© Copyright – 2020- Athletics Illustrated
Liam Adams of Melbourne, Australia qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games in the marathon by running 2:10:48 and finishing in 13th place at Sunday’s Lake Biwa Marathon. The performance represents a new personal best for the 33-year-old.
The top-three finishers were Evans Chebet of Kenya in 2:07:29, Stephen Mokoka representing South Africa clocking a 2:08:05 and Felix Kiprotich of Kenya in 2:08:48
Adams previously ran as fast as 2:11:36, which was just six seconds off of the current Olympic standard.
The Australians now have three men that have qualified for the Tokyo Games in the marathon event, the other two are Brett Robinson with his 2:10:55 and Jack Raynor who ran a 2:11:06, both during the 2019 London Marathon.
For 24-year-old Raynor London represented a new personal best time, likewise for the 28-year-old Robinson.
Tokyo will be Adam’s second Olympic Games Marathon. He finished 31st during the 2016 Rio Games event.
He finished fifth in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Marathon and seventh during the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, running 2:21:08 and 2:13:49, respectively.
The Melbourne native won his hometown marathon in 2018, finishing with a 2:15:13.
He has competed in at least five World Cross Country Championships.
The current Australian women who are nationally top-three and leading the way to be nominated to the team are Sinead Diver at 2:24:11 from the London Marathon, Lisa Weightman at 2:26:02 from Osaka Marathon and Eille Pashley, who has run 2:26:21 at the Nagoya Marathon. The three have also run within the qualifying standard one other time each since the qualification window opened. Milly Clark is on the outside looking in with her 2:28:08 from July 2019.
The women’s qualifying standard is 2:29:30.
With the cancellations of several marathons due to the COVID-19 virus, athletes not yet qualified will have their work cut out for them.
Lake Biwa top results:
1. Evans Chebet (Kenya)- 2:07:29
2. Stephen Mokoka (South Africa) – 2:08:05
3. Felix Kiprotich (Kenya) – 2:08:48
4. Naoya Sakuda (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) – 2:08:59 – pb
5. Shoma Yamamoto (Japna/NTT Nishi Nihon) – 2:09:18
6. Alphonce Simbu (Tanzania) – 2:09:23
7. Shoya Okuno (Japan/Toyota Kyushu) – 2:09:28 – pb
8. Kenya Sonoda (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) – 2:09:50 – pb
9. Felix Chemonges (Uganda) – 2:10:08
10. Koki Yoshioka (Japan/Chuo Hatsujo) – 2:10:13 -pb
11. Ryo Matsumoto (Japan/Toyota) – 2:10:32 – pb
12. Kengo Suzuki (Japan/Fujitsu) – 2:10:37
13. Liam Adams (Australia) – 2:10:48 – pb
14. Kohei Ogino (Japan/Fujitsu) – 2:11:27
15. Madoka Tanihara (Japan/Osaka Police) – 2:11:39 – pb
16. Kyoya Tsujino (Japan/NTN) – 2:12:04 – pb
17. Byambajav Tseveenravdan (Mongolia) – 2:12:32
18. Masatoshi Sakata (Japan/Chuo Hatsujo) – 2:12:36 – pb
19. Yukio Fujimura (Japan/Sumitomo Denko) – 2:13:07
20. Tsubasa Hayakawa (Japan/Toyota) – 2:13:46