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Wanguru Wins Sprint Finish at Sanyo Women's Road Race

http://www.plus-blog.sportsnavi.com/kmanabu/article/133

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Team Kyudenko's Pauline Kiragu Wanguru won a five-way sprint finish at the 2008 Sanyo Women's Road Race half marathon to win in a PB of 1:10:54. A hilly course, cold temperatures and strong winds in the second half made for an overall tactical race. Five runners remained together with 400 m to go, meaning the race would go to the strongest kicker. Wanguru pulled ahead by a step to beat Team Sysmex's Megumi Seike, who came fresh from winning the Nov. 30 Shanghai Half Marathon, and Second Wind AC newcomer Ruth Wanjiru. Team Tenmaya's Yuka Izumi was 4th in a PB of 1:10:58, with Wanjiru's teammate Akemi Ozaki a short distance behind in 5th.

Second Wind AC head coach Manabu Kawagoe commented that the race was excellent preparation for Ozaki and Wanjiru's planned run in next month's Osaka International Women's Marathon, but that Ozaki was feeling in top condition and would have to be careful with her peaking. Ozaki and Wanjiru are scheduled to leave Dec. 24 for a training camp in Kagoshima Prefecture.

2008 Sanyo Women's Road Race Top Finishers
1. Pauline Kiragu Wanjiru (Team Kyudenko) - 1:10:54 - PB
2. Megumi Seike (Team Sysmex) - 1:10:55
3. Ruth Wanjiru (Second Wind AC) - 1:10:55
4. Yuka Izumi (Team Tenmaya) - 1:10:58 - PB
5. Akemi Ozaki (Second Wind AC) - 1:11:02
6. Yumiko Ando (Team Daiichi Seimei) - 1:11:41
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TokyoRacer said…
Great interview. Some things never change, one of them being the way Japanese runners train. They have never been any good at the 10,000 and they're still not. Getting worse, in fact. But they just don't get it.
This is from an article by Marcie Good on Jeff Schiebler, a Canadian who ran for NEC for a few years about 8 years ago. He ran twice a day; the Japanese ran 3 times a day...and of course he was the best runner on the team.
-- His teammates stick to their program. Recently, they met to discuss whether they could move forward their 5:30 a.m. wake up, because they found they had an extra ten minutes between their morning run and leaving for work. Schiebler, who sleeps in as long as he needs to, stepped in. "I said, 'Hey, do what I do, just scrap the morning training thing.' They said, 'You don't understand. We know that's what you do, and that's fine. But we're Japanese and we're not able to scrap the morning run.' "
December 25, 2008 at 10:27 PM
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