Sunday was a brilliant day in rainy Hawaii for runners from Flagstaff, Ariz.
Athletes who live and train in and around the 80,000-population running mecca won the men’s and women’s races at the JAL Honolulu Marathon.
Tsegay Weldlibanos, who is originally from Eritrea, and Calli Hauger-Thackery of England captured the 26.2-mile races, both edging the 2024 winners. Each first-place finisher won $25,000.
Weldlibanos covered the course in 2 hours, 13 minutes and 38 seconds. His training partner Yemane Haileselassie finished second in 2:14:29.
Hauger-Thackery won in 2:30:43, while 2023 and 2024 winner Cynthia Limo was second in 2:31:33.
They were among 28,746 registrants for the 53rd running of the marathon. The field dealt with moderate to heavy rain from the 5 a.m. start until about an hour into the race, and then later in the day. Also, humidity sent more runners than usual to the medical tent for assistance.
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Hauger-Thackery said the rain did remind her of her homeland, but not the humidity. She said the conditions “freaked her out a little,” as did a misplaced fluid bottle. But she said she quickly shrugged that off as a minor inconvenience, and regained her confidence by realizing her competitors had to deal with the same weather she did.
Taking on a two-time reigning champion like Limo might seem daunting, but Hauger-Thackery had previously won here — and more recently than Limo; in April, Hauger-Thackery won the Hapalua Half Marathon, which covers much of the same course as the 26.2-mile race.
“She’s an incredible racer,” Hauger-Thackery said of Limo.
After a late lead pack of four dropped to two late in the race, Hauger-Thackery showed she’s a talented and tough one-on-one battler, too.
“Just focus, head forward,” Hauger-Thackery said of attacking the Diamond Head hill. “You can do anything for three miles.”
A strong finish determined the men’s outcome, too.
It seemed during much of the second half that Haileselassie would repeat his victory of last year. But his training partner made a late surge, and Weldlibanos took the lead with less than two miles to go, and won going away.
It was remarkable that Weldlibanos had enough reserve fuel for such an effort. Six weeks ago he hung with the lead pack for the first 21 miles of the New York Marathon, and finished in 2:10:36 for ninth place.
“He came off New York really strong and has managed himself well,” said his coach, James McKirdy, in an interview last week with Rich Sands of Race Results Weekly. “I actually think he’s more fit now than he was for New York.”
Weldlibanos, Haileselassie and two other training partners, Amanuel Mesel and Tesfu Tewelde, are at various stages of trying to get political asylum from Eritrea, McKirdy said Sunday.
“It’s very difficult,” Weldlibanos said.
McKirdy is much more than a coach to these men who have been forced to be away from their loved ones, in many cases for years.
“They’re a big part of our family,” McKirdy said Sunday. “The (asylum) process takes a lot of time and there are always challenges.”
McKirdy has helped the Eritreans adapt to life in America, but has also learned from them, he said.
“Patience. Patience and forgiveness,” the coach said. “They teach me to take a step back and breathe.”
Sunday’s weather conditions were a stark contrast to those of Saturday, when a clear, dry and calm morning helped Sinclaire Johnson achieve a record-breaking performance in the Kalakaua Merrie Mile.
The Start To Park 10K on Sunday drew 10,812 entrants, and Saturday’s Kalakaua Merrie Mile had 3,404. The total of 42,962 for the Honolulu Marathon Weekend broke last year’s record of 36,121.
Flagstaff will be well represented in Waikiki again next December.
McKirdy pointed out that several of the Merrie Mile pros live and train there.
Hauger-Thackery plans to be back to defend both of her titles — Hapalua, and the full marathon.
McKirdy said he will also return with his crew of champions, contenders and a pacesetter — John Raneri, who volunteered on his own to do it for the women when his duty was finished for the men.
