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

10000 m National Championships Preview

Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a

Weekend Track and Road Roundup

The Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon aside, a quick roundup of results from this past weekend: At the Nittai University Time Trials , aka the Nittaidai Challenge Games, Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) led a great men's 10000 m A-heat in 27:20.05, with the top six men all going under 27:28. James Mutuku (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) was the only other collegiate runner among them at 3rd in 27:23.09, with 2:06 marathoner Hidekazu Hijikata (Asahi Kasei) the top Japanese finisher at 8th in 28:23.27. Mutuku's YGU teammate Brian Kipyegon won the 5000 m A-heat in 13:30.88, James Karuri (Aomori Yamada H.S.) next in 13:33.67 and Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) 3rd in 13:48.44. Soya Katayama (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) had the fastest 1500 m with a 3:46.19 to win the A-heat. In the women's races at Nittai, Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) was the only one to clear 16 minutes in the 5000 m A-heat, running 15:27.12 for the win. Lucy Nduta (Aomori Yamada H.S.) was likewise the only one u

japan running news

Search This Blog