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

Weekend Road and Track Roundup

A roundup of the main road and track action on the last weekend of Japan's 2024-25 academic and fiscal year: Doubling off a 2:07:06 PB at the Tokyo Marathon 4 weeks ago, Tatsuya Maruyama took bronze at the Asian Marathon Championships in Jiaxing, China in 2:11:56. Gold went to North Korea's Il Ryong Han in a breakaway 2:11:18, with silver medalist Tianyu Chen of China just ahead of Maruyama in 2:11:50. Japan's Shungo Yokota was a distant 4th in 2:14:00, with Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir 6th in 2:15:14. Japanese women Kaede Kawamura and Natsumi Matsushita were 5th and 6th in 2:31:26 and 2:34:40, with medals going to China's Bing Wu , gold in 2:26:01, North Korea's Kwang-Ok Ri , silver right behind her in 2:26:07, and defending gold medalist Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh landing in bronze this time in 2:28:56, her third sub-2:29 performance so far in 2025. Back home, four men broke 2:20 at the Fukui Sakura Marathon . Ko Kobayashi from the Shi...

Tokyo Olympics Marathon Trials Winner Nakamura Enters Waseda Grad School

An Olympian in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) announced on his social media that he has entered Waseda University 's Graduate School of Sport Science with the start of the new academic year this week. A graduate of Mie's Ueno Kogyo H.S. , Nakamura went to Komazawa University before joining Fujitsu in 2015. His senior year of high school he was 3rd overall and 2nd Japanese in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in the fall the same year he ran what was at the time the 7th-fastest high school mark ever, 13:50.38. At Komazawa he scored four individual stage wins across the three big university ekidens. In 2019 he won the MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the Tokyo Olympics, where he was 62nd in 2:22:23. Nakamura indicated that he would be studying "top sports management" under professor Takeo Hirata . "I'll be balancing competition and academics," Nakamura wrote. "I'm r...

Japan Names Marathon Teams for Tokyo World Championships

On Mar. 26 the JAAF named its women's and men's marathon teams for September's Tokyo World Championships. On the women's side the team has veterans Sayaka Sato and Yuka Ando off the strength of a runner-up finish for Sato in Nagoya this year and a win in Nagoya last year by Ando, and newcomer Kana Kobayashi , 23, who has risen quickly from being a fun runner at Waseda University last year to a 2nd-place finish in Osaka Women's this year. Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki was named alternate after finishing 3rd behind Kobayashi in Osaka Women's. On the men's side the team is led by last year's Fukuoka International Marathon CR breaker Yuya Yoshida and this year's Osaka runner-up Ryota Kondo . The 3rd spot on the team is reserved for JMC Series winner Naoki Koyama , who hasn't cleared the 2:06:30 World Championships qualifying standard and has to wait for the May 4 qualifying deadline for confirmation that the 1184 points he has in the Roa...

japan running news

Search This Blog