Tokyo Marathon Njenga's
AFP, Tokyo
Kenyan Daniel Njenga spurted to his first marathon victory here Sunday, upstaging double Olympic medalist and compatriot Eric Wainaina and boosting his chances of earning a first Olympic ticket. The 27-year-old, who has been based in Japan for 12 years, overtook Japanese Satoshi Osaki with less than a kilometre to go and won the Tokyo international men's marathon in 2hrs, 8mins, 43sec. Osaki followed home 15 metres behind in 2:08:46 with another Kenyan Ben Kimondiu, the 2001 Chicago marathon winner, third in 2:09:27. The 30-year-old Wainaina, who has collected the Olympic bronze medal in Atlanta and the silver in Sydney while training and working in Japan, like Njenga, found it hard to stick to the front-running pack and finished eighth in 2:11:03. "I thought I would never make the Olympics unless I beat Wainaina," Njenga said in Japanese as tears welled up in his eyes. "I was all aware that only a victory would allow me to keep that goal within my sight." It was the first marathon triumph for Njenga, who set his personal record of 2:06:16 when he finished second in the Chicago marathon in 2002. Kenya, home to many great marathoners, has already picked Paul Tergat, who set the world best time of 2:04:55 in winning the Berlin marathon last September, for one of the country's three male marathon tickets to Athens. "I have taken so much time to produce a result which brings me closer to the Olympics," said Njenga, who first came to marathon-crazy Japan as a high school student and graduated from a commercial college to join an athletic club at the top lactic drinkmaker, Yakult. "If I am selected for the Olympics, I will go all out. I wish you will give me support again," the lanky Kenyan said. The race, run in great sunshine, turned into a solo race for 27-year-old Osaki when he broke away from a dozen of front-runners after the pace-makers started to fade away at 30 kilometres. But Njenga paced himself into Osaki's slipstream after 40 kilometers before he made the final spurt toward the National Stadium, the goal of the 42.195-kilometre race. The Tokyo marathon also served as one of three Olympics trials for Japanese runners and Osaki was rated as one of the top candidates for his second-place finish.
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