OTSU (Japan), March 4: Japanese-based Kenyan runner Samuel Ndungu made a perfect marathon debut on Sunday by winning the Lake Biwa race.

Ndungu, 23, broke away from the eight-man front-running group shortly before the 32-kilometre point to take the lead and never faced a serious challenge afterwards, crossing the line in 2 hr 7 min 4 sec.

Henryk Szost set a new Polish national record of 2:07:39 to finish second, followed by Abdellah Taghrafet of Morocco in 2:08:37.

In the Japanese qualification race for the Olympics, Ryo Yamamoto overtook front-running Kentaro Nakamoto in the last 400m to secure fourth place in 2:08:44 and take a big step towards winning a ticket to London.

Nakamoto was fifth in 2:08:53.

Leading results: 1. Samuel Ndungu (Kenya) two hours seven minutes four seconds; 2. Henryk Szost (Poland) 2:07:39; 3. Abdellah Taghrafet (Morocco) 2:08:37; 4. Ryo Yamamoto (Japan) 2:08:44; 5. Kentaro Nakamoto (Japan) 2:08:53; 6. Tomoyuki Morita (Japan) 2:09:12; 7. Takashi Horiguchi (Japan) 2:09:16; 8. Masashi Hayashi (Japan) 2:09:55; 9. Takehiro Deki (Japan) 2:10:02; 10. Ernest Kebenei (Kenya) 2:10:04.—AFP