Posted: September 25, 2005

Athletics: Noguchi, Manyim Win In Berlin

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

By Bob Ramsak

BERLIN -- Running in sunny and rapidly warming conditions, Mizuki Noguchi won the 32nd real,-Berlin Marathon today in 2:19:12 to become the third fastest woman ever to cover the distance. Running in just his third marathon, Kenyan Philip Manyim won the men's race in 2:07:41, equalling the third fastest performance of the year.

Noguchi, the reigning Olympic champion, shattered Sun Yingjie's Asian record of 2:19:39, and easily surpassed Yoko Shibui's 2:19:41 Japanese record set here last year. Only Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain and Catherine Ndereba of Kenya have run the distance faster.

"If it had been a little cooler, I could have run 2:18," Noguchi said. "But under these conditions, I'm very pleased with what I had."

Two hours after the start, temperatures in the German capital approached 21 degrees Celsius (roughly 72 F.), one of the warmest-ever race day finishes, dramatically impacting the race's second half.

"Of course, it was much hotter in Athens," Noguchi said, "but the temperature was very high for this time of year. It was a very tough race."

But the only race, as expected, was one against the clock, turning her appearance here into a time trial. By the five kilometer mark, she was already 25 seconds ahead of her nearest rivals, Germany's Luminita Zaituc and Ethiopians Worknesh Tola and Asale Tafa. At 10 kilometers (32:53), she was a full minute ahead of the others, and well under 2:19 pace. But with the temperatures rising and her pace slowing, her hopes of dipping under 2:19 faded by the 35th kilometer.

"After 35 kilometers my feet started to hurt, so I just had to think about all the training I had done for this race in order to keep going."

The 27-year-old nonethless set a new course record, and took home 70,000 euros (USD 84,000) in prize money and bonuses while extending the Japanese win streak in the women's race here to six.

Zaituc was well back in second, clocking 2:27:34, nearly a minute ahead of Asala Tafa of Ethiopia, who was third with a personal best 2:28:27.

"I was trying to run a personal best," said Zaituc, who was on sub-2:24 pace for the first 20 kilometers. "But you just don't know what's going to happen in a marathon." In Zaituc's case, it was cramping that first emerged in the 15th kilometer, then struck her hard after the 27th.

With nearly 20 runners in contention when the pacers reached the half in 1:03:37, the men's race had the makings of a typically close Berlin contest. But Manyim, who turned to marathon running on a full-time basis just this year, injected a surge in the 29th kilometer to quickly build a four second gap on Peter Chebet, Joshua Chelanga and Michael Rotich. It proved to be the race's decisive move.

"When I was training, I was thinking about winning," Manyim said, but added that he was less confident before the race when he lined up with several sub-2:07 runners. "But when I started pushing [at 30-K], I did not see them."

With Manyim forging ahead to victory --his lead grew to 38 seconds by kilometer 35 and nearly 50 seconds by the 40th-- the battle behind him grew more intense. Jackson Koech passed Chebet as he approached the 35 kilometer point, until he nearly ground to a halt near the Brandenburg Gate, just a couple hundred meters from the finish. Chebet regrouped to overtake Koech and finished second (2:08:58), with Koech (2:09:07) barely holding on to finish ahead of Joshua Chelanga (2:09:10) before dropping to ground as he hit the finish line.

"In the last four kilometers," Manyim said, "I was feeling very dry. It was very hard."

Prior to this year, the 27-year-old Manyim was a pacemaker during the summer months for steeplechase races on the European circuit --among others, he helped pace Brahim Boulami's nullified world record in Zurich in 2002-- but switched to the roads permanently last year. After a modest 2:18:17 debut in Amsterdam last fall, he followed up with a runner-up performance in Rome this year, clocking 2:08:07.

"He looked very, very strong," Chebet said of Manyim's effort, the seventh straight Kenyan victory here that was worth 47,500 euros (USD 57,000) in prize money and bonuses.

Koech said it wasn't so much the conditions that slowed him in the final stages, but rather just plain simple fatigue. "I used all my energy to catch Chebet earlier," he said.

Look for complete results in Monday's edition of RRW.

Top-ten finishers (unnoficial):

MEN - 
 1. Philip Manyim, KEN     2:07:41 
 2. Peter Chebet, KEN      2:08:58 
 3. Jackson Koech, KEN     2:09:07 
 4. Joshua Chelanga, KEN   2:09:10 
 5. Joseph Ngolepus, KEN   2:10:10 
 6. Shimeles Mola, ETH)    2:10:11
 7. Michael Rotich, KEN    2:10:53 
 8. Andrew Letherby, AUS)  2:11:42 
 9. Romulo da Silva, BRA   2:12:03 
10. Terefe Yae, ETH        2:12:07

WOMEN -  
 1. Mizuki Noguchi, JPN          2:19:12  
 2. Luminita Zaituc, GER         2:27:34  
 3. Asala Tafa, (ETH             2:28:27  
 4. Melanie Kraus, GER           2:34:23  
 5. Worknesh Tola, ETH           2:35:31  
 6. Shona Crombie-Hicks, GBR     2:38:42  
 7. Anne-Mette Aagaard, DEN      2:38:44  
 8. Anna Rahm, SWE               2:39:31  
 9. Eva Maria Gradwohl, AUT      2:39:51  
10. Jess Draskau-Petersson, GBR  2:42:00