In 2011, Patrick Makau made history by setting the world marathon record. It had previously been held by Ethiopian legend Haile Gebreselassie. But on that day, Makau soundly beat Geb and in the process set a new world record at 2:03:38.

But since then Makau has not been able to scale those heights as he has been injury plagued and has hardly featured in the top city marathons.

On Sunday December 7, he shrugged off his setbacks and won the famous Fukuoka Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, in 2:08:22.

He had targeted a time around 2:06. But Makau told local reporters that he was still happy with his performance and his return to winning ways after struggling to find his best form since his win at the 2012 Frankfurt Marathon.

In excellent conditions, with temperatures hovering around eight degrees Celsius and little wind, Mongolia’s Ser-Od Bat-Ochir broke the race wide open at around 30 kilometres. He finished third with a national record of 2:08:50, 10 seconds faster than his previous best.

Makau became the fourth successive Kenyan to win at Fukuoka and has now won 5 out of 11 marathons he has attempted.

Ethiopia’s Raji Assefa powered ahead in the final kilometres to finish second in 2:08:48, the second fastest time of his career after his personal best of 2:06:24.

Leading results:
1. Patrick Makau KEN 2:08:22
2. Raji Assefa ETH 2:08:48
3. Ser-Od Bat-Ochir MGL 2:08:50
4. Masakazu Fujiwara JPN 2:09:06
5. Tomoya Adachi JPN 2:09:59
6. Henryk Szost POL 2:10:02
7. Chiharu Takada JPN 2:10:03
8. Yared Asmerom ERI 2:10:09
9. Tsuyoshi Ugachi JPN 2:10:50
10. Mekubo Mogusu KEN 2:11:29