Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa‘s winning time in Nagoya was a 24-second improvement of her previous personal best, which provided the margin she needed to defeat her closest challenger, Yuka Ando of Japan. After falling at the start of the race, Kirwa quickly regained her composure and in the company of Ando reached the half marathon mark in 1:10:21. Only after Kirwa pressed the pace through the steepest portion of the course at around 34 km was she able to drop Ando, to ultimately build the winning margin of 2:21:17-to-2:21:36. Kirwa’s time moved her to 2nd on the current ’17 world marathon chart, behind the 2:19:47 by Sarah Chepchirchir (Tokyo). Ando moved to 4th on the ’17 world marathon list, with her time also being the fastest by a Japanese woman in over a decade. Kirwa, the ’16 Rio Olympic marathon silver medalist, also won the ’17 Marugame Half Marathon in 1:08:07, and thus remains undefeated on the roads in 2017.
photo credits: Belga + Agence SHOT