Australia's ASICS Half Marathon and Gold Coast Marathon are almost always big draws for elite-level Japanese runners, offering up better weather than to be found domestically this time of year, a faster course, and international racing experience without the jet lag.
Saturday's half marathon has four Japanese women and three Japanese men on the entry list, plus a lot of familiar home-grown faces. Former U.S.A. marathon national record holder Keira D'Amato is the top name in the women's race with a best of 1:07:55. Australians Ellie Pashley and Isobel Batt-Doyle are regulars in Japan, Batt-Doyle having set her 1:09:27 PB at Marugame this year and Pashley having run her marathon best in Nagoya in 2019. D'Amato said at the pre-race press conference that she hopes to take a shot at the American record of 1:06:52, and Batt-Doyle said she would be giving it a PB effort.
One step down from them in the 1:10-1:11 range are four Japanese women, Kaede Kawamura, Chiharu Ikeda, Yuki Nakamura and Misaki Hayashida, and Australian Leanne Pompeani. Ikeda is one of the 29 women to have qualified for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials, and Gold Coast will be a key prep run for her. It's likely to be a D'Amato - Batt-Doyle 1-2, but if the race goes out at all slower expect at least one of the Japanese women to be in contention for a podium finish. Pompeani should be a dark horse.
Brett Robinson set both the Australian half marathon and marathon records in Japan, his 59:57 best for the half coming at Marugame in 2020 and his 2:07:31 marathon in Fukuoka last December. He's the class of the field, with his only possible competition being top-ranked Japanese man Keijiro Mogi with a 1:00:33 best. Robinson said his priority is winning, whatever time that takes. Mogi said he would be going for a course record, which would be enough to put Pat Carroll's 1:01:11 Australian all-comers record in range.
Jin Yuasa and Kazusa Nakanuma are seeded at #3 and #4, but with neither of them having broken 1:02:30 it would take a very slow race for them to stay with Robinson and Mogi. Expect them to be up against the rest of the Aussie field for 3rd.
Sunday's marathon has a great women's race lined up with three women potentially in range of Naoko Takahashi's 2:23:14 winning time from the Sydney Olympics, still the fastest-ever by a woman on Australian soil Kenyans Florence Kiplagat, Ruth Chebitok and Rodah Tanui have all gone 2:21:03-2:23:14 in recent races, putting Takahashi's record in range. It says a lot about how good Takahashi really was that her time still stands, but sooner or later it's going to fall. Why not this weekend? Kiplagat, an A-lister in past years but out of competition since 2019, said at the press conference that she had suffered from long COVID and hoped that Gold Coast would be the start of a comeback.
Eloise Wellings is another regular in Japan, ranked 4th in the Gold Coast field at 2:25:10, with MGC Race qualifier Haruka Yamaguchi close behind in 2:26:35. But Yamaguchi plans to run the Gold Coast as a training run effort in the mid-2:30s, putting her in range of Aussies Marnie Ponton and Melanie Panayiotou. 3rd last year, Shiho Kaneshige is a scratch with injury. A potential wild card is former Olympic-level steepler Genevieve Gregson, making her debut after returning from an Achilles injury at the Tokyo Olympics and subsequent birth of her first child. Gregson ran 1:11:57 in Gifu this season in her first serious half marathon, putting sub-2:30 and a potential top five placing on the table.
In the wheelchair division, national record holder Tsubasa Kina is the favorite for the win in the women's race with a best of 1:35:50, her competition coming from locals Christie Dawes and Jacqueline Godfrey. Kina asserted strongly that she has come to Gold Coast to go for its 1:43 course record.
The men's race is being set up as a shot at Yuta Shitara's 2:07:50 course record, with a pace trio set to take the leaders through halfway in 1:04:00 and organizers hoping for a negative split to get the record. Four men in the field have run under Shitara's record in recent races, led by Eritrean Mogos Shumay and Kenyan Wilfred Kimitei. Nine Japanese men are in the race, including last year's winner Jo Fukuda and three MGC Race qualifiers. Koki Yoshioka is the best bet out of those to contend with Shumay and Kimitei, having run 2:07:28 in Osaka in February.
Men's national record holder Kota Hokinoue is one of only two men in the wheelchair race, the other being Australia's Matthew Brumby. Like Kina, he indicated that the course record is a priority.
JRN will be on-site on the Gold Coast again this year for the races and will be doing guest commentary on the half marathon broadcast Saturday. Streaming starts at 6:00 a.m. both Saturday for the half and Sunday for the marathon.
© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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