Tanzania’s Alfonce Felix captures 3rd place as Rotich wins Lake Biwa Marathon
Alphonce Felix Simbu Lucas Rotich won the Lake Biwa Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, in 2:09:11 in the Japanese city of Otsu on Sunday afternoon (6). “2:09:11 is a good time considering the warm weather conditions,” said the 25-year-old Kenyan. “Since the pace maker Kosgei went back to pace the Japanese before 25km, I was in front alone without a pace maker at that point, so it was little difficult.” The race start time temperature was just below 20C and it stayed about the same throughout the race. The plus side of the weather was that cloud covered the Sun throughout the race, and wind was at minimal. Hisanori Kitajima finished five seconds behind in second place with a PB of 2:09:16 and thus finished in the all-important first Japanese position in the final Olympic qualifying race. “A side-stitch really started to bother me at about 37km,” said Kitajima, whose previous personal best was 2:12:28. “I tapped on my side in the hope that it would go away and luckily it did