Japanese marathoners have won individual medals at every World Championships marathon since 1991 except for 1995. The members of this year's national team are extremely motivated to continue this legacy after the debacle at last summer's Beijing Olympics marathons, and there are realistic prospects. To show its support JRN is holding a World Championships marathon prediction contest with the grand prize of a 2009 World Championships Japanese national team singlet. To enter, send an email with the subject line 'Marathon prediction contest' to the address in Brett Larner's user profile. Copy and paste the list of Japanese athletes below into the body of the message and fill in your prediction for each runner's overall finishing place and time including seconds. List 'DNS' for any runner you think will not start, including the alternates. List 'DNF' for any athlete you think will start but not finish. You must fill out both the men's and women's listings to be elligible for the grand prize. Entries must be received by 4:00 p.m. on Sat., Aug. 22nd Japan time to be considered. Late, incomplete or multiple entries will not be accepted.
The entry with the most accurate predictions for both the men's and women's marathons will win the grand prize. Runners-up, i.e. the entrants who give the most accurate predictions in either race, will also receive quality schwag. Winners will be notified via email.
Men's Marathon
Arata Fujiwara - place: / time:
Satoshi Irifune - place: / time:
Kazuhiro Maeda - place: / time:
Atsushi Sato - place: / time:
Masaya Shimizu - place: / time:
(alternate: Kensuke Takahashi - place: /
time: )
Women's Marathon
Yukiko Akaba - place: / time:
Yoshiko Fujinaga - place: / time:
Yuri Kano - place: / time:
Yoshimi Ozaki - place: / time:
Below is a quick guide to the Japanese marathon teams at this year's World Championships. The first column shows each athlete's fastest marathon time within the World Championships qualification window of Sept. 3, 2007 to Aug. 3, 2009. The second column shows his or her slowest time in a serious race effort during the same period. The third column shows the runner's lifetime best. Click here for a more detailed preview of the men's team, or here for a profile of the women's team. You can also search this blog for more info on a particular athlete. Click here for complete entry lists for the World Championships marathons. Good luck.
Comments
Akaba 7th place 2:25:25
yoshiko fujingaga 18th 2:28:09
Yuri Kano 11th place 2:26:34
yoshimi Ozaki 10th place 2:26:00
Yoko shibui 16th 2:27:16 I also think shibui will run wth the lead pack for 30km but is going to fade badly to 16th place.
Please email me your predictions if you want to enter the contest. Remember to include predictions for the men's race.
Btw how is the combined accuracy of place and time measured and how is a DNS or DNF accounted for ´mathematically´?
Joe
Essentially, for each runner you will be assigned 10 pts. per place different from the actual finishing place and 1 pt. for each second difference in predicted and actual finishing time. Incorrect DNS or DNF predictions will incur substantial penalties. A perfect prediction will score zero points, and thus the lowest score wins. One person can only win one of the three prizes (overall, men's, women's). In case of a tie the winner will be chosen through a vote by the JRN editorial board.