Two-time world champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco won today's Fukuoka Marathon in 2:08:24
Gharib, 38, bided his time during the early stages and allowed pacemaker Eliud Kiptanui of Kenya to do the hard work. Kiptanui hit the half-way mark in 62:58 with Gharib 16 seconds behind.
Kiptanui finished his job at 30km, just as Gharib was starting to make up ground. At this point Gharib held an 84-second advantage over Ethiopia's Tekeste Kebede, but his lead was growing.
Having been up with the leaders through 10km and 15km, Britain's Andrew Lemoncello - who recently got married - had dropped back slightly at the half-way point (64:28) and then pulled out at roughly the 32km mark suffering from a stitch.
Meanwhile, Gharib continued to pull away from the field and Kebede started to drop back as European bronze medallist Dimitriy Safronov of Russia moved into third.
Gharib crossed the finish line in 2:08:24 with Safronov following him several moments later, clocking a big PB of 2:10:12.
Despite a string of consistent performances in international marathons over the past decade, this was Gharib's first marathon victory since his win at the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki 2005. In fact, this was Gharib's first and only marathon win outside of his gold medal performances at the 2003 and 2005 World Championships.
30km world record-holder Takayuki Matsumiya of Japan finished third in 2:10:54. The Japanese federation had stated that the top Japanese finisher in Fukuoka would be selected for the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, provided they break 2:09:30. Matsumiya will now have to wait until next March to see if he is selected for Daegu.
Lemoncello, who ran 2:13:40 on his marathon debut in London earlier this year, was extremely disappointed with having to drop out, having been on course for a PB.
His half-way split in Fukuoka was exactly a minute faster than his split from London. Lemoncello had clocked 1:33:18 at the 30km mark in Fukuoka - exactly the same split as third-place finisher Matsumiya.
"I was having a really good day out on the road," said Lemoncello on his twitter page. "I can't wait for London now."
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