2010

Yukihiro Kitaoka won a silver medal in the men's marathon event of the XVI Asian Games that took place in Guangzhou, China last November. As a result, he has been chosen to represent Japan in the men's marathon of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics to be held in Daegu, South Korea in 2011.

In the Guangzhou race, carried out at 26°C, Shami Mubarak from Qatar and other pacemakers led the first group at a pace of 5 km in 15 minutes and 20 to 30 seconds. The rather high temperature, coupled with a course coming in frequent up and down slopes and the resultant necessity of quick pace adjustments, made the race a very severe one to all runners.	Kitaoka keeps running in the pacemaking top group to lead the race
Past the 33 km point, Ji Youngjun of South Korea and Shami spurted leaving Kitaoka behind forcing him to compete with Dong Guojian of China for third place. Kitaoka, however, accelerated at around the 38 km point and secured his third place passing Dong. Kitaoka then ran up close to Shami and edged him out rushing past the finish line in second place.
We thank everyone for cheering up Kitaoka.

[Men's marathon results] Winner   JI Youngjun (S. Korea)   2:11:11 2nd place   YUKIHIRO Kitaoka (Japan)   2:12:46 3rd place   SHAMI Mubarak (Qatar)   2:12:53 4th place   DONG Guojian (China)   2:14:48 5th place   YASEEN Khalid (Qatar)   2:15:52 6th place   PAK Song Chol (N. Korea)   2:18:16 7th place   TOMOYUKI Sato (Japan)   2:18:24 8th place   REN Longyun (China)   2:18:43 9th place   KIM Youngjin (S. Korea)   2:24:18 10th place   CHANG Chiache (Taiwan)   2:26:32

Kitaoka gaining on Shami in the final 1 km

People from NTN (China) Investment Corporation (Shanghai and Guangzhou) and Guangzhou NTN-Yulon Drivetrain Co., Ltd. kept cheering up Kitaoka during the race

The silver medalist shows off his reward