NR Holders Maeda and Ogura Lead Hokkaido Marathon Elite Field

Corona numbers in Japan are at record-breaking levels right now, some of the highest in the world, but at least a few races are throwing caution to the wind, in their own highly controlled way, and trying to go ahead. The Hokkaido Marathon is one of them, an end-of-summer regular making a comeback this year in order to give a shortcut to 2024 MGC Race olympic trials qualification to anyone who can handle hot conditions. It announced its elite field today.

Honami Maeda, was the first woman to qualify for the pre-Tokyo Olympics MGC, winning Hokkaido back in 2017 and going on to win the trials. She broke the 30 km NR without wearing super shoes after that, but things haven't been great for her for a long time. But while every other good marathoner from the Tenmaya team has never pulled back up once they start the downward spiral, Maeda has re-emerged this spring with two good half marathons, the better a 1:08:28 PB and CR win in nearby Hakodate a month ago.

That's all good, but she has competition from two people with solid times in Osaka this past January, Mao Uesugi (Starts), 2nd in Osaka in 2:22:29, and Maeda's teammate Natsumi Matsushita, 3rd in 2:23:05. There are another four women in the 2:26~2:30 range, so with conditions likely to be not that favorable for fast times the big three will probably have to deal with hot weather specialists.

Half marathon NR holder Yusuke Ogura and Ryu Takaku, both 2:06 men from the Yakult team, front the men's race, which includes five other men with recent bests between 2:07:05 and 2:07:41. Deeper entry lists haven't been announced yet but there are sure to be a lot more just a step or two down the ladder. In both races, the winner will have the chance to pick up MGC qualification if they hit the required time standards.

Held in Sapporo, where the Tokyo Olympics marathons were forcibly relocated, Hokkaido is leaning into the Paralympic movement too even though Tokyo managed to hang on to the marathons at the Paralympic Games last fall. Women's gold medalist Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and men's bronze medalist Tadashi Horikoshi (NTT Nishi Nihon) lead the visually-impaired field, and there's a wheelchair field of six led by men's NR holder Kota Hokinoue (Yahoo!).

2022 Hokkaido Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Sapporo, Hokkaido, 28 Aug. 2022

times listed are best in last 3 years except where noted

runner field listing

wheelchair field listing

Women

Mao Uesugi (Starts) - 2:22:29 (2nd, Osaka Int'l 2022)

Natsumi Matsushita (Tenmaya) - 2:23:05 (3rd, Osaka Int'l 2022)

Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) - 2:23:30 (2nd, Osaka Int'l 2021)

Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) - 2:26:35 (7th, Osaka Int'l 2020)

Chiharu Ikeda (Hitachi) - 2:26:50 (10th, Nagoya 2022)

Miharu Shimokado (SID Group) - 2:29:20 (12th, Tokyo 2022)

Yui Okada (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:30:03 (14th, Tokyo 2022)

Yuko Kikuchi (Hokuren) - 2:32:08 (23rd, Nagoya 2022)

Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 2:54:13 (Hofu 2022) - visually impaired

Men

Ryu Takaku (Yakult) - 2:06:45 (8th, Tokyo 2020)

Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) - 2:06:51 (5th, Lake Biwa 2021)

Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:07:05 (10th, Tokyo 2020)

Shun Yuzawa (SG Holdings) - 2:07:31 (8th, Tokyo 2021)

Kazuki Muramoto (Sumitomo Denko) - 2:07:36 (11th, Lake Biwa 2021)

Masaru Aoki (Kanebo) - 2:07:40 (12th, Lake Biwa 2021)

Tsubasa Ichiyama (Komori Corp.) - 2:07:41 (13th, Lake Biwa 2021)

Tadashi Horikoshi (NTT Nishi Nihon) - 2:21:21 (Kasumigaura 2022) - visually impaired

Wheelchair Men

Masazumi Soejima (Socio Soejima) - 1:18:50 (Boston 2011)

Hiroyuki Yamamoto (unattached) - 1:19:32 (Boston 2017)

Hiroki Nishida (Baccarat Pacific) - 1:20:28 (Boston 2017)

Kota Hokinoue (Yahoo!) - 1:20:52 (Seoul 2013) - NR

Sho Watanabe (Toppan) - 1:24:00 (Oita 2019)

Keisuke Shiroma (C's Athlete) - debut

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This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...

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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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