Takuya Taniguchi, on the other hand, stayed in touch early on - until he bogeyed twice late on the front nine to drop out of the race

Sheehan himself extended his lead further with a birdie at the fourth, but handed that shot back at the seventh and when he headed for the 10th tee to start his back nine, Yano was probably the only man who could still catch Sheehan after birdying the ninth.

His challenge was short lived though, a bogeyed the 12th stopping his momentum..

Sheehan extended his lead to four with a birdie at the 17th as he cruised home to victory and had no reason for any concern when he bogeyed the last, for the day had been won and lost long before then

Yano went on to grab second place, one shot clear of Taniguchi and Katsumasa Miyamoto, with a group of five players a further shot back at two-under.

New Zealander David Smail was equal 21st at one-over after a final round 71.

LEADING FINAL ROUND SCORES

(Japan unless stated, par 72)

-7: Paul Sheehan (Australia) 68 70 68 71

-4: Azuma Yano 69 74 66 71

-3: Katsumasa Miyamoto 75 71 66 69, Takuya Taniguchi 71 69 68 73

-2: Wei-Tze Yeh 70 70 73 69, SK Ho 71 71 70 70, Masaya Tomida 71 72 67 72, Hiroshi Iwata 71 67 71 73, Singo Katayama 67 69 71 75

-1: Toshinor Muto 71 73 71 68, Hideki Kase 71 70 70 72, Hidemasa Hoshimo 73 65 72 73, Yoshiaki Mano 68 73 69 73, Kiyoshi Murota 73 69 68 73

Also:

+1: David Smail (NZ) 71 71 72 71

+4: Brendan Jones (Australia) 75 71 73 69

+8: Steve Conran (Australia) 73 71 74 74