POIPU — Representatives from the Iwaki Sunshine Marathon blistered the 26-mile Kauai Marathon to take the first two places in the full marathon phase of the event, which is celebrating its 15th year.
Saki Shimada, listing Tsurumi-ku, Hokkaido, Japan, as her city, was the top overall full marathon finisher, crossing the line in a time of 3 hours, 5 minutes and 52 seconds. Shimada was also the first female finisher in the full marathon.
Seiya Waragai, listing Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama-shi, Japan, as his city, followed in second overall finish at 3:11.14.
This is the second consecutive year that Iwaki Marathon runners finished in the top two spots after Shinya Ohashi finished first in the 2023 Kauai Marathon in a 2:29:34 run. Mirai Homma was the first female record-setting finisher, third overall, on a 2:59:37 run.
Shimada and Waragai came to the Kauai Marathon as second place winners of the Iwaki Marathon after Homma and Ohashi repeated as winners, and officials decided to send the second place finishers to Kauai.
First Kauai finisher for the full marathon crossed the line third overall, as Justin Deforge of Kapaa stopped the timer at 3:20:16, nearly three minutes ahead of Brian Alter of Los Angeles.
“This year was a sellout,” said Kauai Marathon founder Jeff Sacchini. “We must’ve had about 2,500 runners on the course. We were at more than 2,300 at registration close, but we didn’t want to turn away the additional 150 or so that came in. Thanks to the community support — we had more than 700 local residents running, the community checks are going to look good.”
CJ Albertson of Fresno, Californa, topped the Half Marathon, finishing the 13-mile trek at 1:05:53, just six seconds faster than multi-year Kauai Marathon winner Tyler McCandless, who stopped the clocks at 1:05:59 before taking the microphone to announce marathon winners. McCandless was also a Kauai Marathon representative to the Iwaki Marathon.
First female finisher in the Half Marathon crossed the line fourth overall as Anna Benbedettini, listing her city as Kailua, Hawaii, tripped the clock at 1:20:47.
