Skip to main content

Noguchi and Fukushi on Entry List for Sendai National Corporate Women's Ekiden Champs

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/111201/spg1112011953000-n1.htm

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Dec. 18 the six-stage, 42.195 km  National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden Championships will be held for the first time in Sendai, Miyagi.  On Dec. 1 organizers released the entry list lineups for the 33 teams in the field.  Included in the list are Japan's top two prospects for the 2012 London Olympics marathon, 2004 Athens Olympics gold medalist and national record holder Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) and half-marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal).  Defending champion Team Tenmaya will field past Olympic marathoners Naoko Sakamoto and Yurika Nakamura, with last year's runner up Team Daiichi Seimei including 2009 World Championships marathon silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki on its roster.  Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo has veterans Yoko Shibui and, still shooting for a comeback following a maternity leave Reiko Tosa.

This year the National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden Championships expanded the number of places available in the field as a memorial to the victims of March's earthquake and tsunami disasters in the Sendai region.

Translator's note: Click here for the complete entry list.  All five members of Japan's Daegu World Championships marathon squad are included on their teams' rosters.

Comments

Kevin said…
I think it's safe to say Aki Fujikawa, Madoka Ogi, Noriko Matsuoka, Miki Ohira, Masako Chiba, Mizuho Nasukawa, Yasuko Hashimoto, and Yuri Kano retired. Noriko Matsuoka didn't race after London 2011 and Yuri Kano hasn't run a marathon since 2010. There's no way Yuri Kano will make the olympic team after running 1:14:59 nyc half marathon. Why does Yuri Kano think she'll make the London team when she didn't make the olympics in 2008?
Kevin said…
Can you tell us if Yuri Kano retired or is she racing Osaka and Nagoya Marathon? Like she'll make the team after running 2:36:40 marathon and she doesn't want to correct that in 2011. Why Yuri Kano runs 0 marathons in 2011?
Brett Larner said…
You are mistaken about at least two of the people on the list in your first comment. With regard to your second comment, yes, I can tell you that Kano is neither retired nor running Osaka and Nagoya. I expect we will see her in only one of those races. Kano was scheduled to run Nagoya this spring until it was cancelled in the wake of the disasters and opted not to try to maintain her training until London like some others did. She then changed coaches, hence her absence from the marathon circuit this fall.

Most-Read This Week

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...