ISLE FILE
Tanimoto, Friis breeze to victory at Val Nolasco Half-Marathon
Advertiser Staff
Rani Tanimoto, 27, who works for the Department of Human Services on the Big Island, won the women's title at the Val Nolasco Half-Marathon yesterday in a time of 1:27:27.
Tanimoto finished 23 seconds ahead of Yang-Sun Carpenter in the race that began and finished at Kapi'olani Park. Tomoko Iizuka-Sheeley was third, 50 seconds behind Carpenter.
"I wanted to run an even pace, and that's how I ran the whole race, so I was happy with the race," said Tanimoto of her performance. "I did not decide before Friday to run the race, when Jon Kunitake called me up to say that we should travel to O'ahu and run."
Kunitake, a coffee farmer, is the organizer of the Kona Marathon and a frequent participant of races on O'ahu.
Many of the 900 participants used yesterday's race as a warm-up for the Dec. 8 Honolulu Marathon.
Tanimoto, however, said she is still not sure if she wants to run the marathon, as she has not been able to train as much as she usually does for the 26.2-mile race.
In the men's race, Christian Friis, a former Hawai'i Pacific University cross country runner, won in 1:12:16.
Jonathan Lyau finished second, despite stepping in a pothole on the second mile.
"It was so dark there and they had put out some cones, but, unfortunately, I stepped right in the pothole and was about to fall," said Lyau, who won The Great Aloha Run in 1994 and 2002.
Kevin Rathbun, who recently won the Honolulu 15K, was third in a close finish with Clint Iizuka-Sheeley and Siul Michel.
CROSS COUNTRY
• Binek, Chapman win titles: Tamarah Binek of Waiakea and Jared Chapman of Hawai'i Prep captured individual titles at Saturday's Big Island Interscholastic Federation cross country championships.
Hawai'i Prep captured both the boys and girls team titles.
On the boys side, Hawai'i Prep scored 26 points, followed by Kealakehe with 73 and Waiakea with 89. The Kamakani girls won with 35 points, with Waiakea's 55 and Hilo's 79 points second and third, respectively.
KAYAKING
• Punahou takes team titles: The Punahou boys and girls kayaking squads captured team titles at the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Championships on Saturday at Ke'ehi Lagoon.
Iolani's Peter Van Ribbink (12:36.06) and Punahou's Lindsey Wessburg (14:10.14) captured individual titles.
The Punahou boys scored 35 points, followed by Iolani's 40, Mid-Pacific's 60 and Kamehameha's 75. The Buffanblu girls dominated with 25 points. Mid-Pacific was next with 55, followed by Kamehameha (64) and Iolani' (66).
