"You are the most amazing champion of this year's marathon," Honolulu Marathon Association president Jim Barahal told Takano as he presented the runner with his framed certificate and finisher's medal.

"I appreciate that I am alive," Takano said through an interpreter, while thanking doctors who revived him. He went to the finish line shortly after being released from Straub Hospital, and was still wearing his hospital identification wrist band. He also was wearing his finisher's T-shirt that his wife had taken to him at the hospital.

Takano, an experienced runner from Tokyo, collapsed into the arms of a doctor after crossing the finish line in three hours, 56 minutes and 34 seconds on Sunday. He was carried to the medical tent about 20 feet away, where doctors detected no pulse or blood pressure, said Barahal.

Doctors used an automatic external defibrillator to restore Takano's heartbeat.

Takano did not respond to the first shock, but his heartbeat and blood pressure returned after the second, Barahal said. He was able to talk and was conscious when he was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

The marathon had obtained nine portable machines only 12 days before the race, and had seven at various locations on the 26.2-mile course, one at the finish line and one in the medical tent.

Barahal, a medical doctor, said he doesn't believe Takano had a heart attack and believes there was no damage to the heart muscle. He said it appeared to be a matter of cardiac arrhythmia.

"When this happens during heavy exertion, there usually is an underlying cause, and Mr. Takano needs to have an extensive evaluation when he returns to Japan," Barahal said.

Takano and his wife were to leave for Tokyo on Monday. He said he would be checked by a doctor and hopes to be cleared to return to running soon.

He has no history of heart problems, and was surprised by what happened.

"In the ambulance, I thought that I didn't finish the race," he said. "I was thinking I wanted to go back and finish."

Takano's wife, Tokiko, also ran the marathon and finished about 40 minutes behind her husband. After a stop at the massage tent, an official with their tour group informed her about her husband and she went to the hospital, she said.

The couple train together and have completed 15 marathons, said Tokiko Takano, a dentist. It was her husband's 8th Honolulu race, she said.