Posted: December 15, 2004

Athletics: World Best 10 Mile For Mathathi

From David Monti

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

Kenyan teenager Martin Mathathi (b. 25-Dec-1985) ran an apparent world best time for ten miles on the road last Sunday in Kosa, Japan. Mathathi won by over a minute in 44:51, with countryman Julius Maina finishing second in 45:54.

The configuration of this course is not known to RRW, but an analysis by Ken Young reported in Monday's Analytical Distance Runner, showed that the time was likely legitimate. Competitors, on average, ran slightly less than 5 seconds per kilometer faster than expected based on their previous performances. ADR disallows records if the times exceed 5 seconds per kilometer faster than expected.

Ethiopians Girma Assefa (46:03) and Tesfaye Girma (46:08) finished third and fourth, respectively, while Kenyan James Ndungu rounded out the top-5 with a 46:10 clocking. The top Japanese was Terukazu Omori who finished ninth (46:23).

The race, as usual, had extraordinary depth: 19 men ran 47:11 or better.