Marathon NR Holder Maeda Lines Up in Paris Festival of Running

Women's marathon NR holder and Paris Olympic team member Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) ran Friday's Paris Festival of Running, one of six Japanese athletes across the four main distances at the event. Maeda was 19th of 24 finishers in the elite women's 5 km, running 16:13 to winner Caroline Nyaga's 14:40. Haruka Ogawa (Rikkyo Univ.) was next in 16:24 for 20th. Tomo Muramatsu (Ritsumeikan Univ.) was the top Japanese woman in the elite 10 km, 13th of 14 in 35:04 over 5 minutes behind winner Likina Amebaw.

The men had a little more success, with Naoki Ota (Yakult) 7th of 11 in the elite 5 km in 14:03 and Shunpei Yamaguchi (Waseda Univ.) 9th in 14:10. Hagos Gebrhiwet won in 13:24. Jemal Mekonnen won the elite 10 km in 27:43 by 1 seconds over Hillary Kipkoech, with Haruto Ishizuka (Waseda Univ.) 22nd in 30:06.

Two days later at the Paris Marathon, men's Olympic marathon team alternate Yuki Kawauchi (ANDS) continued the downward trajectory of his performances this year. Starting with the lead women at 2:20-flat pace, Kawauchi struggled to hang on to the back of the pack and lost touch when its pace increased just past 10 km. He ultimately finished 102nd overall and 92nd among men in 2:31:08, just 13 seconds behind 10th-place woman Adanech Anbesa of Ethiopia. Mestawut Fikir won the women's race in 2:20:45, with Mulugeta Uma making it an Ethiopian double with a 2:05:33 to win the men's race.

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