OSAKA — Talk about a grand opening.

News photoTsuyoshi Ogata reacts as he finishes fifth in the marathon on Saturday at Osaka's Nagai Stadium. AP PHOTO

The IAAF World Athletic Championships commenced Saturday morning with a classic treatise in individual effort vs. team spirit — and, oh yeah, a brutal reminder of Osaka's oppressive summer heat.

When the marathon was decided, the ultimate test of endurance ending at Nagai Stadium, the temperature at 9:16 a.m. was 33 C with 67 percent humidity. That was when Kenya's Luke Kibet crossed the finish line, securing the gold medal in the men's marathon with a time of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 59 seconds.

He proudly raised both his arms over his head, shook his shirt to cool himself, took his national flag and draped it around his sweat-soaked body.

"My feelings right now are full of happiness," Kibet said in the post-race news conference.

Kibet, a 24-year-old prison guard, is the first Kenyan marathon champion at the world championships since Douglas Wakiihuri in 1987 in Rome.

Kenya native Mubarak Hassan Shami, who became a Qatari citizen because, he said, unlike Kenya it is a nation without running champions, finished second in 2:17.18.

Viktor Rothlin of Switzerland was the surprise third-place finisher in 2:17.25 and Eritrea's Yared Asmerom was fourth in 2:17.41.

Thirty runners did not complete the race, one sign of how difficult the conditions were.

Japan, meanwhile, captured the team gold medal, officially winning the 12th Marathon World Cup, getting a valiant group effort from Tsuyoshi Ogata, Satoshi Osaki and Toshinari Suwa, the fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-place finishers, respectively.

South Korea, buoyed by the 15th-place finish of Park Ju Young, earned the silver (team totals are an aggregate of the times of a nation's top-three finishers), while Kenya was third.

The United States, led by Mbarak Kipkorir Hussein (21st overall) and Mike Moran (23rd) was fourth.

Rounding out the individual top 10 were Kenya's William Kiplagat, Finland's Janne Holmen and Spain's Jose Manuel Martinez.

After the race, Ogata reflected on seeing his medal aspirations not realized.

"I wanted to get a medal today," said Ogata, who completed the race in 2:17.42, a far cry from his third-place effort of 2:11.16 at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, where he helped Japan win the 11th Marathon World Cup (Toshinari Takaoka's fourth-place finish and Wataru Okutani's 14th-place spot sealed the deal).

"The color would not be important. I was thinking I can get it while I was running at third position at some point during the last stages of the race.

"Unfortunately, I could not run the same pace at the end."

His presence, however, was a welcome sight for the Osaka-raised Osaki, who was clocked in 2:18.06.

"I was glad that my senior from university, Ogata, was running with me today," Osaki said. "Without him, I couldn't have done this well. It was hotter than I expected, but there were a lot of cheers for me and it gave me strength."

For Suwa, who completed the course in 2:18.35, the race was a welcome challenge, but it was a painful day at the office, which included a brisk jog past Osaka Castle.

"I got another blister on my foot (during the race)," Suwa said, stating a fact that many runners don't talk about after a race. Usually, the words "pace" and "making a move" are often a key part of those conversations.

"It hurt a lot," Suwa continued. "I wanted to focus on winning since I was given the chance to compete on this stage."

Japan's aggregate time was 6:54.23, South Korea's 7:12.08, Kenya's 7:12.33 and the United States' 7:15.00.

Japan had two other marathon participants — Tomoyuki Sato (13th, 2:20.53) and Mitsuru Kubota (56th, 2:59.40).

Sato called his performance a disappointment.

"I feel regret," he said. "I was never in the competition. I'll go back to training and take another shot on the world level."

Ugandan Alex Malinga led a pack of nine runners with identical times (1:08.29) at the midway point, while Ogata and Sato were 2 seconds behind.

As the race approached the 31-km mark, Kibet said he needed to make his move, because at that point the pace was too slow, 2:20 or 2:30.

And so he pushed himself and quickly moved his long, lean legs. In doing so, he created distance between himself and Kiplagat, Shami, Asmerom and Tanzania's Samson Ramadhani, who was a second behind them.

It worked.

"At 32 km, I started to believe I can win this race," Kibet said later when he took a well-deserved rest in an interview room seat.

After 35 km, Kibet had a 23-second lead over Shami. Five kilometers later, the lead stretched to 1:22. And Kibet maintained a brisk pace and graceful stride as he approached the finish line, with his arms swinging freely and his eyes fixed straight ahead on the course.

Then he entered Nagai Stadium for the final lap, his ceremonial victory lap of the 42.195-km race, and galloped swiftly in the inside lane as the crowd roared with delight.

"This was not the toughest marathon of my career," decided Kibet, who called his 2007 Vienna Marathon victory a confidence booster. "I felt comfortable despite the hot weather. We were prepared for (those) kinds of conditions.

Kibet added: "I am proud to win the gold for my country. I'm from Kalenjin tribe and and I will spend my winning to help my family."

Kibet's cash bonus from the Kenyan Athletics Federation is expected to be in the range of $6,000 to $20,000.

Shami, known as Richard Yatich when he lived in Kenya, expressed a positive outlook after the race.

"I'm very happy," Shami said, pausing to look at his friend, Kibet, "because to race with him is not easy."

Shami has coped with hamstring and hip problems since 2005.

"It was very hot but my body adapts to it," Shami said. "I was prepared for this, but because of the recurring injury I couldn't (win the gold). . . . In the end, the legs were just not moving."

NOTEWORTHY: At the outset of the race, it was 29 C and 78 percent humidity. At the 30-km mark, at 8:44 a.m., it was 30 C.

When Kibet crossed the finish line, it was 33 C, the hottest-ever finishing temperature of a world championships marathon.

Sevilla, Spain, held that distinction before (1999 World Championships). . . .Kibet's time was the slowest winning time in world championships history, and it was also the slowest low-altitude winning time in a major championship since the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics.

NO BREAK: After his grueling work day on Saturday, would Shami take it easy on Sunday, one might wonder?

So I asked the talkative runner: What will you do to relax on Sunday?

He responded by saying he plans to run 6-8 km to help remove lactic acids from his body.

WEATHER-RELATED TALK: Sure, it's hot in Osaka now, but it's usually hotter in Qatar.

Said Shami: "Right now it is not possible," to stage a marathon in Qatar. "Absolutely nobody would finish."

After one hour, he predicted, the race would stop.