Japan’s Takuya Noguchi spectacularly denied Kenyan Kenneth Mungara his third consecutive marathon victory at the 2018 Gold Coast Marathon on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
In scenes eerily reminiscent of 43-year-old Mungara’s battle over the final stages of last year’s race with Japanese ‘citizen runner’ and 2013 winner Yuki Kawauchi, the race record holder and Noguchi were inseparable and occasionally bumping in to each other over the final two kilometres.
But this time, when Mungara went to his now-characteristic lead inside the final 500m, Noguchi was having none of it and found a kick that rocketed him over the finish line in 2:08:59 on his 29th birthday.
