Skip to main content

Sasaki and Suzuki Win Hakodate Half Marathon

by Brett Larner

Sumiko Suzuki (Team Hokuren) and Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei), teammates of Daegu World Championships marathon top finishers Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) and Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei), took their first victories at the mid-season Hakodate Half Marathon in cool conditions on Sept. 25.  Suzuki ran with little challenge, while Sasaki prevailed by only one second in a sprint finish against Norihiro Nomiya (Team Toyota).  A short distance back from the lead pair of men were former marathon national record holder Atsushi Fujita (Team Fujitsu) and, in his final tuneup for next month's Chicago Marathon, 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta).

2011 Hakodate Half Marathon
Hakodate, Hokkaido, 9/25/11

Women
1. Sumiko Suzuki (Team Hokuren) - 1:13:48
2. Yui Ouchi (Team Noritz) - 1:16:16
3. Miya Nishio (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 1:16:18
4. Ayumi Nakayama (Team Yamada Denki) - 1:17:30
5. Tomoko Tamamushi (Harriers AC) - 1:21:29

Men
1. Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:03:18
2. Norihiro Nomiya (Team Toyota) - 1:03:19
3. Atsushi Fujita (Team Fujitsu) - 1:03:29
4. Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:03:40
5. Taichi Takase (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:18

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more