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By Walt Murphy News and Results Service (wmurphy25@aol.com), used with permission
Walt Murphy News and Results Service
This Day in Track & Field/X-Country-December 4th
1977— Bill Rogers (2:10:56) won the prestigious Fukuoka Marathon Finish 2th It was Leonid Moseyev of the Soviet Union (and Russia) (2:11:57), 4.th It was Tom Fleming (2:14:27) and 5th it was Japan’s Toshihiko Seko (2:15:01) who would win the following year.
It was 2th win of the year in Japan for Rodgers, who began his season on February 1St– a 1st place finish in Kyoto Not only did he win 5 marathons during the year, but he also had wins at 9 other races (He was a DNF at the Boston Marathon in April).
Past winners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukuoka_Marathon
Rogers and Frank Shorter on Fukuoka:
https://www.runblogrun.com/2022/01/frank-shorter-bill-rodgers-remember-the-fukuoka-marathon.html
Fukuoka Documentary (2 hours).
https://runningmagazine.ca/the-scene/canadian-releases-fukuoka-marathon-documentary/
Career statistics: https://more.arrs.run/runner/3748
1994— Mexican-born Olga Appel (18:15), who became a US citizen earlier in the year, won the women’s title convincingly at the US X-Country Championships in Portland, Oregon, as Lynn Jennings (18:41), who finished 3rd behind Gwynn Coogan (18:37/6k), saw his 7 year winning streak come to an end.
Ruben Reyna’s late sprint gave him a narrow victory (30:00/10k) over 8-time champion Pat Porter (30:01), with defending champion Todd Williams right behind in one of the closest mass wins ever at the US Championships ( 30:02), Brad Barquist (30:03) and Keith Brantley (30:04).
Other notable finishers:
Men: 7. Bob Campainen, 8. Matt Giusto, 9. Bob Kennedy (1992 champion), 11. John Trautman, 22. Brad Schlapak (would win 1995).
Women4. Sinead Delahunty, 5. Cathy O’Brien, 6. Cece St. James, 12. Fran ten Bensel, 15. Elva Dreyer, 15. Sherry Goddard-Kenah, 17. Joan Nesbitt (would win 1995), 18. Nenna Lynch , 19. Kathy Franey, 25. Gina Procaccio
Former US Champions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_Cross_Country_Championships
2021— Two American junior records were set at Boston University’s Sharon Colyear-Danville Opener.
Finishing 5th in the men’s 5,000m (won by Australia’s Ollie Hoare in 13:09.96), Northern Arizona freshman Nico Young ran 13:22.59 to beat his “absolute” record of 13:24.26 set outdoors in April (since was broken.) The previous closed record: 13:48.26, set by Stanford’s Chris Derrick in 2009.
North Carolina State freshman Caitlin Tuohy was 4th in the women’s 3000 with a time of 8:54.18, breaking the “absolute” record of 8:57.27 set by Stanford’s Ceci St.Geme outdoors in 1982. The previous indoor record was 8. :58.88 was set by Elise Cranny (also of Stanford). 2015 West Virginia’s (and Canada’s) Seiley McCabe won today’s race in 8:52.52.
2022 —Israel’s Maru Teferi won the Fukuoka Marathon in 2:06:43, a national recordth It was Brett Robinson who ran 2:07:31, beating the 35-year-old Australian record of 2:07:51 set by Rob De Castella in 1986.
