Gold for World record holder Eritrean Zersenay Tadese

World record holder Eritrea Zersenay Tadese took down defending champion Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) at Sunday's Gifu Seiryu Half-Marathon , getting away early to set a new course record of 1:00:31.  Leading a pack of six through a 14:14 opening 5 km split, Tadese dropped a 14:04 over the next 5 km to take the race out of the competition's comfort zones and go ahead alone.  With a 37-second lead over the chase group of Mathathi, Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) and Cyrus Njui (Kenya/ Team Hitachi Butsuryu) at 15 km Tadese backed off to a 14:34 split from 15 to 20 km, but despite Mathathi and Wanjuki picking it up and closing the gap they were too far away and had to settle for a duel for 2nd, Mathathi proving the stronger as he crossed the line in 1:00:54, two seconds ahead of Wanjuki.  Moscow World Championships marathoner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), running just a week after going sub-64 at the Sendai International Half Marathon, struggled in to a 14th-place finish in 1:05:05.

The women's race was much closer, with Mestawet Tufa (Ethiopia) and Eunice Kirwa (Kenya) locked together through 20 km and pushing each other on to break the course record.  Tufa's last surge was too much for Kirwa to handle, the Ethiopia getting course record honors in 1:10:03.  Kirwa, 6 seconds back, also cleared the old record in 1:10:09, with Australian Lara Tamsett rounding out the top three in 1:13:33 after running the entire race alone.  Yuko Mizuguchi (Team Denso) was the top Japanese finisher, 4th overall in 1:14:44.

3rd Naoko Takahashi Cup Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon
Gifu, 5/19/13
complete results coming shortly

Men
1. Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea) - 1:00:31 - CR
2. Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:00:54
3. Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:00:55
4. Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Butsuryu) - 1:01:08
5. Abayneh Ayele (Ethiopia/Team Mazda) - 1:01:43
6. Patrick Muwaka (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) - 1:01:57
7. Micah Njeru (Kenya/Team Toyota Boshoku) - 1:02:38
8. Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:03:45
9. Yoshiki Otsuka (Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:04:37
10. Ryan Vail (U.S.A.) - 1:04:52