by Justin Lagat
Ruth Chepnegetich, 2022 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, photo via Kenyan TV by Justin Lagat
Justin Lagat just sent us this piece on the 2022 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, was held, Local Japan time, on Sunday, March 13, 2022.
Kenyan fans are getting used to waking up at 3 AM in the morning to watch Kenyan runners winning marathons in Japan. Last week, it was Eliud Kipchoge and Brigid Kosgei winning the Tokyo Marathon. This morning, it was the turn of another Kenyan to take another marathon title in Japan, and it happened to be the Nagoya women’s Marathon title.
As the world seems to be slowly moving away from terrestrial TV to online streaming of events, there are both the good and the bad of online streaming and all we can do is to try and see the positive side of things. For example, this morning there were too many breaks on the live streaming video that I got to watch the Nagoya women’s marathon; which was actually great for doing some writing before it could resume! Also, the breaks created a lot of suspense and tension especially after the 30K run when we couldn’t wait to see if there was a break at the front yet, or whether the two protagonists were still running shoulder to shoulder.
Congrats to Ruth Chepnegetich, who won the #NagoyaWomensMarathon in 2:17.18! @running_network, @lagatjustin, @runblogrun, https://t.co/t8bkqpKerf
— RunBlogRun (@RunBlogRun) March 13, 2022
The highly anticipated battle between Ruth Chepngetich and Lonah Salpeter materialized in the last quarter of the race, but it didn’t take long before Chepngetich broke away, for a second time, to run an amazing time of 2:17:18 and win the race in a new course record. Salpeter came second in 2:18:45, which Yuka Ando completed the podium in one of the easiest times to remember; 2:22:22.
Chepngetich seemed to have been after a fast time from the start as she appeared to have had enough of the pacing at the 5km mark and engaged a different gear that saw her begin to create a gap against the rest.
By 10km she was already 25 seconds ahead. A group of three runners that included Salpeter and Ando, and a pacesetter followed in a chasing pack.
At around the 15km point where Chepngetich had crossed it in 49:15, Salpeter appeared a little bit impatient with the pacer too and appeared to be slightly ahead before she pulled the chasing pack into a single file, leaving the pacer to fade.
Soon, the chasing pack was down to two runners; Salpeter and Ando. Chepngetich appeared to be comfortably well ahead and it looked as though the remaining competition was for the second place between the two. But, around 22km, Salpeter broke away from Ando and ended the battle for the silver medal. The 15:59 km split by her at the 20-25km point also rapidly reduced the gap between her and the Chepngetich.
Salpeter caught up with Chepngetich just after the 30K mark and the two ran shoulder to shoulder for a while before Chepngetich broke away again at the 35km mark. This time around, it was a decisive move that recreated another gap that continued to grow up to the end of the race.
