Kawauchi was right with the lead group up to 30km when the pacemakers dropped out. (TV split time was 1:30.39, but that split was different from the official time on the course by 6 seconds, for some reason.) Shortly after that one of the Kenyans (I'm pretty sure it was the winner, Franklin Chepkwony) surged and took some of the leaders with him (2:50km broke the pack open, but 3 or 4 others went with him, including the eventual 2nd and 3rd placers - Ethiopians?), and they put a gap on Kawauchi of around 50m, maybe more, hard to tell with camera angles. It took Kawauchi a great effort to catch up (TV showed him grimacing in pain between 32 and 33km) but he did get back in the group just after 33km. 5km split from 30-35km was 14:44 (from TV, if I remember right) because of the surge and then Chepkwony surged again, ran in the 14:30s for the next 5km, but Korean TV broke away for a several minute commerical break around 35km, so I didn't see how that played out. When the feed came back around 37/38km he was clear of the 2nd and 3rd placers, and steady to the finish. Chepkwony never looked like giving anyone a chance in the final 7km, he was dominant. I thought the TV said he has a 2:06.11PB - does anyone know? He got $80 000 and a $20 000 time bonus, just missed the course record of 2:06.49.
When the final break came, Kawauchi might have dropped back a place or two, but he held on tough. The TV feed didn't show anything of him until he was in the stadium. When he came into the stadium, I thought it was going to be really close; he was at the end of the finishing straight when TV showed the Japanese A standard had passed. But because of the difference with between the TV time and the official time, the official results gave him a 2:08.14.
Duncan Kibet was also in the race, but he dropped out just after 25km. I still can't find results online, couldn't tell you any other placers of if there were other big names. First Korean was a little under 2:13, got the WC "A"