Skip to main content

Sato, Mogusu, Yamauchi and Others to Headline Marugame Half Marathon (updated)

http://www.shikoku-np.co.jp/sports/local/article.aspx?id=20090116000122
http://mainichi.jp/area/kagawa/news/20090116ddlk37050500000c.html
http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2009011500664

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Jan. 15 the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon announced the field for its 63rd running on Feb. 1. 49 elite athletes including 31 men, 18 women and 7 invited foreign runners from 6 countries will compete in the first edition of the race's new international format. Beijing Olympics men's marathon national team members Tsuyoshi Ogata and Asian half marathon record holder Atsushi Sato of Team Chugoku Denryoku are scheduled to appear, while Beijing Olympics women's marathon entrant Reiko Tosa (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) will run Marugame as a preparation race for her final marathon before retirement, March's Tokyo Marathon.

Men's course record holder and Hakone Ekiden star Mekubo Mogusu (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) will return to Marugame, challenged by his Hakone rival Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.). The foreign field also includes two-time Marugame winner Laban Kagika (Team JFE Steel), Beijing Olympics women's marathon 6th place finisher and 2008 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Mara Yamauchi (U.K.) and two-time Olympic men's marathon 4th place finisher Jon Brown (Canada/U.K.).

Other top domestic talent includes 2008 Tokyo International Women's Marathon 2nd place finisher and 2008 Sapporo International Half Marathon winner Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) and Ryuji Matsushita (Team Fujitsu), who won a thrilling sprint finish to deliver Team Fujitsu the win on the anchor stage of this year's New Year Ekiden. Matsushita's teammate Takayuki Ota will also run, as will 2009 Hakone Ekiden 8th stage winner Yusuke Takabayashi (Komazawa Univ.), 2008 Kumanichi 30 km Road Race winner Miho Notagashira (Team Wacoal), 2007 World Half Marathon national team member Kenji Noguchi (Team Shikoku Denryoku), Noguchi's female teammate Rieko Sakane (Team Shikoku Denryoku) and half marathon debutante Yuka Kakimi (Team Daiichi Seimei).

Marathon great Naoko Takahashi will run in the general division after retiring from professional running last year. The day before the race Takahashi and famed race commentator Tetsuhiko Kin will give a free seminar on better training for beginners.

2009 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon
Partial Listing of Elite Field
Men
Mekubo Mogusu (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 59:48 (Marugame 2007 - course record)
Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:00:25 (Udine 2007 - Asian record)
Laban Kagika (Team JFE Steel) - 1:01:36 (Marugame 2005)
Jon Brown (Canada / U.K.) - 1:01:49 (1997)
Tsuyoshi Ogata (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:01:50 (Jitsugyodan 2002)
Ryuji Matsushita (Team Fujitsu) - 1:01:57 (Jitsugyodan 2005)
Kenji Noguchi (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 1:02:20 (Udine 2007)
Takayuki Ota (Team Fujitsu) - 1:02:38 (Marugame 2005)
Yusuke Takabayashi (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:03:43 (2007)
Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) - debut - 27:44.73 (10000 m, Yokohama 2007)

Women
Mara Yamauchi (U.K.) - 1:08:45 (Sapporo 2007)
Naoko Takahashi (general div.) - 1:08:55 (Chiba 2000)
Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) - 1:08:57 (Sapporo 2008)
Reiko Tosa (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:36 (Palermo 1999)
Miho Notagashira (Team Wacoal) - 1:10:25 (Marugame 2005)
Rieko Sakane (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 1:12:42 (Marugame 2007)
Yumiko Kinoshita (Second Wind AC) - 1:12:52 (Matsue 2007)
Yuka Kakimi (Team Daiichi Seimei) - debut - 15:25.95 (5000 m, Oita 2006)

Translator's note: Mekubo Mogusu and Daniel Gitau are also on the entry list for the Feb. 20 Ras Al Khaimah half marathon in the U.A.E.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Chinese Influencer Intrudes on Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage to Shoot Video of Himself Running with AGU's Wakabayashi

A Chinese influencer ignored restrictions and race officials' directions and ran on the Hakone Ekiden course to shoot video during the race's uphill Fifth Stage on Jan. 2. He later apologized. The influencer, Shen Haoze , posts about running and marathons, and on the Chinese social media site Weibo has nearly 5 million followers. A clip of him running on the closed road course of the Hakone Ekiden's Fifth Stage alongside course record setter Hiroki Wakabayashi of defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University and shooting video went viral on social media. Race officials can be heard warning him to get off the course due to the danger to the competing athletes, but Shen ignored them, setting off a firestorm of criticism from users in both Japan and China. Comments included, "These athletes are putting their whole lives into the race. What the hell does he think he's doing?" and "He has no regard for the danger to them." Shen later posted an apology on...

The 2025 Hakone Ekiden by the Numbers

It was another record-breaking year at the Hakone Ekiden . All 13 of the course records, the 10 individual stages, the Day One and Day Two courses and the overall course, have been set since 2019, and out of those 6 fell this time, 2 of them broken by multiple athletes or teams. All of them had performances in at least their all-time top 6, and 9 of them in their all-time top 3. First Stage (21.3 km) - all-time #4 Second Stage (23.1 km) - CR, all-time #2, all-time #3, all-time #9 Third Stage (21.4 km) - all-time #4, all-time #5, all-time #7 Fourth Stage (20.9 km) - all-time #2, all-time #7, all-time #8, all-time #9 Fifth Stage (20.8 km uphill) - CR, all-time #3 Sixth Stage (20.8 km downhill) - CR, all-time #5, all-time #9 Seventh Stage (21.3 km) - CR, all-time #4 (x2), all-time #7 Eighth Stage (21.4 km) - all-time #6, all-time #9, all-time #10 Ninth Stage (23.1 km) - all-time #6, all-time #10 Tenth Stage (23.0 km) - all-time #2, all-time #7 Day One (107.5 km) - all-time #2...

Aoyama Gakuin Breaks Hakone Ekiden CR for Second Year in a Row

2024 Hakone Ekiden course record breaker Aoyama Gakuin University was 3:16 up on 2023 winner Komazawa University at the end of Day One of the Hakone 2025, an even bigger margin than last year when it was 2:38 ahead of Komazawa and went on to win the 217.1 km overall race in a course record 10:41:25, beating Komazawa by almost 7 minutes. There was almost no chance Komazawa could close the gap today on the return trip of Hakone Day Two. But that doesn't mean they didn't try. Komazawa 3rd year Aoi Ito was just off the CR on the ~800 m downhill 6th leg in 57:38, but even with a run that good he lost ground when AGU's Akimu Nomura proved a hypothetical, breaking the 57-minute barrier for the 20.8 km leg with a 30-second CR of 56:47. Post-race Nomura said that he had spent the whole year training to run 56, and he executed perfectly. And put AGU 4:07 ahead, hopeless, except for a ray of hope. Injured for most of 2024 and running his first race since March on only 6 weeks of...