Skip to main content

Watch the Sapporo International Half Marathon Online

by Brett Larner

The 2009 Sapporo International Half Marathon takes place this Sunday, July 5th. Most of the Japanese runners on this year's World Championships marathon squads will be using it as a tuneup for August's main event.

In the men's race three-time champion and course record holder Mekubo Mogusu will take on Japanese national record holder and '09 World Championships marathoner Atsushi Sato, along with Sato's World Champs marathon teammates Arata Fujiwara and Kensuke Takahashi, young star Yu Mitsuya, and Mogusu's perennial rival Daniel Gitau. Gitau has yet to approach Mogusu in ability but after spending the spring focusing on 800 m and 1500 m track races he has honed his speed and may be the champion's toughest challenger.

Defending women's champion and '09 World Championships marathon team member Yuri Kano will face her own World Championships marathon teammates Yoko Shibui, Yoshiko Fujinaga and Tomo Morimoto as well as Kenyan marathon squad member Julia Mombi. Most eyes will be on Shibui, who is running her first race in over four months after a long period of injury. Also in the field are '09 World Championships track runners Yukari Sahaku and Yurika Nakamura. Last weekend Sahaku finished 2nd in the National Championships 10000 m and Nakamura 2nd in the 5000 m.

The Sapporo International Half Marathon will be broadcast on Nihon TV on Sun., July 5 from 1:30 - 2:55 p.m. Japan time. Overseas viewers should be able to watch online for free. Click here for more details on watching online.

2009 Sapporo International Half Marathon Elite Field - click for official listing
Men
#18 - Mekubo Mogusu (Team Aidem) - 59:48
#12 - Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:00:25
#31 - Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) - 1:01:34
#11 - Tsuyoshi Ogata (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:01:50
#15 - Shigeru Aburaya (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:01:54
#17 - Kensuke Takahashi (Team Toyota) - 1:01:54
#13 - Arata Fujiwara (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:17
#16 - Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 1:02:26
#32 - Yusuke Takabayashi (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:36
#14 - Yuzo Onishi (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 1:03:12
#33 - Go Nakagawa (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:30

Women
#89 - Julia Mombi (Team Aruze) - 1:08:31
#83 - Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) - 1:08:57
#84 - Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) - 1:09:19
#82 - Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:31
#91 - Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) - 1:09:33
#85 - Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) - 1:10:00
#87 - Miki Ohira (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:10:13
#81 - Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC) - 1:10:16
#88 - Ikuyo Yamashita (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:10:53
#86 - Tomo Morimoto (Team Tenmaya) - 1:12:05
#90 - Yukari Sahaku (Team Aruze) - 1:12:17
#95 - Natsuko Goto (Nihon Univ.) - debut

(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