MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier

MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Kentaro Nakamoto

Kentaro Nakamoto

age: 36
sponsor: Yasukawa Denki
graduated from: Nishiichi H.S., Takushoku University

best time inside MGC window:
2:11:34, 2nd, 2019 Krakow Marathon

PB: 2:08:35, 2nd, 2013 Beppu-Oita Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 14:04.31 (2011) 10000 m: 28:54.59 (2012) half marathon: 1:02:12 (2018)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019):
2nd, 2019 Krakow Marathon, 2:11:34
DNF, 2018 Fukuoka International Marathon
5th, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:12:54
DNS, 2018 Boston Marathon
10th, 2017 London World Championships Marathon, 2:12:41

other major results:
20th, 2019 Hakodate Half Marathon, 1:04:32
11th, 2019 Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:03:27
10th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Fifth Stage (15.8 km), 47:11
2nd, 2018 Osaka Half Marathon, 1:02:12 – PB
1st, 2017 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:09:32
5th, 2013 Moscow World Championships Marathon, 2:10:50
2nd, 2013 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:08:35 – PB
6th, 2012 London Olympics Marathon, 2:11:16
4th, 2012 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:08:53
9th, 2011 Daegu World Championships Marathon, 2:13:10
4th, 2011 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:09:31

Nakamoto is Japan’s best championships marathoner of modern times, probably ever, with top 10 finishes in three world championships and the 2012 London Olympics. Now 36, he’s the oldest man to qualify for the MGC Race. Could he do it again? It’s a long shot given where he is in his career, but Nakamoto has proven himself in all weather conditions hot and cold and in the pressure of a high-stakes championship, so it’d be a mistake to complete count him out.

Nakamoto started off 2018 with a surprising 1:02:12 PB at the Osaka Half Marathon, but a stress fracture right before the Boston Marathon knocked him out of a tough conditions race he could have won. Bouncing back from that he qualified for the MGC Race with only a 2:12:54 for 5th at last summer’s Hokkaido Marathon, then DNFed in Fukuoka and missed the Olympic standard by 4 seconds with a 2:11:34 for 2nd in Krakow in the spring. His main results since Krakow have been a decent 1:03:27 for 11th at May’s Sendai Half Marathon and a 1:04:32 for 20th at July’s hot and sunny Hakodate Half Marathon. Like bottom-ranked man Tomohiro Tanigawa he graduated from Takushoku University, where he was roommates with future London Olympics teammate Arata Fujiwara.

Next profile: Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku).

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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