BAHRAINI elite athlete Eunice Kirwa won the women’s race at the Gifu Seiryu Half-Marathon, held in Gifu, Japan on Sunday.
The event was a Silver Label Road Race under the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Eunice won in a course record time of one hour nine minutes 37 seconds, becoming the first ever woman to complete the event in under 70 minutes.
The long-distance specialist shattered the previous course record held by 26 seconds held by Ethiopian Mestawet Tufa, who clocked the mark in 2013.
Eunice clinched her victory in style. After being a part of the leading pack for the first five kilometres of the event, she began to pull away.
By 15km, the reigning Asian Games women’s marathon champion was well ahead of the pack, enjoying a massive lead of 52 seconds from Ethiopia’s Atsede Baysa, who was her closest challenger.
The win was the 11th of 18 half-marathons in Eunice’s career. Amongst those races, she finished outside of the top two just once.
Finishing in second place was Baysa in 1:10:37. Brianne Nelson of the US came third in 1:12:43, while fourth was Paskalia Kipkoech of Kenya in 1:12:51.
Yuko Mizuguchi of Japan rounded out the top five in 1:13:47.
The men’s race at Gifu was won by James Rungaru of Kenya. He clinched first place in 1:02:21.
Rungaru led four of his countrymen to the finish, illustrating the Kenyan dominance in the race. Michael Githae was the runner-up just six seconds behind, while Martin Mathathi finished third in 1:02:40.
Cyrus Njui came fourth in 1:02:50 and fifth was Patrick Mwaka in 1:03:31.
Eunice is currently in fine form. Her win in Gifu was her second in as many races in Japan. In March, she won the 2015 Nagoya Women’s Marathon in 2:22:08. Her time was the fastest ever in the history of the run, which was an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.
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