Skip to main content

World Champs 7th Placer Horibata, Nihon Univ. Star Sophomore Tamura Declare for Lake Biwa Olympic Marathon Qualifier

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20111124k0000m050053000c.html
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/event/sports/news/20111123-OHT1T00269.htm

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Following a stage win to lead Team Asahi Kasei to a course record win at the Nov. 23 Kyushu Corporate Ekiden Championships, Daegu World Championships marathoner Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) announced that he has committed to run March's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the final domestic selection race for the Japanese men's marathon team for next year's London Olympic Games.  Horibata was the top Japanese finisher in Daegu, a strong 7th place overall, but, he said, "Right now my chances [of making the Olympic team off that performance] are pretty slim.  I've got to be active in getting my spot."

Also on Nov. 23, Nihon University ace sophomore Hirotaka Tamura, 19, revealed that he will be shooting for a place on the Olympic marathon team at Lake Biwa.  Tamura, winner of this year's Kanto Regional University T&F Championships half-marathon, made the announcement after winning the 10000 m selection race for the Hakone Ekiden Kanto Regional University Select Team on the 23rd at Tokyo's National Stadium, clocking 28:51.33.  At last month's Hakone Ekiden Qualifier Nihon University failed to make the Hakone cut for only the fourth time in 86 runnings, leaving Tamura to shoot for an individual spot on the Select Team.

This month Nihon returned to place well at the National University Ekiden Championships, with Tamura winning the competitive First Stage.  He told reporters that he hopes to run and win the First Stage at Hakone as well, then announced that to help alleviate the shame of Nihon's Hakone failure he will be trying for a place on the London Olympic team by making his marathon debut at March's Lake Biwa Mainichi  Marathon.  "Coach Tsugumichi Suzuki said we university runners should be aiming for the Olympics too," said Tamura.  "I want to answer that challenge."

Translator's note: Suzuki ran the 10000 m at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics at age 22 just after graduating from Nihon Univ.  He coached 1992 Barcelona Olympic marathoner Yumi Kokamo and 1993 Stuttgart World Championships marathon gold medalist Junko Asari.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer.  These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly.  I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes.  As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway.  That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...
18 comments
Read more