TOP 500 FINISHERS
1. Tsegay Weldlibanos 2:13:38
2. Yemane Haileselassie 2:14:28
3. Patrick Ketter Kiplagat 2:14:56
4. Tesfu Tewelde 2:15:40
5. Amanuel Mesel 2:20:06
6. Taiki Nakatake 2:23:07
7. Calli Hauger-Thackery 2:30:43
8. Cynthia Limo 2:31:32
9. Ben Payne 2:34:26
10. Taishi Okutsu 2:35:18
11. Eunice Chumba 2:35:36
12. John Raneri 2:39:10
13. Tetsuya Fukazawa 2:39:15
14. Takaya Mitsuka 2:39:35
15. Vibian Chepkurui 2:40:45
16. Kale Glunt 2:41:08
17. Hiroki Fujinaga 2:42:07
18. Shun Osawa 2:44:28
19. Takumi Kato 2:44:52
20. Jeremy Morgan 2:45:43
21. Albert Ferreras 2:46:59
22. Markus Geiger 2:47:22
23. Dylan Marvel 2:47:29
24. Ryan Duncan 2:47:58
25. Jonah Lee 2:48:06
26. Peter Molina 2:48:11
27. Mac Fox 2:48:16
28. Sai Htay 2:48:33
29. Hajime Ishii 2:48:52
30. Aaron Spak 2:49:44
31. Finn Peterson 2:49:48
32. Mio Takinami 2:49:59
33. Gabriel Tom 2:50:48
34. Eri Suzuki 2:50:56
35. Zachary Lee 2:51:40
36. Henrique Bento 2:51:55
37. Maxime Bondue 2:52:01
38. Yoshihiro Nishimura 2:52:10
39. Jeremy Keirn 2:53:12
40. Takumi Shibuya 2:53:30
41. Luc Scheller 2:53:32
42. Shuhei Ono 2:53:33
43. Evan Villano 2:53:50
44. Peter Kachur 2:53:53
45. Hiroki Nozue 2:54:05
46. Joseph Harker 2:54:07
47. Hiroko Yoshitomi 2:54:32
48. Patrick Hasler 2:54:39
49. Patrick Renner 2:54:48
50. Matthew Haas 2:55:05
51. Tim Sears 2:55:23
52. Helena Dermentzoglou 2:55:35
53. Masaki Ise 2:55:42
54. Shoichi Tokuda 2:55:55
55. JP Aquino 2:56:10
56. Joshua Sappington 2:57:01
57. Kengo Narita 2:57:08
58. Yusuke Uehara 2:57:23
59. Haas Sullivan 2:57:38
60. Eric Casey 2:57:48
61. Kosuke Okamoto 2:58:05
62. Michael Richard 2:58:06
63. Mai Arizuka 2:58:10
64. Tyler Tsubota 2:58:16
65. Jordan Bongolan 2:58:37
66. Kenta Kawamura 2:58:57
67. Eric Wesolowski 2:58:58
68. Davis Holley 2:59:05
69. Jeffrey Chang 2:59:13
70. Zach Huseby 2:59:25
71. Bo Martinez 2:59:26
72. Keelan Ryan 2:59:26
73. Aaron Bennett 2:59:40
74. Misao Hosoda 2:59:40
75. Tahiry Arintsoa 2:59:40
76. Cosmo Brossy 2:59:41
77. Gavin Ross 2:59:42
78. Yonghyeon Jo 2:59:43
79. Grant Kam 3:00:10
80. Takashi Okada 3:00:37
81. Lauren Floris 3:00:41
82. Sarah Bassett 3:00:45
83. Rashan Moore 3:01:07
84. Adam Chang 3:02:35
85. Macy Putman 3:02:45
86. Stefan Cranston 3:02:50
87. Clayton Allen 3:02:50
88. Yutaro Sato 3:02:54
89. Cole Chalmers 3:02:57
90. Michael Cacal 3:03:06
91. Nicholas Ducharme-Barth 3:03:22
92. Carter McCormick 3:03:52
93. Georgina Goode 3:04:05
94. Joiner John 3:04:13
95. Erick Umana 3:04:14
96. Zachary Harrison 3:04:19
97. Samuel Hilsden 3:04:20
98. Miki Shimura 3:04:21
99. Nicholas Yancey 3:04:40
100. Andrew Vogel 3:04:48
101. Sidney Triepke 3:04:51
102. Adam Laundree 3:04:52
103. Tyler Brandt 3:04:58
104. Kyle White 3:05:27
