Haile Gebrselaisse posts DNF at Fukuoka Marathon...Sun 2nd Dec 2012

At the Fukuoka International Open Marathon Championship in Japan today, the great Haile Gebrselaisse alas posted a DNF. After being with the leaders up to at least 30 kms before pulling out just after the 32 km mark. In a post race interview, he said..."I couldn't lift my leg any more. At first I was feeling good so I thought I would just take it easy and run relaxed, but...."

Here are his splits below...

GEBRSELASSIE,Haile ETH...15:08 (5k)...30:13 (10k)...45:15 (15k)...1:00:25 (20k)...1:03:48 (Half)...1:15:38 (25k)...1:30:38 (30k)...Pulled out

Haile had previously won the Fukuoka Marathon back in 2006 in a time of 2:06:52

The race was won by Joseph Gitau of Kenya in a time of 2:06:58. Citizen runner Yuki Kawauchi who works full time and trains in his spare time managed to finish in an impressive 6th place in a time of 2:10:29. Post race, he said..."All of a sudden I started having trouble following the pace, and then it got hard to stay optimistic.  I just started to slip away. To put it simply, I wasn't strong enough. I'm thinking about adding workouts with club teams and universities, maybe some corporate teams, to my training".

1. Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel)...2:06:58
2. Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei)...2:08:24
3. Henryk Szost (Poland...2:08:42
4. Arata Fujiwara (Miki House)...2:09:31
5. Bunta Kuroki (Team Yasukawa Denki)...2:10:08
6. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.)...2:10:29
7. Mohamed Trafeh (U.S.A.)...2:11:41
8. Ryan Vail (U.S.A.)...2:11:45 
9. Cuthbert Nyasango (Zimbabwe)...2:11:48
10. Kota Noguchi (Team Toyota)...2:12:24
11. Dmytro Baranovskyy (Ukraine)...2:13:23
12. Tim Nelson (U.S.A.)...2:14:09
13. Scott Overall (GBR)...2:14:15
Haile Gebrselassie (ETH)...DNF