Lee Bong-ju wins last Asiad gold in men's marathon

By Primastuti Handayani

BANGKOK (JP): Lee Bong-ju of South Korea sealed a glorious end to the Asian Games for his country by taking the men's marathon gold medal under a baking sun on Sunday.

Backed by dozens of cheering compatriots, Lee crossed the finish in the Thammasat Stadium in a relatively slow two hours 12 minutes and 32 seconds, well off the meet record of 2:08.21 set by Takeyuki Nakayama of Japan at the 1986 Asiad in Seoul.

Japanese Akira Manai finished second with 2:13.24 and North Korean Kim Jung-won grabbed the bronze in 2:16.30.

Indonesia's last medal hopeful Suyono Bejo Atmojo finished fifth, more than five minutes behind fourth-place finisher Tsotomu Sassa of Japan and 14 minutes off the winner's time.

Lee, 28, blamed the scorching heat and a sore knee for coming up short on the 12-year-old Asiad mark.

"I'm glad I finally won the gold although I failed to improve my best time due to the very hot weather. When we started this morning, it was OK but two hours later it was torture for us."

He ran a personal best 2:07.44 in finishing second at the Rotterdam Marathon earlier this year.

"I was very confident I would win the race after 35 kilometers, because at that stage I was far ahead of the pack. If only I was not suffering from a knee injury, I would have performed better."

Lee set the pace in the leading pack from the outset at the ancient Thai capital city of Ayutthaya. He broke away after 25 kilometers, with Manai close behind.

The South Korean, buoyed by relentless cheers from the crowd, stepped up his pace to widen the distance as Manai started to tire.

South Korean coach Chung Bong-soo expressed his disappointment with his athlete's winning time, but also pointed to the heat.

"Its difficult for my athlete to acclimatize well. It's now winter in Korea and the temperature is between minus 5 and 10 degrees Celsius," he said.

Chung also looked upset as his other protege, Kim Yi-yong, retired half way to the start due to his poor physical fitness. Kim was suffering cold and quit in the middle of the race.

Pleased

Suyono was not dismayed by his performance. He said he did not expect to win a medal but had hoped to improve his personal best time of 2:21.

"I'm glad I could finish fifth, considering I took on world- class opposition. The most important thing is I came first among Southeast Asian runners," the SEA Games gold medalist said.

He moved up from seventh in the pack to sixth by overtaking Thailand's Choochip Meechai after 35 kilometers. The Indonesian outsprinted Nazirdin Ahylhekor of Kazakhstan in the final few kilometers.

National coach Hery Setyono hailed Suyono's performance.

"Halfway into the race, he could maintain his speed at 69.41 minutes per hour but when the weather was getting hotter, he failed to clock an ideal time of 16 minutes and 30 seconds for each kilometer.

"He started to run out of steam starting from the 30th kilometer but I think all the runners had the same problem."

Physical trainer Paulus Pasurney said Suyono proved he was ahead of the pack in Southeast Asia.

"Suyono was exhausted, as you can see from how he answered questions. He's not fully focused because of the heat. Nobody could run inside two hours and 10 minutes due to the hot weather."