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.
Labels:

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?
December 2, 2011 at 8:00 PM
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?
December 3, 2011 at 7:31 PM
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.
December 3, 2011 at 8:06 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more

Kuroda Conquers the Mountain to Give Aoyama Gakuin the Hakone Ekiden Day One CR Again

After a wild New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships yesterday that saw new CR on 6 of the race's 7 stages and a 7-second miss on the one that wasn't broken, Day One of the 102nd Hakone Ekiden more than lived up to what the pros had done 24 hours earlier. Only one runner, Chuo University 's Yamato Yoshii in 2022, had ever broken 61 minutes for the 21.3 km First Stage , but when Chuo's Daichi Shibata took it out on CR pace the entire field went with him. It took a while for Ageo City Half winner Rui Aoki of Izumo Ekiden champ Koku Gakuin University to move up to the front, but when he did it was decisive. Aoki crushed the CR in 1:00:28, 59:54 half marathon pace, and behind him the next both Shibata and the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team's So Kawasaki from Tsukuba University also went under Yoshii's old 1:00:40 record. 4th through 8th broke 61, setting the tone for the rest of the day. Chuo, KGU, last year's top 2 Aoyama...
4 comments
Read more

GMO Wins First National Title at Era-Changing 2026 New Year Ekiden

Things have really been coming up fast the last year or so in Japanese distance running, but even so this year's New Year Ekiden really felt like the era has changed. GMO took the lead on the second of the race's 7 legs and went on to take over 2 minutes off the overall course record for the 100.0 km course, winning its first national title in 4:44:00. En route 6 of the 7 legs had new CR, a lot of them with multiple people breaking them, and the only leg that didn't, the 12.3 km First Stage, saw Shunpei Tomita of Logisteed run 34:23, only 7 seconds off the CR held by sub-27 Kenyan Martin Mathathi . The level at the collegiate Hakone Ekiden keeps going up up up , and that showed here as 3 of the new stage CR were set by guys in their first season in the corporate leagues who were some of the biggest stars at Hakone last year. Aoyama Gakuin University grad Aoi Ota sneaked in 1 second ahead of Toyota 's Jin Yuasa to set a 46:00 CR on the 15.9 km Fifth Stage. Collegi...
1 comment
Read more