Beppu-Oita Marathon
Posso Sports client Tewelde Estifanos Hidru of Eritrea, in his fourth marathon, returned to the site of his debut and came away with his first marathon win and a new PR of 2:10:18. His previous best had been 2:11:47 for second in the 2014 Medibank Melbourne Marathon. Estifanos followed the pacemakers through a first half in 1:04:08 along with a pack of 10 contenders, but as the pacemakers dropped from the race at 30K, he surged away with a decisive move and progressively increased his lead to the finish line, despite tiring and slowing somewhat in the final 7K of the race. Second place went to Hiroki Kadota of Japan in 2:10:46, third to Hiroyuki Yamamoto of Japan in 2:11:48 with defending champion Abraham Kiplimo of Uganda fourth in 2:12:23.
