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

There are many unknowns about the marathon, but the 2016 Blackmores Sydney Marathon on Sunday (18) offers a little more intrigue than the average 42.195km journey.
While retaining a starting point in North Sydney and the showcasing of two Sydney icons in the Harbour Bridge, which it crosses in the first five kilometres, and the Sydney Opera House, where the race finishes, the course has been tweaked. Race organisers promise this will make the IAAF Gold Label Road Race course &ldquo;flatter and faster&rdquo;, which remains to be seen.
But they are on safer ground with the third part of the commitment that it will be &ldquo;even more beautiful.&rdquo; Like New York, Sydney, with its harbour and luxuriant inner-city parks, is a city to be enjoyed more than one in which to attack marathon records.
Nonetheless, the race records of 2:11:18 and 2:29:42 should both be in reach for the winners given the deep and even men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s fields assembled.
Two names at opposite ends of the age and experience spectrum stand out as possible winners. Eritrea&rsquo;s 19-year-old Mogos Shumay makes his marathon debut, backed by impressive recent credentials at cross-country, half-marathon and World U20 championships while, in the women&rsquo;s field, 35-year-old Karolina Nadolska, an accomplished track distance athlete and runner-up in the 2014 Osaka Women&rsquo;s marathon, returns to the 42.195km event after a year off for the birth of a baby daughter.
There will be no lack of competition in either field. Five men boast personal bests faster than 2:10, with three of those &ndash; Ethiopia&rsquo;s Mulugeta Wami and Debebe Tolossa, and Essa Ismail Rashed of Qatar &ndash; having run 2:07.
Merima Mohammed of Bahrain has the fastest PB on the women&rsquo;s side at 2:23:06 with Jarzynska one of four others with fastest times in the 2:26-range.
<h3>Shumay&rsquo;s strong credentials</h3>
For one so early in his career, Shumay brings performance credentials most would be happy to take into retirement. He was 14th in the U20 race at the IAAF World Cross Country championships in Guiyang in 2015. Later that year, still only 18, he ran 1:01:09 in finishing 10th behind 2016 world half-marathon silver medallist Bedan Karoki.
Shumay ran through 10km in that race in 27:58, just over a second slower than the track 10,000 metres PB of 27:56.96 that he ran in the Payton Jordan Invitational meeting in Palo Alto earlier in 2016. All of this suggests great potential at the marathon distance, similar to his compatriot Ghirmay Ghebreslassie, winner of the 2015 world title in the marathon just before his 20th birthday.
Wami&rsquo;s 2:07:11 best dates back to Amsterdam in 2012, but his more recent 2:08:37 last year suggests he remains a serious threat to those with winning aspirations in Sydney. Tolossa&rsquo;s 2:07:41 also goes back to 2012, but he has run 2:09 times both in finishing third in Houston and seventh in Warsaw last year.
Rashed ran 2:07:54 in Amsterdam two years ago and his recent marathon performances &ndash; Seoul 2015 (17th), Amsterdam 2015 (16th) and Chongqing 2016 (10th) have not been impressive. Looking a more likely prospect is Ethiopia&rsquo;s Belachew Alemayehu whose last two marathons &ndash; sixth in Seoul last year and 12th in Dubai at the start of 2016 &ndash; have been 2:09:48 and 2:09:49.
Another debutant, Sota Hoshi, has good track performances and has run a 1:01:18 half-marathon. He may prove to be the best of the Japanese entrants as Tomohiro Tanigawa and Takuya Noguchi boast best times of 2:11 and 2:12 respectively.
<h3>Nadolska vs Mohammed in women&rsquo;s race</h3>
Nadolska, who made her marathon debut under her maiden name Jarzynska&nbsp;as long ago as Warsaw in 2007, was consistently in the 2:26-2:30 range through to 2014 when she took time off for the birth of her daughter. She has not raced much since then, but a record which also includes 15:25/31:43 performances and a 15th place in the 10,000 at the Moscow 2013 world championships commands respect.
Merima Mohammed has personal bests of 2:23:06 and 1:08:36, though both date back to the earlier part of her career. Looking at more recent form, Goitetom Haftu, with an eighth place 2:27:44 in Dubai two years ago and a 2:30:19 in Santiago last year, looks a more obvious challenger as does China&rsquo;s Yinhi Le with a 2:27:35 from last year and 37th place in the world championships in Beijing.
The race is certain to crown new champions as neither of last year&rsquo;s winners Hisanori Kitajima and Mirriam Wangari are back to defend. The race records were set in 2014, 2:11:18 by Gebo Burka and 2:29:42 by Biruktayit Eshetu, both of Ethiopia.
Upwards of 33,000 participants are expected in the marathon and associated events which make up the Sydney Running Festival.
The race will be broadcast live on Australia&rsquo;s Ten network with a <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/special-features/in-depth/blackmores-sydney-running-festival-watch-live/news-story/d7a918669c5bc0988ccb0ba6fcf951e7">live stream here</a>&nbsp;beginning at 06:00 local (GMT+10). Live coverage will also be provided in China for the first time.
Len Johnson for the IAAF

There are many unknowns about the marathon, but the 2016 Blackmores Sydney Marathon on Sunday (18) offers a little more intrigue than the average 42.195km journey.

Tanigawa and Harun victorious in Sydney

Shumay’s marathon debut under the spotlight in Sydney