Sometimes the winner of a marathon emerges so emphatically in the final stages that you wonder why you never rated them for the first 40 kilometres. Other times the champion is obvious from the start. There was one of both types as Tomohiro Tanigawa and Makda Harun raced to victory in the Blackmores Sydney Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, on Sunday (18).
Each won emphatically in the end, but Tanigawa&rsquo;s triumph in 2:12:13 was only evident in the final three kilometres around the Sydney Harbour waterfront, while Harun, who clocked 2:32:22, led from the moment the gun was fired in Milson Point, North Sydney, and raced unchallenged to the finish on the other side of the Harbour Bridge at the Sydney Opera House.
Tanigawa came into the race with a personal best 2:11:39 on debut in Nagano last year. He was always in the group of four which chased down runaway leader Mogos Shumay after 15 kilometres. While he was a presence in the lead pack thereafter, it was a long time before he appeared to be a threat to well-credentialled debutant Shumay, Belachew Alemayehu (personal best 2:09:48) and Julius Muriuki Wahome (2:09:08).
But a threat he proved to be as he remained with Alemayehu as first Shumay and then Muriuki fell away, the former one hour and 40 minutes into the race, the latter some 10 minutes later.
The damage continued to be done at 10-minute intervals, but on the third occasion it was Alemayehu, who had looked so comfortable throughout, surprisingly failed to respond to a surge and Tanigawa was suddenly 15 metres clear as they raced around the waterfront.
The gap of 15 metres quickly became 50, then 100, and kept right on growing as Tanigawa pulled away to win by almost 300, the fact that he was just 34 seconds outside his best more than compensated by it being his first marathon win after second-place finishes on his debut in Nagano and again in Sapporo last year.
Pronouncing himself &ldquo;very excited and very happy,&rdquo; Tanigawa added: &ldquo;My only focus was to win the race, so I was surprised to run so close to my PB.&rdquo;
The lead appeared to change with each of the many turns as Tanigawa and Alemayehu raced around the waterfront finish, though it was always the Japanese runner who seemed to be in control once the corners had been safely negotiated.
&ldquo;It was hard to tell whether I was leading or not,&rdquo; the winner said. &ldquo;As we approached the last three kilometres the pace seemed to get slower, so I kept to my own pace and moved ahead and felt like I was winning.&rdquo;
Alemayehu crossed the line in 2:13:09, still looking comfortable but now having lost almost one minute in the last 10 minutes&rsquo; running. Muriuki took third place in 2:14:15 while Taiki Yoshimura also got past the fading Shumay to steal fourth place, 2:15:47 to 2:16:25.
Shumay led from the gun and by up to 150 metres early in the race. He went through 15 kilometres in 45:22, still 11 seconds clear of the chasers and then remained in contention until just past kilometre 30. Seventh in the 10,000 metres at the World U20 championships this year, the 19-year-old now knows what the marathon is all about.
<h3>Harun dominates</h3>
In stark contrast, Harun appeared to have more problems with her running outfit over the latter stages of the race than with her opposition, constantly tugging at her shorts and occasionally her singlet. She also appeared to experience occasional spasms of side-cramps.
But none of this slowed her down to any noticeable extent. Having taken a lead of over a minute before the half-way point of the race, Harun continued to pull away from her closest rivals kilometre by kilometre. Wardrobe and cramps notwithstanding, she enjoyed a margin of almost seven minutes at the finish, winning in 2:32:22.
Harun has a personal best of 2:26:46 in finishing third in Paris in 2012. Now 28 years old, she is based in Melbourne.
Merima Mohammed, the fastest entrant in the race with a personal best of 2:23:06, ran an equally isolated race to take second place in 2:39:02 with China&rsquo;s Beijing 2015 world championships representative Yinli He third in 2:44:17.
Poland&rsquo;s Karolina Nadolska, one of the pre-race favourites, who returned to running late last year after the birth of her first child, was forced to pull out early on by knee pain.
Up to 33,000 people participated in the marathon and associated events which make up the Sydney Running Festival.
The marathon was broadcast live on Australia&rsquo;s Ten network with a live stream and live coverage also going into China for the first time.
Len Johnson for the IAAF

Sometimes the winner of a marathon emerges so emphatically in the final stages that you wonder why you never rated them for the first 40 kilometres. Other times the champion is obvious from the start. There was one of both types as Tomohiro Tanigawa and Makda Harun raced to victory in the Blackmores Sydney Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label race, on Sunday (18).

