Skip to main content

Nakamoto and Kawauchi to Run Boston

Japan's Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki) will run the 2018 Boston Marathon as part of the John Hancock Elite Athlete Team. Kawauchi holds world records for everything from most career sub-2:12 marathons to most sub-2:20, while Nakamoto is Japan's best championships marathoner of modern times with four top 10 finishes at the Olympics and World Championships.

Longtime rivals, their duel at the 2013 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon was one of the classics of Japanese marathoning, both running sub-2:09 PBs as Kawauchi set a still-standing course record of 2:08:15. The pair has a 3-3 record in the marathon so far, their most recent meeting coming at last summer's London World Championships where Kawauchi ran Nakamoto down in the last kilometer to take 9th. Boston will be their 7th and likely final face-off.


2018 Boston Marathon 
John Hancock Elite Athlete Team
Boston, U.S.A., 4/16/18
times listed are best in last three years except where noted

Men
Tamirat Tola (Ethiopia) - 2:04:11 (Dubai 2017)
Lemi Berhanu (Ethiopia) - 2:04:33 (Dubai 2016)
Norbert Kigen (Kenya) - 2:05:13 (Amsterdam 2017)
Evans Chebet (Kenya) - 2:05:30 (Valencia 2017)
Felix Kandie (Kenya) - 2:06:03 (Seoul 2017)
Geoffrey Kirui (Kenya) - 2:06:27 (Amsterdam 2016)
Philemon Rono (Kenya) - 2:06:52 (Toronto Waterfront 2017)
Abdi Nageeye (Netherlands) - 2:08:16 (Amsterdam 2017)
Wilson Chebet (Kenya) - 2:08:19 (Amsterdam 2016)
Arne Gabius (Germany) - 2:08:33 (Frankfurt 2015)
Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) - 2:09:01 (Gold Coast 2016)
Lelisa Desisa (Ethiopia) - 2:09:17a (Boston 2015)
Galen Rupp (U.S.A.) - 2:09:20 (Chicago 2017)
Kentaro Nakamoto (Japan) - 2:09:32 (Beppu-Oita 2017)
Reid Coolsaet (Canada) - 2:10:28 (Berlin 2015)
Stephen Sambu (Kenya) - 2:11:07 (Chicago 2017)
Dathan Ritzenhein (U.S.A.) - 2:11:20a (Boston 2015)
Abdi Abdirahman (U.S.A.) - 2:11:23 (New York 2016)
Lusapho April (South Africa) - 2:11:27 (Hannover 2016)
Eric Gillis (Canada) - 2:11:31 (Toronto Waterfront 2015)
Elkanah Kibet (U.S.A.) - 2:11:31 (Chicago 2015)
Tim Ritchie (U.S.A.) - 2:11:56a (Cal Int'l 2017)
Shadrack Biwott (U.S.A.) - 2:12:01 (New York 2016)
Scott Smith (U.S.A.) - 2:12:21 (Frankfurt 2017)
Ryan Vail (U.S.A.) - 2:12:40 (Berlin 2017)
Andrew Bumbalough (U.S.A.) - 2:13:58 (Tokyo 2017)

photos © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more