Deena Kastor © www.photorun.net
Preparing for next month’s Boston Marathon, Deena Kastor showed that she’s in great shape, with a dominating win at the U.S. 15K championships in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday. The Olympic marathon bronze medalist clocked 47:21, just six seconds off her American record. She finished well ahead of Jen Rhines (48:58) and KIMbia’s Elva Dryer, who took third in 49:40.
The men’s race was won by Meb Keflezighi in 43:40. He easily turned back Ryan Hall, who stunned U.S. running fans with an merican record 59:43 half marathon in January. Here, Hall had to settle for second in 44:01, meaning that he ran a slower pace for 15K than he did for at the half marathon in January. The two will meet again next month at the London Marathon, where Hall is making his debut at the distance.
Kastor also won the overall competition between the elite female and male runners. With a five-minute head start, she crossed the line well ahead of Keflezighi and picked up the $5,000 “Equalizer” bonus. This was the first time at Jacksonville a woman won the race-within-a-race, a testament to the quality of Kastor’s performance.
Yasuko Hashimoto Wins Nagoya, Japan’s Last Qualification Race for Osaka
Yasuko Hashimoto has won the Nagoya Marathon, which was Japan’s last qualification race for the World Championships due to begin in Osaka on August 25. In fine weather conditions, the 31-year-old clocked 2:28:49 in a close finish. Defending champion Harumi Hiroyama was just six seconds behind in second. Takami Ominami took third with 2:29:24, while the best non-Japanese was Kenya’s Julia Mombi in fifth (2:29:38).
This was the second major marathon win for Hashimoto. In 2003 she won the Berlin Marathon. For much of the Nagoya race, Hashimoto ran in a chase group that passed halfway in 1:13:41, 39 seconds behind the leaders. But after two pacemakers dropped out, Mikie Takanaka was on her own at front and slowed. The chase group caught her before 30K. Hashimoto and Hiroyama then broke away at 38K. Only in the last 600 meters did Hashimoto leave behind last year’s winner.
The next day, Hashimoto was named for the Japanese marathon team for Osaka, even though she had missed the required time of sub-2:26. None of the two recent Japanese Olympic marathon champions will be on the team for the World Championships. While Mizuki Noguchi, the winner in Athens in 2004, never intended to qualify for Osaka, Naoko Takahashi did. The Olympic gold medalist from 2000 missed qualifying in Tokyo in November, and did not make a second attempt in Nagoya on Sunday.
