Enoki makes a breakthrough at the 49th Beppu-Oita Marathon
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
The Beppu-Oita marathon has long been known as the race where the young and promising runners make their marathon debut. Indeed in 1985, future World Champion Hiromi Taniguchi won his debut marathon in 2:13:16. Koichi Morishita, a Barcelona silver medallist made a sensational marathon debut in 1991 by running 2:08:53.
The race was also a site of some of the fastest times. In 1963, Toru Terasawa set the world fastest time of 2:15.15. Fifteen years later in 1978, Shigeru Soh ran 2:09.05.6, which was the second fastest time in history. In those days, the course was run from Beppu to Oita and back, which was plagued with head wind in the last half of the course. To take advantage of prevailing wind from Beppu to Oita, the course currently runs from Oita to Beppu and back.
The races were not all Japanese affair either. In 1992, Deonicio Ceron of Mexico out duelled future Olympic Champion Hwang Young-Jo of Korea. Currently Gert Thys of South Africa hold the course record of 2:08:30 which was run in 1996.
In the 49th edition of Beppu-Oita marathon on February 6, Kazutaka Enoki of Asahi Kasei track team won in 2:10:44. The time improved his personal best by more than two minutes from 2:13:18 which he ran in the 1999 Nobeoka marathon.
Around 24Km, Enoki lost contact with the lead pack. Shigeru Soh who coaches Enoki assesses that "Enoki has a talent, but he lacks mental toughness." By 30Km, when Enoki was 300m behind the pack, Soh was about to give up hope on Enoki. But Enoki, a graduate of ekiden powerhouse, Kobayashi high school, an alma mater of Hiromi Taniguchi, realised that prevailing opinion was that he lacks persistence. To show that they are wrong, he started to chase the leaders, picking off staggering runners. Finally, by 38.5Km, he took over the lead from Samson Kandie, and became the ninth runner from Asahi Kasei to win the Beppu-Oita marathon. Andeas Espinoza who lead as late as 35Km dropped out.
Asahi Kasei team, based in nearby Nobeoka, boost thirteen sub 2:10 runners. The last two sub 2:10 runner from Asahi Kasei are Tomonori Watanabe who run 2:09:40 in last December's Hofu marathon, and Yoshiteru Morishita who run 2:09:36 in the 1999 Fukuoka marathon. In the last year's Beppu-Oita marathon, Yoshiteru Morishita made a breakthrough when he finished second in 2:10:13. Perhaps, in the next marathon, Kazutaka Enoki will became the fourteenth sub 2:10 runner from Asahi Kasei.
Rain, 10.8C, 92% humidity, SE wind 0.3m/s
(All Japanese unless otherwise indicated)
1) Kazutaka Enoki 2:10:44
2) Samson Kandie (KEN) 2:11:28
3) Akinori Shibutani 2:13:51
4) Masayuki Satouchi 2:13:56
5) Yuji Yanagibashi 2:14:10
6) Shinji Tsunazaki 2:14:25
7) Seiji Kobayashi 2:14:58
8) Hideki Ogura 2:15:10
9) Eduardo do Nacimento (BRA) 2:15:32
10) Yoichi Higuma 2:15:37
