Skip to main content

'Takaoka and Tola Lead 2008 Paris Marathon Fields'

http://www.letsrun.com/2008/paris0403.php

Marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka will run Paris this weekend. Takaoka was injured for most of 2006 and spent 2007 in recovery, capping the year with a disappointing run at December's Fukuoka International Marathon. He said later that failing to qualify for the Beijing Olympics has freed him from any pressure and that he feels he can now try some different approaches to the marathon. He was scheduled to run the Ome 30k in February but was thwarted when the race was cancelled due to heavy snow. Takaoka instead ran the Himejijo 10 Miler, winning against many top younger runners. He was scheduled to run the Jitsugyodan Half Marathon in March but had a DNS without comment. Paris will be his first overseas marathon since the 2005 Helsinki World Championships marathon, where he finished 4th.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Tokyo Marathon Preview (updated)

It’s Tokyo Marathon weekend, and the main question right now is about the weather. Monday’s Osaka Marathon had freezing cold temperatures and snow over the last quarter of the race, which still had record-breaking performances. Right now Tokyo looks to be in the mid-teens most of the race and could hit 20˚ by the end. Cloud cover will be critical, and what’s in the forecast right now looks like it will burn off by the last hour of the race. It could get a bit rough out there. Nippon TV, the world’s premiere road race broadcaster, is doing the live TV broadcast from 9:00 to 11:50 a.m. local time, with an international TV feed hosted by JRN’s Brett Larner to be shown in 159 countries worldwide. The leaderboard with live splits and results will be here , with Japanese-language tracking here . Both the women’s and men’s races have great fields lined up. On the women’s side is last year’s winner and CR-breaker Sutume Asefa Kebede , facing 2024 Dubai and Berlin winner Tigist Ketema , 2023...

Adane Leads Top 4 Under CR, Kondo 2:05:39 Debut, Mekasha Defends at Osaka Marathon

photos © 2025 Victor Sailer/PhotoRun, all rights reserved It was a bit too cold and windy for really fast times and snow started falling over the last quarter of the race, but that didn't stop the top 4 men at the Osaka Marathon from going under the course record. A 1:02:29 first half kept at least 16 men together with the 2:04:56 Japanese national record in sight, among them NR holder Kengo Suzuki in what he hoped would be a comeback run. By 30 km in 1:28:56 the lead group was down to a dozen, still close to NR pace. At the turnaround point just past 30 km the motorcycle cops leading them too far past the turnaround cone, adding about 15 seconds that ended up burning 2 men worst. And just after that, the big uphill just after that really broke things up. Ethiopian trio Yihunilign Adane , Abdisa Tola and Getaneh Molla broke away after the hill, but with 2:05 in sight debuting sub-61 half marathoner Ryota Kondo and 2:06 man Kyohei Hosoya closed hard. 8 seconds back at 40 km, K...

Tokyo Marathon Elite Field (updated)

The Tokyo Marathon elite field is out, and it's a pretty good one. On the women's side are the last 3 winners, Sutume Asefa Kebede , Rosemary Wanjiru and Brigid Kosgei , 2022 world champion Gotytom Gebreslase , last year's Dubai winner Tigist Ketema and another 6 women in the 2:17-2:19 range. Top Japanese draw Ai Hosoda hopes to get into the sub-2:20 club after a 2:20:31 PB in Berlin last fall. The men's field has 2024 CR breaker Benson Kipruto and 3rd-placer Vincent Ngetich , 2:02:38 man Derese Geleta , Joshua Cheptegei taking another stab at the distance, and another 8 at the 2:03-2:04 level. 2:05-class Japanese men Yohei Ikeda , Ichitaka Yamashita and Kenya Sonota and Paris Olympics 6th-placer Akira Akasaki will be gunning for the 2:04:56 NR, and there are interesting debuts from 10-mile world best holder Benard Koech and Hakone Ekiden star Aoi Ota from 2024-2025 champ Aoyama Gakuin University . The wheelchair race includes WR holder Catherine Debrunner , ...