Skip to main content

Batochir and Simon Win Osaka, Takahashi and Ouchi Take Kobe

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/other/athletic/marathon/osaka/2012/headlines/20121125-00000004-spnavi-spo.html
http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/general/2012/11/25/0005553103.shtml

translated and edited by Brett Larner

In their second editions the Osaka Marathon and Kobe Marathon moved to the same day, Nov. 25, meaning that one greater metropolitan area held two large-scale marathons simultaneously with combined fields of 50,000.

In Osaka, men's winner Serod Batochir (Mongola) ran 2:11:52 to set a new course record.  The top Japanese finisher, Yasuyuki Nakamura (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), was 2nd in a PB 2:15:37, while half-marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) was 3rd in 2:16:26.  Defending men's champion Elijah Sang (Kenya) faded badly after running the first part of the race in the lead pack, finishing 8th in 2:33:33.

Defending women's champion Lidia Simon (Romania) won in 2:33:12 by more than one minute over Kenyan Julia Mumbi, with Yuki Ino (Team Noritz) the top Japanese woman in 3rd.

In Kobe, local Hyogo native Kensuke Takahashi (Team Toyota) set a new course record of 2:21:14 for the men's win.  Takahashi, with a PB of 2:11:25, was alone in the lead by the first km mark and steadily built his lead the entire race, winning by a final margin of more than 4 minutes.  Last year's runner-up Masahiro Taguchi (Mitsubishi Kagaku) was 2nd again.

After the race winner Takahashi commented, "I decided to do this race back in June and my training since then has been solid.  I ran for the win, so even though I didn't break 2:20 I'm glad to have won.  I had figured I'd probably end up running alone, but I would have been glad to have someone else there to help keep things on track for a better time.  It was hard being by myself from the start but again I'm glad I could keep it going alone.  I thought the course was going to be flat but there were some tough little ups and downs in there.  My face never gives it away when I'm hurting, but I was today.  I have to say thanks to all the spectators for the best cheering I've ever had."

In the women's race, Yui Ouchi (Team Noritz) set a new course record of 2:39:52 after running much of the race with her teammate Kaori Oyama, who ultimately faded to 4th.  Defending champion Satoko Uetani (Kobe Gakuin Univ.) ran the entire race in 3rd, catching Oyama late in the race but run down by last year's runner-up, mid-40's local amateur Chihiro Tanaka (AthleC AC) who took 2nd in 2:42:21 just two weeks after finishing 7th at the Athens Classic Marathon.

2nd Osaka Marathon
Osaka, 11/25/12
click here for complete results

Men
1. Serod Batochir (Mongolia) - 2:11:52 - CR
2. Yasuyuki Nakamura (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:15:37 - PB
3. Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:16:26
4. Oleg Kulkov (Russia) - 2:16:53
5. Brandon Mull (U.S.A.) - 2:19:21 - PB

Women
1. Lidia Simon (Romania) - 2:33:12
2. Julia Mumbi (Kenya) - 2:34:16
3. Yuki Ino (Team Noritz) - 2:43:24
4. Christina Overbeck-Crawford (U.S.A.) - 2:44:04
5. Yumiko Hara (Team Univ. Ent.) - 2:44:24

2nd Kobe Marathon
Kobe, 11/25/12
click here for complete results

Men
1. Kensuke Takahashi (Team Toyota) - 2:21:14 - CR
2. Masahiro Taguchi (Mitsubishi Kagaku) - 2:25:19
3. Yoshiteru Tano (Hyogo Pref.) - 2:27:54

Women
1. Yui Ouchi (Team Noritz) - 2:39:52 - CR
2. Chihiro Tanaka (AthleC AC) - 2:42:21
3. Kaori Oyama (Team Noritz) - 2:42:41
4. Satoko Uetani (Kobe Gakuin Univ.) - 2:42:52
5. Kumi Saito - 2:43:48

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
Wow, how old is Lydia Simon? Must be well into her 40s.
Nick said…
Could you post a link to the full results - can't seem to find one.
Thanks
Brett Larner said…
Simon turns 40 next July.

Osaka results: http://www.moviecloud.jp/osaka2012/
Anonymous said…
Looks like 4th in Osaka actually went to Christina Overbeck-Crawford from Portland, OR.
Brett Larner said…
Thanks, the results website I linked did not initially list her. I've updated the results here.

Most-Read This Week

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...

Weekend Road and Track Roundup

A roundup of the main road and track action on the last weekend of Japan's 2024-25 academic and fiscal year: Doubling off a 2:07:06 PB at the Tokyo Marathon 4 weeks ago, Tatsuya Maruyama took bronze at the Asian Marathon Championships in Jiaxing, China in 2:11:56. Gold went to North Korea's Il Ryong Han in a breakaway 2:11:18, with silver medalist Tianyu Chen of China just ahead of Maruyama in 2:11:50. Japan's Shungo Yokota was a distant 4th in 2:14:00, with Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir 6th in 2:15:14. Japanese women Kaede Kawamura and Natsumi Matsushita were 5th and 6th in 2:31:26 and 2:34:40, with medals going to China's Bing Wu , gold in 2:26:01, North Korea's Kwang-Ok Ri , silver right behind her in 2:26:07, and defending gold medalist Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh landing in bronze this time in 2:28:56, her third sub-2:29 performance so far in 2025. Back home, four men broke 2:20 at the Fukui Sakura Marathon . Ko Kobayashi from the Shi...

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."...