Tanigawa and Harun victorious in Sydney

Organisers of the 2014 Lodz Marathon Dbam o Zdrowie have made their intentions clear by signing up five men with personal bests of under 2:10 to attack the 12 month old course record of 2:10:02, held by Ethiopia’s Alemayehu Belachew Ameta, at the 10th edition of the Polish race on Sunday (13).In 2013, Belachew Ameta triumphed by just two seconds from Kenya’s Stephen Kibiwot and the pair will duel once again at the IAAF Bronze Label Road Race, which became Poland’s first IAAF Label Rood Race last September.Kibiwot, now 34 and fourth at the 2008 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in his only major international championship, can boast of a personal best of 2:07:54 but that dates from five years ago in Prague.The Kenyan has never quite fulfilled his promise over the classic distance after some impressive half marathon times earlier in his career.Consequently, Balechew Ameta has the role of arguably being the slight favourite despite, on paper, being almost two minutes slower as he improved his personal best of 2:09:50 in Dubai three months ago.Eritrea’s Yared Dagnaw Sharew has a personal best of 2:08:13, but that was also more than three years ago at the 2010 Marathon Eindhoven and he has not broken 2:10 in any of his other 10 marathons.Haile favoured?Perhaps a more realistic threat to the leading pair of Belachew Ameta and Kibiwot is another Ethiopian, Haile Haja Gemeda, who clocked his best of 2:08:35 when finishing fourth just over 12 months ago at the 2013 Rome Marathon.Gemeda Haja will also be motivated to bounce back after his disappointing showing at his last marathon, in Dubai in January, when he could only finish a modest 22nd in 2:17:28.The fifth man on the elite start list who has gone under 2:10 is Kenya’s Peter Kurui, who ran 2:08:56 in the 2011 Turin Marathon but who has not been under 2:10 since.Leading the way for the local runners is 2005 European junior 3000m steeplechase champion Marcin Chebowski.Chebowski has not run a marathon for almost two years but will be looking to improve on his best of 2:10:07 from his last outing, at the 2012 Dusseldorf Marathon, and could also stand a chance of being a rare European winner in a top class race on the continent.Along with Chebowski, also guaranteed big cheers will be Karolina Jarzynska, the Polish record holder in the half marathon.She won in Lodz last year when she set what was then a personal best and course record of 2:26:45 and then improved to 2:26:31 when finishing third in Osaka in January.Jarzynska is aiming to improve on Małgorzata Sobanska's ratified national record of 2:26:08 which has stood since 2001, although Wanda Panfil clocked 2:24:18 to win the 1991 Boston Marathon, just a few months before she took the gold medal at the 1991 IAAF World Championships.Around 6000 runners are expected to take part in the marathon and associated events, including a 10km.Phil Minshull for the IAAF&nbsp;

Organisers of the 2014 Lodz Marathon Dbam o Zdrowie have made their intentions clear by signing up five men with personal bests of under 2:10 to attack the 12 month-old course record of 2:10:02, held by Ethiopia’s Alemayehu Belachew Ameta, at the 10th edition of the Polish race on Sunday (13).

Belachew Ameta and Kibiwot renew their Lodz Marathon rivalry 

Organisers of the 2014 Lodz Marathon Dbam o Zdrowie have made their intentions clear by signing up five men with personal bests of under 2:10 to attack the 12 month-old course record of 2:10:02, held by Ethiopia’s Alemayehu  Belachew Ameta, at the 10th edition of the Polish race on Sunday (13).