japan running news

http://www.asahi.com/articles/SEB201311260038.html
http://www.asahi.com/articles/TKY201311140653.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The organizers of the 67th Fukuoka International Marathon announced on Nov. 26 that feature foreign invited athlete GebreGebremariam (Ethiopia) has withdrawn from Sunday's race with an injury to his left calf.  Gebremariam was the 2010 New York City Marathon champion and went on to run 2:04:53 at the heavily wind-aided 2011 Boston Marathon.  He placed 8th in the 10000 m at the 2012 London Olympics.

Also announced was the withdrawal of domestic elite Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) due to pain in his left knee.  At last year's Fukuoka Horibata ran a PB 2:08:24 to finish 2nd overall as the top Japanese man, qualifying for the 2013 Moscow World Championships marathon.  After suffering a stress fracture in the spring he dropped out of August's World Championships marathon at 13 km after experiencing difficulty.

Previously announced withd…

by Brett Larner

The Fukuoka International Marathon has released the entry list for its 67th running on Dec. 1 and it's a familiar story line: one marquee African athlete and a half-dozen other foreign athletes in range of the best Japanese men on the list.  Even more so this year, with its top-end list of seven names identical to last year's field save for the substitution of Ethiopian great Gebre Gebremariam for Ethiopian greater Haile Gebreselassie.  Gebremariam gets the official number one seed from Fukuoka organizers due to his heavily aided 2:04:53 from the 2011 Boston Marathon with no note on the entry list of that time being aided, but with a legitimate best of only 2:08:00 from the 2011 New York City Marathon he has just the sixth-fastest PB in the field.  The true top seed goes to bib #21, defending champion Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel), the only man in the field with a genuine sub-2:07 to his name.  Joining him again are last year's 3rd-placer and Polish n…