Skip to main content

Fukushi, Sato, Matsumiya and More to Run Chicago Marathon

by Brett Larner

The Chicago Marathon has updated its elite field listing for this year's running due on Oct. 9.  Notable amond the adds are Japanese half marathon national record holders Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) and Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and former 30 km world record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta), along with five other Japanese men.  For Fukushi it will be her first attempt at a marathon since her bizzarely suicidal debut at the 2008 Osaka International Women's Marathon.  In the official press release announcing her participation Fukushi was quoted as saying, "At this year's Bank of America Chicago Marathon, I want to challenge the 2:20 mark, and also test my own abilities in the marathon and what the distance involves. Racing in Chicago is the start of my preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games Marathon in London."

Sato will be attempting another comeback after a year and a half away from the distance.  Matsumiya, the top Japanese man at last year's Fukuoka International Marathon, has yet to translate his success at shorter distance to the marathon but will no doubt be aiming to join the list of Japanese men to break 2:10 this year.  Five other Japanese men who ran well in domestic marathons during the last winter/spring season are also slated to run.  Below is a listing of Japanese runners currently entered.  Click here for the official field listing.

2011 Chicago Marathon Field - Japanese Men
Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:07:13 (3rd, Fukuoka 2007)
Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) - 2:10:04 (2nd, Rotterdam 2007)
Takashi Horiguchi (Team Honda) - 2:12:05 (10th, Tokyo 2011)
Koji Gokaya (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:12:07 (10th, Biwako 2011)
Masaki Shimoju (Team Konica Minolta) - 2:12:18 (1st, Nobeoka 2010)
Hironori Arai (Team Chudenko) - 2:12:27 (11th, Biwako 2011)
Yuki Moriwaki (Team JFE Steel) - 2:12:34 (6th, Beppu-Oita 2011)

Japanese Women
Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) - 2:40:54 (19th, Osaka 2008)

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
I love Fukushi, she's the world's most cheerful runner. I hope she does well.

Most-Read This Week

High School Runner Hit by Car During Ekiden in Oita

On Oct. 27 in Kunisaki, Oita at a regional qualifying race for the prefectural high school ekiden, a male 2nd-year high school runner was struck by a car and injured. Although the athlete did not suffer career-ending injuries, the incident has raised questions about how it could have happened. A spokesperson from the prefectural high school athletics association said that there had been "a lack of adequate consideration" in the event's planning and that the association intends to consider its options for preventing the same thing from happening again. According to officials, the accident occurred along a narrow section of road which was closed in both directions for 320 m near the first exchange zone. A car driven by a local 86-year-old woman entered the course within the closed-off section from a parking lot reserved for race officials. When the runner tripped and fell after handing off the tasuki at the first exchange zone, his left leg was run over by the car which was

Koku Gakuin Wins National University Ekiden for First Time in Anchor Stage Turnaround

Last month's Izumo Ekiden season opener was unusually action-packed with turnovers in the lead on every stage and a dramatic showdown between anchors Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ,), Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin Univ.). All three schools were expected to be up front again at today's National University Men's Ekiden , and race-morning lineup changes unexpectedly put Shinohara, Ota and Hirabayashi against each other again on the 2nd-to-last stage of the day. Komazawa was immediately in trouble when its first two runners Kosuke Shimako and Shunsuke Kuwata tanked, falling to 16th. AGU was out front after two of the eight legs, with Hibiki Yoshida from Izumo 4th-placer Soka University giving him a run for it and both just missing the 2nd leg CR. AGU led the rest of the way, with a 33:03 CR for the 11.8 km 4th leg by Asahi Kuroda giving it a lead of almost 1:30 that it took another CR from KGU's Ayumu Yamamoto to cut back down

It's Koku Gakuin's Year - National University Ekiden Preview and Streaming

Komazawa University is trying to line up its fifth-straight National University Men's Ekiden win this Sunday, but after a runner-up finish to Koku Gakuin University last month at the Izumo Ekiden it's got a tough road ahead with two extra stages and a longer average stage length to deal with. TV Asahi has the live broadcast starting at 7:45 a.m. local time, with official streaming on TVer and unofficial streaming on mov3.co . Izumo was an unusually close and exciting race between Komazawa, KGU and Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University that saw the lead change every stage. All three teams were within a few seconds of each other at the start of the anchor stage, where Osaka Marathon winner Kiyoto Hirabayashi of KGU dropped Hakone First Stage winner Kotaro Shinohara from Komazawa and Third Stage winner Aoi Ota of AGU to take the win. KGU looks like the favorite here too, its top-8 10000 m average of 28:16.61 the class of the field and giving it a solid advantage ov