Skip to main content

Sakamoto 7th in Xiamen, Mwangi Breaks Hong Kong All-Comers Record - Weekend Overseas Road Race Results


The year's international road racing circuit kicked off Sunday with two races in Asia featuring top-level Japanese athletes. At the C&D Xiamen Marathon in China, ten Japanese athletes ranked in the women's and men's Asian top 100 ran with support from JRN as part of Xiamen's bid to become the first race worldwide to qualify for the IAAF's new platinum road race label.

2016 Osaka Marathon winner and mother of three Yoshiko Sakamoto (Y.W.C.) placed highest among them, taking 7th in 2:39:00 with 2018 Osaka runner-up Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita)  9th in 2:42:39, 2017 Osaka winner Yumiko Kinoshita (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) 10th in 2:43:56, and 2018 Geneva Marathon runner-up Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) 12th in 2:45:32.

Running just two days after Josai University had a disappointing 20th-place finish at the Hakone Ekiden, its assistant coach Shingo Igarashi was the top-placing Japanese man at 15th in 2:20:45. Dejene Debele (Ethiopia) won the men's race for the second year in a row in 2:09:26 with Medina Deme Armino (Ethiopia) taking the women's race in 2:27:45.


Just down the coast in Hong Kong, the Lok Wah Runners Club staged the first running of its new Lok Wah 100 Minutes Half Marathon, an event designed to encourage faster times in the upper end of Hong Kong's dedicated running community. Over a three-lap course Joseph Mwangi Ngare (Kenya) outran a field including 2018 Hofu Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), four other Kenyans and the local best to win in 1:05:56, the fastest time ever on Hong Kong soil. Kawauchi was 2nd in 1:06:07 with Bernard Kiplangat Kibilo (Kenya) 3rd in 1:08:54.

2019 C&D Xiamen Marathon

Xiamen, China, 1/6/19
complete results

Women
1. Medina Deme Armino (Ethiopia) - 2:27:25
2. Shasho Insemu (Ethiopia) - 2:27:42
3. Fantu Eticha (Ethiopia) - 2:29:55
4. He Yinli (China) - 2:33:28
5. Askale Alemayehu (Ethiopia) - 2:33:41
-----
7. Yoshiko Sakamoto (Japan) - 2:39:00
9. Haruka Yamaguchi (Japan) - 2:42:39
10. Yumiko Kinoshita (Japan) - 2:43:56
12. Hisae Yoshimatsu (Japan) - 2:45:32
23. Momoko Tanaka (Japan) - 3:04:23

Men
1. Dejene Debele (Ethiopia) - 2:09:26
2. Atewek Mesfin (Ethiopia) - 2:09:28
3. Birhan Nebebew (Ethiopia) - 2:09:36
4. Chele Dechasa (Ethiopia) - 2:09:43
5. Belachew Amerta (Ethiopia) - 2:09:52
-----
15. Shingo Igarashi (Japan) - 2:20:45
19. Kansuke Morihashi (Japan) - 2:24:29
20. Tatsunori Hamasaki (Japan) - 2:24:29
22. Asuka Tanaka (Japan) - 2:25:58
-----
DNF - Kenichi Jiromaru (Japan)

Lok Wah 100 Minutes Half Marathon

Sha Tin, Hong Kong, 1/6/19
complete results

Men
1. Joseph Mwangi Ngare (Kenya) - 1:05:56 - ACR
2. Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) - 1:06:07
3. Bernard Kiplangat Kibilo (Kenya) - 1:08:54
4. Willy Kipkemoi Rotich (Kenya) - 1:08:54
5. Eliud Kiplimo Lelei (Kenya) - 1:10:15

Women
1. Julie Beatty - 1:25:19
2. Amy Mumford - 1:26:02
3. Mei Yan Wong - 1:27:48
4. Jill Czarnik - 1:30:57
5. Chi Ling Mok - 1:32:33

Xiamen photo ©2019 Mika Tokairin, all rights resetved
text and Lok Wah photo ©2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

M.I.A.

Sorry to have been silent for a while. JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin  was in Taiwan for Ironman Penghu, where she won her age group to qualify for Kona for the first time. Right after that we moved for the first time in 14 years, and immediately after that I headed to the U.S. to help Keita Sato  get settled in his new training base in Flagstaff. We'll be resuming normal operations shortly with a big roundup of results over the last 2 weeks. Brett Larner
Post a Comment
Read more

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more