Ethiopia blows past Japan

Ken Marantz / Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter

As they showed Sunday, no lead is safe from the Ethiopians.

Workitu Ayanu passed Japan's Tomomi Yuda in the third stage and Ethiopia cruised to nearly a two-minute victory in a wind-swept Yokohama International Women's Ekiden.

"I don't want to run behind another runner, so I had to go forward," the 20-year-old Ayanu said. "I had to make some distance [between us] and make an effort for the group."

Wude Ayalew, Genet Getaneh and anchor Makda Harun posted the top times in their stages as the African powerhouse, which included Bizunesh Urgesa and Yimenashu Taye, won the six-leg race in 2 hours 14 minutes 47 seconds to add to the title it won in 2004.

Host Japan, which got stage victories from leadoff runner Yuriko Kobayashi and Misaki Katsumata in the fifth leg, placed second in 2:16:41, with two-time defending champion Russia lagging well behind in third in 2:20:47.

Kyushu finished fourth in 2:21:45 in the annual race between seven national and seven Japan regional teams that started and ended at the Red Brick Warehouse in Yokohama's waterfront Minato Mirai district.

On a clear but crisp 6 C day with winds gusting up to 10 mps, Kobayashi gave Japan the lead by clocking 15:04 in the 5-kilometer first leg, winning the stage award for the first time in three attempts. Urgesa was fifth, 26 seconds back.

"I was able to run at a 3-minute [per km] pace and achieve my goal of running better than the Olympic 'A' standard for 5,000 meters [on the track], so I'm very satisfied," said Kobayashi, the national record-holder in the 1,500 meters.

An intense duel developed in the 10-km second leg, when Ethiopia's Ayalew quickly erased the deficit and momentarily passed Japan's "Mama Runner" Yukiko Akaba.

But Akaba, the anchor on Japan's winning team at last October's Chiba ekiden, kept her composure and fought off the challenge to give Yuda the sash with a 24-second cushion.

"She caught up to me faster than I expected," said Akaba, who skipped last season to give birth before returning to the sport, a rarity in Japan. "My pace to 5 km was slow, so I knew I could pick it up."

Yuda, however, proved no match for Ayanu, who whizzed by nearly halfway through the 6-km third stage and sent off Getaneh, a member of the 2004 champion team, with a 13-second lead that she expanded to over a minute.

The fierce wind proved divine for the third-stage runners, as it was behind them most of the way and pushed four under the meet record. Russia's lone bright spot, Maria Konovalova, claimed the new mark with a time of 18:10, 10 seconds better than Ayanu and 48 better than the previous best set in 2005 by Japan's Kazue Ogoshi.

A notable performance was turned by marathoner Mari Ozaki, who, running leadoff for the Kinki region, finished second behind Kobayashiin 15:21.

The 32-year-old Ozaki, a national team member at the last two world championships, is taking a break from the marathon and will focus on track events this year--but not just yet. "I've been married a year now and I'm finally going to go on a honeymoon," said Ozaki, who will soon be jetting off to Paris with her husband on a six-day trip.
(Feb. 25, 2008)