105. Philipp Gerstengarbe 3:05:32
106. Colin Cameron 3:05:34
107. Oliver Ottosson 3:05:42
108. Michael Roderick 3:05:56
109. Victor Arenas 3:06:01
110. Alexander Knox 3:06:04
111. Juan Pablo Arias Calderon 3:06:23
112. Mahmoud Koroma 3:06:28
113. James Peedin 3:06:28
114. Jan Wormann 3:06:31
115. Scott Loos 3:06:38
116. Breanna Gaster 3:06:55
117. Tsukasa Magami 3:06:56
118. Valentine Roberts 3:07:13
119. Erik Gain 3:07:14
120. Tomoyuki Fuse 3:07:35
121. Yuki Kanao 3:07:42
122. Iris Chuluunbat-Nasky 3:08:05
123. Peter Cabral 3:08:25
124. Yusuke Hattori 3:08:29
125. Mark Mcduffie 3:08:35
126. Cole Munoz 3:08:39
127. Sara Wessen Chang 3:08:56
128. Caitlyn Tateishi 3:09:05
129. Luke Evangelista 3:09:21
130. Christopher Friedemann 3:09:23
131. Jorge Morales 3:09:30
132. Akira Takagishi 3:09:37
133. Josh Gibbs 3:09:46
134. Bryan Hudson 3:09:48
135. Joshua Getega 3:10:00
136. David Easa 3:10:09
137. Yusei Araki 3:10:29
138. Blaine Madson 3:10:50
139. Francisco Cortez 3:10:53
140. Maxime Bidel 3:11:03
141. Jun Hanano 3:11:06
142. Nathan Law 3:11:06
143. George Munoz 3:11:08
144. Scott Stay 3:11:11
145. Adam Macfarland 3:11:11
146. Taylor Millican 3:11:11
147. Joel Maddock 3:11:17
148. Maxwell Hall 3:11:20
149. David Miller 3:11:24
150. Colin Carlton 3:11:42
151. Koji Uemoto 3:11:43
152. Woncheol Lee 3:11:56
153. Juan Sanchez 3:12:08
154. Andrew Medendorp 3:12:16
155. Madison Foht 3:12:22
156. Keigo Okamura 3:12:22
157. Sofia Carias 3:12:27
158. Brent Isono 3:12:38
159. Ashley Frye 3:12:39
160. Branden Fitzke 3:12:40
161. Mio Kitada 3:12:47
162. Michael Marlin 3:12:47
163. Abbey Dubois 3:13:09
164. Christos Antonakopoulos 3:13:19
165. Justin Carr 3:13:22
166. Joseph Gonzalez 3:13:23
167. Kyle Hamrock 3:13:25
168. Jordan Kelly 3:13:25
169. Adam Joseph 3:13:29
170. Phillip Chico 3:13:32
171. Tom Baillie 3:13:33
172. Ervy Rodriguez 3:13:37
173. Christian Knauss 3:13:59
174. Jacob Melnick 3:14:00
175. Kyle Griffioen 3:14:17
176. Connor Wilchusky 3:14:27
177. Maxim Serafimovici 3:14:34
178. Roman Pshonyak 3:14:45
179. Hiroshi Sato 3:14:46
180. Yuta Cole 3:15:04
181. Rory Gale 3:15:17
182. Tomas Berumen-Falcon 3:15:21
183. Nicholas Aubin 3:15:22
184. Marcin Ptak 3:15:27
185. Dan Crevier 3:15:36
186. Kaylyn Dosch 3:15:36
187. Aaron Kent 3:15:39
188. Taylin Bowen 3:15:57
189. Jarrett Gulden 3:16:07
190. Maxwell George 3:16:09
191. Koki Nishiyama 3:16:13
192. Young Hur 3:16:25
193. Sheldon Tucker 3:16:25
194. Jack Bullington 3:16:34
195. Kai Gibson 3:16:44
196. Juan Torres Ortiz 3:16:49
197. Billy Richardson 3:16:55
198. Jake Shiraki 3:17:14
199. John Bohnemann 3:17:40
200. Atsushi Takaba 3:17:52
201. Philip Fomichenko 3:17:54
202. Reinhard Otto 3:18:00
