2005 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, Finland, next August.