Japanese wins half marathon

Press, 21 March 1983, Page 3

Japanese wins half marathon

Masho Shintaku of Japan won the Aorangi half marathon in Timaru on Saturday in a fast time of 64 minutes 32 seconds. He finished 16 seconds clear of Takao Nakamura, also of Japan, after the two had cleared out from the rest of the field after 10km. Third was the Kenyan athlete, D. Wakiihuri, in 65min 16s, and the first New Zealand runner home was Timaru’s Chris Tobin, who ran a minute faster than last year in 65min 345. The Japanese and the Kenyan are part of a squad of overseas runners training in Ashburton. Shintaku and Nakamura are both aged 25, and Wakiihuri, aged 19, is a nephew of the international track star, Wilson Waigwa. Shintaku and Nakamura led a bunch through the first half of the race, up a gradual incline. Tobin, in fourth place, increased his speed at the turn to pass the Kenyan and catch the two leaders, but they sprinted away from him and Wakiihuri moved back into third. Wakiihuri is being trained by the Japanese over a four-year period with the aim of producing a worldclass 1500 metre runner. Shintaku is best-known in Japan as a steeplechaser, with a personal best for the 3000 m steeples of Bmin 19s, while Nakamura has a best marathon time of 2hr 12min Ils.