Skip to main content

Kebaso and Matsumoto Win Shibetsu Half Marathon

by Brett Larner

With the demise of the Sapporo International Half Marathon, Hokkaido's Shibetsu Half Marathon has taken on a bigger role as a major domestic summer half marathon, especially for members of Japanese national teams for international championships.  Despite generally hot conditions and the apparent cutting of the elite women's 10 km this year, both the women's and men's races featured solid fields.

Kenyan Winfredah Kebaso, the main support of the fledgling Nitori corporate women's team, easily took the win in 1:12:36 over Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), one of the three Japanese women in the marathon at next month's Beijing World Championships.  Ito was a distant 2nd behind Kebaso in 1:14:47 but had little trouble holding off teammate Yui Okada, 3rd in 1:15:13.  Runners from the Noritz corporate team featured prominently, taking 4 of the top 10 places, while Nitori's Remi Nakazato continued her comeback from a cancer diagnosis last November, taking 7th in 1:16:53.  Mei Matsuyama (Meijo Univ.) was the top collegiate at 9th in 1:18:13.

The Toyota men's corporate team dominated the men's race with 3 of the top 4 places and 4 inside the top 10.  Toyota's Kenta Matsumoto took the win in 1:03:56, a rare sub-1:04 in Shibetsu, with teammate Tsubasa Hayakawa outrunning Masaki Ito (Team Konica Minolta) by 5 seconds for 2nd in 1:04:20.  2014 Asian Games marathon silver medalist Kohei Matsumura (Team Mitsubishi HPS) took 5th in 1:04:41, with Rei Omori (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) taking top collegiate honors with a 1:05:23 for 9th.

29th Shibetsu Half Marathon
Shibetsu, Hokkaido, 7/26/15
click here for complete results

Women
1. Winfredah Kebaso (Kenya/Nitori) - 1:12:36
2. Mai Ito (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:14:47
3. Yui Okada (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:15:13
4. Ai Inoue (Noritz) - 1:15:34
5. Kikuyo Tsuzaki (Noritz) - 1:16:14
6. Mari Ozaki (Noritz) - 1:16:39
7. Remi Nakazato (Nitori) - 1:16:53
8. Yuko Mizuguchi (Denso) - 1:17:38
9. Mei Matsuyama (Meijo Univ.) - 1:18:13
10. Madoka Nakano (Noritz) - 1:18:32

Men
1. Kenta Matsumoto (Toyota) - 1:03:56
2. Tsubasa Hayakawa (Toyota) - 1:04:20
3. Masaki Ito (Konica Minolta) - 1:04:25
4. Ryo Matsumoto (Toyota) - 1:04:39
5. Kohei Matsumura (Mitsubishi HPS) - 1:04:41
6. Yoshihiro Wakamatsu (Nissin Shokuhin) - 1:05:12
7. Natsuki Terada (JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:05:12
8. Minato Oishi (Toyota) - 1:05:17
9. Rei Omori (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:23
10. Tomoyuki Morita (Kanebo) - 1:05:38

(c) 2015 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive