Skip to main content

February's Ome 30 km Road Race Canceled Due to Pandemic

On Oct. 14 the organizers of Tokyo's Ome 30 km Road Race announced that the popular event's 55th running, scheduled for Feb. 20, 2022, will not go ahead and will instead be postponed a year. Organizers said that due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic they had concerns about being able to stage the event in a way safe for runners, local residents, race staff and volunteers. The Ome 30 km's 55th running was originally scheduled for February, 2021 but was postponed to 2022, meaning the new decision will in effect be a two-year postponement. 

The Ome 30 km Road Race was founded in 1967. Starting in the western Tokyo suburb of Ome, the race follows a mountainous route along the upper Tama River gorge and back. Featuring both 30 km and 10 km races, the race seen wins from Olympic gold medalists like Naoko Takahashi and Mizuki Noguchi, and is one of Japan's most popular races for amateur runners, with over 12,000 finishers every year. In place of the 2022 event, organizers will hold a virtual race.

Translator's note: Ome follows the Tokyo Marathon's lead in canceling. New case numbers in Tokyo have dropped into the double digits. Other large races elsewhere in the country including the Shimonoseki Kaikyo Marathon, Toyama Marathon and Kanazawa Marathon  have announced that they will hold their races before the end of the year, and others in the same time frame as Ome including the Nagoya Women's Marathon and Shonan Kokusai Marathon in Tokyo's neighboring prefecture of Kanagawa are also planning to go ahead. In the face of the dramatically improved numbers and studies showing that mass-participation races are not a significant source of spread when staged with proper protocols, the cancelation of two major races in Tokyo, especially one as far away as February, suggests that there is more to this story

source article:
translated and edited by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Mike L said…
I don’t think Shonan is before the end of this year, that’s its usual timing, but next is Feb 2022.
October 15, 2021 at 1:57 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Wanjiru Breaks Own MR, Fuwa and Ishida Return - Kanto Regionals Day 1 Highlights

Japan's best college meet kicked off Thursday at Tokyo's National Stadium at the 103rd Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships . Looking like she was doing a controlled tempo run, 2nd-yr Sarah Wanjiru (Daito Bunka Univ.) lapped the entire field to win the women's 10000 m in a meet record 32:02.87, almost 15 seconds under the record she last year in her debut. 3rd-yr Aoi Takahashi (Josai Univ.) was 2nd in 33:29.22 and 2nd-yr Nana Nagashima (Josai Kokusai Univ.) 3rd in a PB 33:30.28, but the other main news alongside Wanjiru's new record was the return of collegiate 10000 m record holder Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.) in her first 10000 m in 19 months. Fuwa hung at the back of the chase pack for the first half, made a move to lead it in the second half, and ultimately faded to 9th in 33:40.20. Every comeback has to start somewhere. The D1 men's 10000 m had a tight group up front with the top 6 all finishing within 6 seconds and under 28:10. 3rd-yr Jam
1 comment
Read more

Two-Time Olympic Marathon Medalist Erick Wainaina Referred to Prosectors on Suspicion of Assault

  According to investigators, two-time Olympic marathon medalist Erick Wainaina has had his case referred to prosecutors after allegedly injuring a railway employee by striking him in the face at a station in Setagaya, Tokyo. Wainaina, 50, was the bronze medalist in the marathon at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and won silver in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Wainaina is suspected of assaulting a woman in her late teens and a male Tokyu Denentoshi Line employee by hitting them in the face during an altercation at Komazawa University Station in March this year, resulting in minor injuries to the man's face. According to investigators, the incident began on the train between Wainaina and the woman, and after getting off at Komazawa University Station he hit her in the face when she asked him to go to the station office with her to report it. When the male railway employee responded to the situation Wainaina reportedly hit him too. In response to questioning Wainaina is said to have answered,
Post a Comment
Read more

Kanto Regionals Day Two Highlights

Day two of the 103rd Kanto Regionals meet took place Friday at Tokyo's National Stadium and other facilities. The 1500 m was the only mid or long-distance final on the program, and in the D1 women's final 4th-yr Yuiri Ogata (Nittai Univ.) scored a dominant win with a 4:19.08 PB that put her 2 1/2 seconds up on 2nd-placer Yui Yoshii (Daito Bunka Univ.). 4th-yr Hiroto Takamura (Nittai Univ.) won the D1 men's title in 3:45.65, with 2nd-yr Ryoto Aoki (Rikkyo Univ.) taking the top spot in a strategic D2 men's final in 3:52.93. D2 men also had a round of 5000 m qualifiers on the program. Kenyans took the top four spots in Heat 1 led by newcomer Brian Kiptoo (Reitaku Univ.) in 13:50.47, with Hakone Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University 4th-yr Kota Nakaya outrunning Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University 1st-yr Sota Orita for 1st in the slower Heat 2, 14:04.47 to 14:04.95. The final happens Sunday alongside the D1 men's and women's races. In other noteworthy per
Post a Comment
Read more