Skip to main content

Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon Elite Field Preview

by Brett Larner

The 2009 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon takes place this Sunday, Feb. 15 on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu. Nobeoka is one of Japan's second-tier elite marathons and typically serves as a development race for young marathoners and first-timers. The top returning runner from 2008 is 4th place finisher Isamu Sueyoshi (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), who recorded his PB of 2:15:12 at last year's race. His main competitor may be Masayuki Sakahashi (Team Kurosaki Harima), but with more debutants than experienced marathoners Nobeoka is far from predictable.

The first-time marathoner most likely to be a factor is 1:02:01 half marathoner Yuki Tanaka (Team Sumco Techxiv), but either Takashi Nabeshima (Team NTT Nishi Nihon) or Sueyoshi's teammate Katsuji Yamaguchi, both of whom have half marathon times under 1:03, could also be up front. The most talented runner in the field, Kazuyuki Maeda (Team Konica Minolta), holds a half marathon PB of 1:01:49 and a 30 km PB of 1:29:57 but has thus far struggled in the marathon. If he performs up to potential the course record of 2:11:05 could be at risk.

Running as pacemaker is 2007 World Championships marathon team member Tomoyuki Sato (Team Asahi Kasei). Sato will be running the Tokyo Marathon in March to qualify for this summer's World Championships in Berlin.

2009 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon Elite Field
Masayuki Sakahashi (Team Kurosaki Harima) - 2:15:04
Isamu Sueyoshi (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:15:12
Takahiko Saeki (Team Sumco Techxiv) - 2:16:36
Takanori Ide (Team Kyudenko) - 2:16:40
Shunsuke Kamiya (Team Chudenko) - 2:17:39
Munehiro Sugaya (Team Toyota) - 2:18:24
Nao Kazami (Team Aisan Kogyo) - 2:18:58
Katsutoshi Tanisue (SDF Academy) - 2:20:14
Fumiyuki Watanabe (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:20:22
Ken Konishi (Team Sagawa Express) - 2:22:31
Kazuyuki Maeda (Team Konica Minolta) - 2:43:43

Debut Marathoners With Half Marathon PB
Yuki Tanaka (Team Sumco Techxiv) - 1:02:01
Takashi Nabeshima (Team NTT Nishi Nihon) - 1:02:49
Katsuji Yamaguchi (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:02:58
Takuro Yamashita (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:03:14
Masato Ninomiya (Team Chudenko) - 1:03:20
Tatsunori Sento (Team Sagawa Express) - 1:03:23
Yuki Moriwaki (Team JFE Steel) - 1:03:39
Shingo Tsumemaru (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:03:39
Keisuke Wakui (Team Yakult) - 1:03:52
Kaoru Shinohara (Team Nishitetsu) - 1:03:53
Koji Sato (Team NTT Nishi Nihon) - 1:04:13
Yoshiharu Tateishi (Team Osaka Gas) - 1:04:19
Tetsuya Tomohiro (Team Kyudenko) - 1:04:26
Kodai Tanabe (Team Mazda) - 1:04:35
Yutaro Shimoyae (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 1:05:50
Hiro Ashida (Team Nishitetsu) - 50:06 (10 miles)

Keisuke Ikeda (Team Sumco Techxiv) - no info available
Kazuma Nagatomi (Team Sumco Techxiv) - no info available
Kenji Takeuchi (Team Toyota Kyushu) - no info available

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more