Citizen Runner Yuki Kawauchi wins Sydney Marathon...

Back in February of this year, I had a guest article on the site from Derek O'Keeffe about the Japanese running sensation Yuki Kawauchi.......otherwise known as the Citizen Runner. In a world of elite professional runners, he works in an office full time and still manages to train and compete against the best in his spare time. He is also perhaps as well known for shaving his head as an act of atonement for not having made the Japanese Marathon team for the Olympics.

In the recent Sydney Marathon (16th Sept) in Australia, Kawauchi won the race in a new course record of  2:11:52. This was his sixth Marathon of the year and his second win in 3 weeks having won the the Hokkaido Marathon in Japan in 2:18:38 in late August.

In the Sydney race, Kawauchi set off in a small lead pack on pace to break the 2:14:12 course record set back in 1994.  After running 1:06:08 for the first half, he soon dropped Kenyan Felix Kandie and pushed on to run a negative split on the challenging Sydney course which some estimate to be two to three minutes slow.  Kawauchi crossed the line with a margin of more than four minutes over the Kenyan, his time of 2:11:52 taking nearly two and a half minutes off the course record and the third-best time of his career.  Next up Kawauchi will run October's World Half Marathon Championships before pursuing a 2:07 at December's Fukuoka Marathon.

On the same day that Yuki Kawauchi won Sydney, his younger brother Koki Kawauchi won the Tazawako Marathon in Japan in 2:37.