China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from Jie He at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46. At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda won the men's race in 2:20:08. Chika Yokota won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33. Yuki Yamada won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km. Naoki Inoue won the 16th r
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Comments
I have just seen the news in The Guardian and I thought... OK Brett should have written something about it!
I think it is, finally, a sensible decision by the organisation, but it seems a mess to decide it now. What was the point of doing the Trials in the original course, then? And if volunteers and spectators have already arranged trips and accommodation mainly or even just to see the marathon? This is outrageous!!!
And there many other outdoor endurance events which will be dangerous because of heat and humidity. Are they going to move all of them to Sapporo? Ridiculous...
Anyway, neither Tokyo or Sapporo reaches the over 40C heat and the high humidity that the runners faced in Doha.
I was planning to visit Tokyo during the summer Olympics because even though I cannot afford tickets to other events I thought I could participate in cheering on the athletes in the marathon. With the marathon moving to Sapporo, I have cancelled my trip to Japan.
Hokkaido 2020 is better for doped athletes
because the harsh climatic conditions are more favorable for athletes "clean"