203. Max Melendez 3:18:02
204. Brice Namnama 3:18:21
205. Robert Falk 3:18:30
206. Faith Knoedler 3:18:43
207. Heather Boyne 3:18:45
208. Ricardo Flores 3:18:46
209. Cooper Sharp 3:18:53
210. Edward Relin 3:18:57
211. Jeremy Yoshikado 3:18:59
212. Zackery Liberty 3:19:00
213. Kenny Thai 3:19:01
214. Wolfgang Sakamaki 3:19:06
215. Mirai Takahashi 3:19:17
216. Shinji Idani 3:19:21
217. Adriel Villasin 3:19:22
218. Wes Yamaguchi 3:19:35
219. Morgan Waterman 3:20:08
220. Christopher Pombo 3:20:13
221. Cohen Thiele 3:20:15
222. Adelina Smirnova 3:20:16
223. Harrison Keeran 3:20:19
224. Noa Gibson 3:20:19
225. Yukiya Oba 3:20:21
226. Lyman Perry 3:20:26
227. Yoshitaka Kato 3:20:28
228. Patrick Brito 3:20:32
229. Matt Davey 3:20:50
230. Shoh Tanaka 3:20:53
231. Toshihiro Takahashi 3:20:55
232. Pat Leatherman 3:21:00
233. Cooper Palamountain 3:21:28
234. Tim Glickman 3:21:35
235. Samuel Bybee 3:21:46
236. Kenneth Sato 3:22:00
237. Calvin Howell 3:22:02
238. Zachary Moon 3:22:05
239. Yamato Watanabe 3:22:09
240. Jeremy Lara 3:22:10
241. Gary Fanelli Jr. 3:22:10
242. Zhi Dou 3:22:12
243. Stephen Hurst 3:22:12
244. Ko Nishimura 3:22:15
245. Anthoni Avila 3:22:24
246. Ryan Osterloh 3:22:27
247. Yuichi Iino 3:22:32
248. Adam O’Hern 3:22:33
249. Ryan Reyes 3:22:43
250. Kalani Awo 3:22:43
251. Celine Lum 3:22:50
252. Yasuko Sato 3:22:52
253. Peyton Botelho 3:22:54
254. Mich. Rosenberg 3:22:56
255. Micaiah Cape 3:22:57
256. Brent Clermont 3:22:59
257. Alexander Serebnitski 3:23:00
258. Nickolas Larson 3:23:04
259. Sydney Moulton 3:23:05
260. Angelina Yossa 3:23:10
261. Nicholas Kyono 3:23:17
262. Gerard Pink 3:23:18
263. Aaron Gonzalez Diaz De Leon 3:23:18
264. Marcus Kretz 3:23:20
265. Kazue Oka 3:23:22
266. Rachael Banton 3:23:22
267. Takashi Aihara 3:23:29
268. Steve Slaby 3:23:30
269. Jacob Knight 3:23:35
270. Ryo Kodama 3:23:36
271. Jake Dellapasqua 3:23:36
272. Bryan Jones 3:23:37
273. Zoltan Harmath 3:23:38
274. Corey Williams 3:23:39
275. Andrew Marble 3:23:46
276. Dan Rael 3:23:48
277. Cleo Ascher 3:23:54
278. Muneaki Kobayashi 3:23:57
279. Jada Inouye 3:23:57
280. Andrew Kargol 3:23:58
281. Sutton Payne 3:24:02
282. Emily Mckinney 3:24:03
283. Shun Ito 3:24:04
284. Trey Kornfeld 3:24:14
285. Minjae Kim 3:24:21
286. Yiqing Lu 3:24:22
287. Lucy Westlake 3:24:40
288. Daniel Velazquez Padilla 3:24:40
289. Nolan Koyamatsu 3:24:47
290. Glenn Emery 3:24:51
291. Hideaki Maekawa 3:24:52
292. Christopher Salas 3:24:59
293. Aurora Augustin 3:25:07
294. Nobuyuki Horita 3:25:08
295. Gary Augustin 3:25:11
296. Joel Berrelleza 3:25:13
297. Haruki Usui 3:25:18
298. Joshua Kampe 3:25:22
299. Ignacio Santos 3:25:25
300. Masanori Inoue 3:25:28
301. Toru Kimura 3:25:31
302. Carthy Caswell 3:25:41
