Nittai Univ. First-Year Hattori Wins Moriya Half in Debut

by Brett Larner

Nittai University's star first-year Shota Hattori, 2nd on the Third Stage of last month's Hakone Ekiden behind Kenyan Cosmas Ondiba (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.), won the 27th Moriya Half Marathon on Feb. 6 in his debut over the half marathon distance. In a last kick sprint finish Hattori prevailed over Chuo Gakuin University captain Koji Kobayashi and Hattori's teammate Takumi Honda by one second to win in 1:03:54. With mostly university runners in the front end of the field, the top corporate runner was 2:08:56 marathoner Kazutoshi Takatsuka (Team Komori Corp.), 6th in 1:05:09. Nittai runners Hidemi Sakurai and Yasuha Kurita went 1-2 in the women's race.

2011 Moriya Half Marathon
click here for complete results
Men
1. Shota Hattori (Nittai Univ.) - 1:03:54 - debut
2. Koji Kobayashi (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:55
3. Takumi Honda (Nittai Univ.) - 1:03:56
4. Tomohiro Hayakawa (Nittai Univ.) - 1:04:02 - PB
5. Ataru Otani (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:02 - PB
6. Kazutoshi Takatsuka (Team Komori Corp.) - 1:05:09
7. Yukihito Tsukamoto (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:25
8. Tomoya Suzuki (Nittai Univ.) - 1:05:46
9. Yuya Takayanagi (Nittai Univ.) - 1:05:51
10. Shigetoshi Ota (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:53

Women
1. Hidemi Sakurai (Nittai Univ.) - 1:15:48
2. Yasuha Kurita (Nittai Univ.) - 1:16:48
3. Honami Shinozuka (Nagareyama Minami H.S.) - 1:19:22

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
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