World Half Team Members Ito and Kawauchi Win Shibetsu Half Marathon Titles

by Brett Larner

Just three weeks after winning the Sapporo International Half Marathon, 2012 World Half Marathon Championships team member Mai Ito (Team Otsuka) returned to add another half marathon title to her collection, winning the 26th running of Hokkaido's Shibetsu Half Marathon in 1:11:20 over the Miyauchi twins Yoko and Hiroko of Team Kyocera. Although her time was 28 seconds slower than her Sapporo time it was still the third-best in Shibetsu history. Independent men's World Half Marathon team member Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) likewise took the win, prevailing over a tight pack of corporate and collegiate runners in 1:05:00 in another of the fourteen half marathons he plans to race this year.

In the women's 10 km, Ai Igarashi (Team Sysmex), one of the year's leading Japanese women, had an an easy win in 33:38. Click here for a collection of photos of the race via the Shibetsu city government site.

26th Shibetsu Half Marathon
Shibetsu, Hokkaido, 7/22/12
complete results coming soon

Women
1. Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:11:20
2. Yoko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) - 1:11:43
3. Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) - 1:12:00
4. Yuki Mitsunobu (Team Kyocera) - 1:13:18
5. Chihiro Takato (Team Wacoal) - 1:13:19

Men
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 1:05:00
2. Tomonori Ikebuchi (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:05:04
3. Kohei Ogino (Team Fujitsu) - 1:05:06
4. Kenta Chiba (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:05:11
5. Yasunori Onuma (Asia Univ.) - 1:05:14

Women's 10 km
1. Ai Igarashi (Team Sysmex) - 33:38
2. Ayumi Sakaida (Team Daihatsu) - 33:44
3. Yui Okada (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 34:00

(c) 2012 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

Queens Ekiden Streaming and Preview

Sunday is the first big race of championship ekiden season, the Queens Ekiden in Sendai, the season-ending national championship for corporate women. 24 teams race 42.195 km in 6 legs, with the top 8 scoring places for 2025. TBS' live nationwide broadcast starts at 11:50, with multi-camera streaming on Youtube above. Last year Sekisui Kagaku won by almost a minute and a half, and with Paris Olympian Yuma Yamamoto , 2023 World Championships marathoner Sayaka Sato on its entry list and collegiate 1500 m record holder Mizuki Michishita having come on board this season it looks like a contender for another win. But last year's runner-up Japan Post got a big boost this season with the addition of its first non-Japanese member, two-time double 1500 m and 3000 m high school champion Caroline Kariba . The Queens Ekiden limits non-Japanese athletes to a 3.8 km leg, so it'd be tough for Kariba to bridge a 1:25 gap by herself with that little ground to work with. But what she can

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

japan running news

Search This Blog