303. Henry Ciannavei 3:25:46
304. Luke Barnocky 3:25:46
305. Elliott Kujat 3:25:52
306. Davis Campos 3:25:52
307. Tomoyuki Ota 3:25:56
308. Grayson Wyandt 3:25:57
309. Luke Bower 3:25:59
310. Luis Segura 3:26:02
311. Josh Stefanski 3:26:06
312. Toshio Nakazawa 3:26:07
313. Lynne Washio 3:26:08
314. Jenna Cross 3:26:10
315. Johnny Zarate 3:26:10
316. Hector Cisneros 3:26:14
317. Ryoichiro Okamoto 3:26:19
318. Isabel Ortega 3:26:21
319. Olivia Graham 3:26:23
320. Adam Other-Gee 3:26:25
321. Kameron Young 3:26:25
322. Matthew Cairns 3:26:31
323. Mackay Eaton 3:26:32
324. Dominic Van Uden 3:26:36
325. Hayden Johnson 3:26:36
326. Sydney Williams 3:26:37
327. Tim Nguyen 3:26:37
328. Jon Shishido 3:26:40
329. Michael Cannistra 3:26:47
330. Courtney Kolberg 3:26:52
331. Carter Schmidt 3:26:53
332. Katsuhiko Shimokawa 3:26:53
333. Hiroyuki Shimizu 3:26:54
334. Marissa Kunsch 3:26:55
335. Ben Fagan 3:26:55
336. Mitchell Degeus 3:26:59
337. Bruce Nakamura-Webb 3:27:00
338. Hayden Haller 3:27:02
339. Tadashi Mochida 3:27:07
340. Justin Blaney 3:27:08
341. Keoni Wong 3:27:15
342. Cristina Tolosa 3:27:17
343. John Ndungu 3:27:21
344. Tiffany Ravaglia 3:27:22
345. Christian Tsukamoto 3:27:25
346. Josiah Swanson 3:27:27
347. Alan Turner 3:27:32
348. Masashi Hotta 3:27:35
349. Tony Montana 3:27:43
350. Juan Serrano 3:27:44
351. Carey Colbert 3:27:46
352. Yuki Miyata 3:27:47
353. Eric Nguyen 3:27:57
354. James Botelho 3:27:57
355. Brandon Odion 3:27:59
356. Korwin Chang 3:28:01
357. Dane Becker 3:28:03
358. Ayako Shirato 3:28:05
359. Kyu Sik Kim 3:28:11
360. Joseph Maxwell 3:28:12
361. Adam Wosahla 3:28:16
362. Reilly Lavrich 3:28:16
363. Alex Lerikos 3:28:18
364. Ryan Salvo 3:28:31
365. Kaila Prochaska 3:28:32
366. Braeden Cardenas 3:28:36
367. Mona Nadine Langbein 3:28:39
368. Blake McCarthy 3:28:45
369. Zahid Salodawala 3:28:46
370. Kai Oates Wilding 3:28:48
371. Mads Moller Christensen 3:28:52
372. Diment Singh 3:28:54
373. Lauren Gastineau 3:28:57
374. Walker Jesse 3:28:57
375. Paul Esposito 3:28:57
376. Shelbi Wuss 3:29:02
377. Rob Hicks 3:29:03
378. Joshua Boatman 3:29:04
379. Riki Sakihara 3:29:04
380. Dai Kelly 3:29:05
381. John De Baca 3:29:12
382. Slate Fragoso 3:29:13
383. Yasuo Iida 3:29:15
384. Santiago Gonzalez Ramirez 3:29:20
385. Abby Peterson 3:29:21
386. Jason Ketover 3:29:25
387. Austin Smith 3:29:29
388. Brayden Alvarez 3:29:37
389. Liam Gregory 3:29:40
390. Andrew Trump 3:29:42
391. Fred Chen 3:29:42
392. Steve Shlens 3:29:43
393. Ivan Kuencer 3:29:45
394. Max Eigen 3:29:45
395. Peter King 3:29:46
396. Nathan Shikenjanski 3:29:46
397. Thomas Leisy 3:29:46
398. Ethan Aimoto 3:29:48
399. Jacob Uyeno 3:29:51
400. Keahi Jack 3:30:00
