Skip to main content

Kawauchi, Kipsang Headline First Osaka Marathon Elite Field

by Brett Larner

The organizers of next month's first edition of the new Osaka Marathon have officially made their entry into the already crowded fall marathon season with the release of the elite field for the Oct. 30 race.

Topping the men's field with a 2:07:29 best is 2009 Tokyo Marathon champion Salim Kipsang (Kenya).  His best competition, a surprise entry coming just less than two months after the Daegu World Championships, is 2:08:37 runner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) who beat Kipsang at the 2010 Tokyo Marathon.  Other overseas runners include Elijah Sang (Kenya) and Woody Harrelson lookalike Alexsey Sokolov (Russia), who also ran in the World Championships.  The small domestic field includes Japan's two other top amateur runners after Kawauchi, 2009 Copenhagen Marathon winner Toyokazu Yoshimura and infamous wig runner Nobuaki Takata.

The women's field consists primarily of veterans, led by Olympic medalist Lidia Simon (Romania), Hokkaido Marathon course record holder Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC) and two-time Osaka International Women's Marathon runner-up Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz).  The top contender among the younger runners is 2008 Hokkaido Marathon winner Yukari Sahaku (Team Univ. Ent.).

Non-competitive invited guest runners at the Osaka Marathon include former 10000 m and marathon national record holder Takeyuki Nakayama, 100 km world record and marathon junior national record holder Takahiro Sunada, 1993 Paris Marathon winner Mitsuyo Wada, 1991 Tokyo International Women's Marathon winner Mari Tanigawa, 1985 World University Games winner Mami Fukao and round-the-world celebrity runner Kanpei Hazama.

2011 Osaka Marathon Elite Field
to be held Osaka, Oct. 30, 2011
click here for complete field listing

Men
Salim Kipsang (Kenya) - 2:07:29 (Berlin, 2007)
Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 2:08:37 (Tokyo, 2011)
Kenjiro Jitsui (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 2:08:50 (Tokyo Int'l, 1996)
Elijah Sang (Kenya) - 2:10:13 (Frankfurt, 2007)
Alexsey A. Sokolov (Russia) - 2:11:53 (Zurich, 2011)
Toyokazu Yoshimura (Osaka T&F Assoc.) - 2:15:05 (Hofu, 2009)
Kenji Onaka (Team NTT Nishi Nihon) - 2:15:23 (Kochi, 2011)
Nobuaki Takata (Hirakata Masters AC) - 2:19:00 (Fukuoka Int'l, 2009)

Women
Lidia Simon (Romania) - 2:22:54 (Osaka Int'l, 2000)
Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) - 2:23:30 (Osaka Int'l, 2003)
Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC) - 2:25:10 (Hokkaido, 2009)
Yukari Sahaku (Team Univ. Ent.) - 2:28:55 (Tokyo, 2009)
Yuri Yoshizumi (Osaka Nagai AC) - 2:42:15 (Fukuchiyama, 2009)
Yuki Ino (Team Noritz) - 2:42:33 (Senshu Int'l, 2011)
Misato Tomoeda (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - debut - 1:15:48 (Jitsugyodan Half)

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

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