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Atsushi Sato Headlines Himejijo 10 Miler

by Brett Larner

Half marathon Asian record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) headlines the field at the 49th Himejijo 10 Mile Road Race on the national holiday of Feb. 11, just 10 days after finishing 3rd overall and as the top domestic runner at the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon. As he prepares for the London Marathon Sato will face a wide range of challengers including the runner who finished just behind him in Marugame, Team Nissin Shokuhin's Satoru Kitamura, and 2:07:52 marathoner Tomoaki Kunichika (Team S&B), but his biggest competition is likely to be the only other sub-28 minute 10000 m runner in the race, Terukazu Omori (Team Shikoku Denryoku). The field also includes American Steven Crane, the lone foreigner among the elite runners.

2009 Himejijo 10 Mile Road Race Elite Field
times listed are PB marks for 10000 m and half marathon

Terukazu Omori (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 27:43.94 / 1:02:14
Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 27:56.86 / 1:00:25
Satoru Kitamura (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 28:00.22 / 1:02:26
Kenji Noguchi (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 28:03.83 / 1:02:20
Tomoaki Kunichika (Team S&B) - 28:05.38 / 1:02:14
Akira Kiniwa (Team S&B) - 28:08.16 / 1:03:00
Kazuyoshi Tokumoto (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 28:13.23 / 1:03:36
Takeshi Takahashi (Team Osaka Gas) - 28:16.98 / 1:02:46
Atsushi Ikawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 28:20.36 / 1:03:03
Keisuke Nakatani (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 28:30.54 / 1:02:30
Shuichi Fujii (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 28:33.36 / 1:02:09
Yoshinori Suzuki (Team Fujitsu) - 28:40.25 / -
Shinya Katsuma (Team Sagawa Express) - 28:56.18 / 1:03:24
Hironori Takaoka (Team JAL Ground Service) - 29:03.76 / 1:04:50
Koji Kannan (Team JAL Ground Service) - 29:06.35 / 1:02:22
Yusuke Mita (Waseda Univ.) - 29:15.18 / 1:04:25
Hirotaka Nagai (Nittai Univ.) - 29:22.52 / 1:04:28
Go Nakagawa (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 29:35.27 / 1:03:30
Steven Crane (U.S.A.) - 29:52 / 1:05:02

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
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