Kenyan cousins 1-2 at Hawaiian Half-Marathon
By Kit Smith
Special to The Advertiser
Kenyan cousins Sammie Kimaiyo and William Ngetich kept the Hawaiian Half-Marathon a family affair in the men's division yesterday.
Kimaiyo, 19, was the winner, finishing in 1 hour, 16 minutes and 1 second. Ngetich, 22, who stopped twice to fuss with his shoes, took second for the second consecutive year, finishing in 1:20:13
Kimaiyo was a freshman at Lindsey Wilson College in Kentucky this year. His older brother Eric is a world-class marathoner and a two-time winner of the Honolulu and Berlin marathons.
The winner in the women's division was Sayuri Kusutani, 46, of Honolulu, with a time of 1:26:58, good for eighth overall.
While Kimaiyo cruised to victory, Ngetich, a junior at Hawai'i Pacific University and a specialist in shorter races, said he began to tire at about mile 9, after his two shoe stops.
Ashley Dustow, a 47-year-old New Zealand transplant to Hawai'i, slipped past Ngetich at one point.
"It felt great," Dustow said. "I thought, wow, I could have (finished) second."
Ngetich, however, rallied to close out Dustow, finishing 23 seconds ahead.
"If he were a younger guy, I would just have let him go," Ngetich said.
Ngetich, who has run at sub-4-minute mile paces, will transfer in the fall to Louisiana State University to run track.
The temperature at yesterday's start was cool, but Kimaiyo's time was 14 minutes behind the 1:02 he posted in Osaka, Japan in 2003. Ngetich's time was 4 minutes slower than his second-place time in the Hawaiian Half-Marathon last year.
Kusutani placed eighth among all women in last December's Honolulu Marathon, with a time of 2:53:48. A native of Japan, she came to Hawai'i in 2001 to run for the HPU cross country team.
The No. 2 female finisher was Miwako Kawanabe, 55, of Japan, with a time of 1:38:14. No. 3 was Evie Viland, 44, in 1:40:50.
After the first two miles, the 13.1-mile race is run entirely on segments of the Honolulu Marathon course.
Yesterday's winners received free entry into the Honolulu Marathon.
About 900 runners and walkers took part in the event. It started at 5 a.m. at Ala Moana Park, proceeded through Waikiki and Kahala and returned to the Honolulu Marathon finish line at Kapi'olani Park.
Race director Ron Pate said the turnout set a record for the event. The half-marathon is part of the annual Pan-Pacific Festival of events, held during the Kamehameha Day weekend.