401. Collin Elliott 3:30:02
402. Kazuki Yagi 3:30:03
403. Masahiro Tsujiura 3:30:03
404. John Morreale 3:30:09
405. Andrea Barrameda 3:30:14
406. Slawomir Nunes-Zlotkowski 3:30:18
407. Yuki Hasegawa 3:30:21
408. Bill Lam 3:30:25
409. Karl Enzo Fungo 3:30:27
410. Louis Brisebois 3:30:37
411. Jake Cooley 3:30:45
412. Ashley Ogilvie 3:30:48
413. Evan Grim 3:30:49
414. Mark Kauf 3:30:55
415. Alice Isom 3:30:58
416. Eric Stallman 3:31:00
417. Jordan Beau 3:31:08
418. Armando Arellano 3:31:08
419. Pat Doyen 3:31:08
420. Jamie Phillipson 3:31:16
421. Taku Sato 3:31:22
422. Jake Aleck 3:31:30
423. Hana Sahdev 3:31:33
424. Tony Van Linn 3:31:34
425. Jess Brannelly 3:31:37
426. Nicholas Rubianes 3:31:44
427. Dr. Aldayne Adlam 3:31:48
428. Alan Scott 3:31:50
429. Alan Becker 3:31:56
430. Chris Angel Fernandez 3:31:59
431. Dennis McDuffie 3:31:59
432. Braxton Fish 3:32:05
433. Anthony Rodriguez 3:32:07
434. Wonsuck Choi 3:32:08
435. Ross Gore 3:32:09
436. Kunihiro Shinozuka 3:32:13
437. Tyler Yen 3:32:22
438. Connor Trowbridge 3:32:25
439. Kristen Imada 3:32:25
440. Linnea Kiyabu 3:32:25
441. Bryan Baroffio 3:32:31
442. Tony Lance King 3:32:35
443. Kaela Lynch 3:32:39
444. Jordan Hendren 3:32:39
445. Adrian Collado 3:32:46
446. Iker Yturralde 3:32:47
447. Osuke Yogo 3:32:54
448. Max Grieger 3:32:58
449. Dylan Coffey 3:32:59
450. Mateo Caputo 3:33:04
451. Mira Byron 3:33:06
452. John Buckles 3:33:08
453. Tristan McCrary 3:33:11
454. Alexander Witthus 3:33:16
455. Jack Murphy 3:33:22
456. Ben Salinas 3:33:23
457. Audrey Himes 3:33:24
458. Jaden Evans 3:33:25
459. Colin Brennan 3:33:26
460. Alli Hicks 3:33:27
461. Mike Rozhko 3:33:31
462. Melissa Staley 3:33:31
463. Gabriel Ramos 3:33:32
464. Juan Mejia 3:33:33
465. Brendon Campbell 3:33:34
466. Brent Wong 3:33:37
467. Luke Hamby 3:33:37
468. Saul De La Rosa 3:33:38
469. Raymond Cayas 3:33:46
470. Michie Hosoki 3:34:03
471. Albert Nguyen 3:34:05
472. Mirsobit Sobitov 3:34:07
473. Isaiah Martinez 3:34:11
474. Julius Jung 3:34:20
475. Brandon Dunston 3:34:22
476. Marcus Oshiro 3:34:25
477. Keaton Tettelbach 3:34:28
478. Yuichiro Hirokata 3:34:33
479. Hannah Cullen 3:34:35
480. Esther Sun 3:34:36
481. Cole McGinnes 3:34:47
482. Joel Brandinger 3:34:53
483. Hitoshi Bamba 3:35:00
484. Fiona Reckart 3:35:00
485. Thomas Lee 3:35:02
486. Jonathan Rose 3:35:07
487. Mari Hirata 3:35:09
488. Caleb-Michael Files 3:35:10
489. Yuto Fujiki 3:35:14
490. Mary De Aquino 3:35:14
491. Masaaki Mikamoto 3:35:17
492. Romaric Ngambo 3:35:18
493. Kjell Wagner 3:35:20
494. Nathan Cogswell 3:35:21
495. Ashten Akemoto 3:35:26
496. Max Ray-Keil 3:35:32
497. Addison Smee 3:35:37
498. Michael Bergquist 3:35:39
499. Hannah Biebl 3:35:45
500. Casin Nemoto 3:35:45