Skip to main content

Mathathi Wins Second-Straight Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, Kalmer Sets Women's Course Record

http://jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2012052000089

translated and edited by Brett Larner

In the race's second running, held May 20, 2007 Osaka World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) won his second-straight Naoko Takahashi Cup Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon in a time of 1:01:29.  London Olympics marathon team member Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) was the top Japanese finisher, 6th overall in 1:03:05, while civil servant runner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) was 12th in 1:04:13.

Both Fujiwara and Kawauchi ran last weekend's Sendai International Half Marathon as well, with Fujiwara marking a faster time in Gifu.  "Running consistently two weeks in a row makes me feel like I've got the risks involved with what I want to do [at the Olympics] under control," said Fujiwara of his performance, which confirmed that he is able to produce desired results even under unfavorable conditions.  To simulate the heat he is likely to face at the Olympics, Fujiwara did not take any drinks during the race.  "Everything tells me that there's no problem with the direction my training is going," he said, stressing that he is making good progress in calibrating his training to be ready for the main event.

Translator's note: South African Rene Kalmer won the women's race in a CR 1:13:02 by two seconds over the great Catherine Ndereba of Kenya.

2012 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon
Gifu, 5/20/12
click here for complete results

Men
1. Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:01:29
2. Samuel Ndungu (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:01:57
3. Patrick Mwaka (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) - 1:02:14
4. Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:02:54
5. Micah Njeru (Kenya/Team Toyota Boshoku) - 1:02:55
6. Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) - 1:03:05
7. James Mwangi (Kenya/Team NTN) - 1:03:12
8. Dishon Maina Karukuwa (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) - 1:03:15
9. Shingo Mishima (Team Toyota) - 1:03:47
10. Mahoro Ikeda (Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:03:56

Women
1. Rene Kalmer (South Africa) - 1:13:02 - CR
2. Catherine Ndereba (Kenya) - 1:13:04 (CR)
3. Eri Okubo (Second Wind AC) - 1:13:26 (CR)
4. Kaori Sakurai (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:14:10
5. Lidia Simon (Romania) - 1:14:26
6. Kaori Akagawa (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:14:55
7. Eriko Noguchi (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:16:18
8. Shoko Shimizu (Team Aichi Denki) - 1:17:06
9. Haruna Yamamoto (Team Aichi Denki) - 1:18:18
10. Yuko Mizuguchi (Team Denso) - 1:19:56

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges.  Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...

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."...

Tokyo Olympics Marathon Trials Winner Nakamura Enters Waseda Grad School

An Olympian in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) announced on his social media that he has entered Waseda University 's Graduate School of Sport Science with the start of the new academic year this week. A graduate of Mie's Ueno Kogyo H.S. , Nakamura went to Komazawa University before joining Fujitsu in 2015. His senior year of high school he was 3rd overall and 2nd Japanese in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in the fall the same year he ran what was at the time the 7th-fastest high school mark ever, 13:50.38. At Komazawa he scored four individual stage wins across the three big university ekidens. In 2019 he won the MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the Tokyo Olympics, where he was 62nd in 2:22:23. Nakamura indicated that he would be studying "top sports management" under professor Takeo Hirata . "I'll be balancing competition and academics," Nakamura wrote. "I'm r...