japan running news

If there's one thing you can count on at Australia's Gold Coast Marathon it's the weather. Always beautiful, always cooperative. Not so this year, with powerful winds blowing from the south every day for the four days leading into the race. The winds had mostly died down come Sunday morning, but waves of rain still struck the area regularly until well into the afternoon.


While the start and finish point of the half marathon remained ideal throughout the race, just a few km to the north runners were pounded by heavy rains that took a toll on the almost all-Japanese lead men's pack, heavily populated by aspiring Olympic marathoners tuning up for September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials. In the end it came down to a trial between last year's winner Jack Rayner (Australia), last year's Fukuoka champ Yuma Hattori (Toyota) and former Hakone Ekiden star Yuki Sato (Nissin Shokuhin). Rayner bided his time before kicking away with ease in the last km to tak…

The second half of the worldwide marathon season kicks off Sunday at Australia's Gold Coast Marathon, and with what looks like may be the deepest-ever men's half marathon on Australian soil lined up to start an hour before the marathon it's going to be an exciting day.

Last year's winner Jack Rayner leads the way off a 1:01:01 PB in Cardiff last year, but just behind him are a slew of Japanese men, some on the Gold Coast thanks to good performances at February's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships and others as a tuneup for September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials. On paper Rayner's strongest competition is MGC qualifier Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) with a 1:01:31 best, but Fujimoto told JRN that he is still recovering from a stress fracture he sustained early in the year and is only using the race as a training run ahead of the MGC Race. Likewise for 2018 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Yuma Hattori (Toyota), who underwent internal sur…

Half marathon national record holder and Olympic marathon entrant Yuta Shitara (Honda) leads the men's field for the July 7 Gold Coast Marathon in Australia, the only man in the field under 2:08:30 in the last three years with a then-national record 2:06:11 at last year's Tokyo Marathon. Shitara is also scheduled to run Japan's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials on Sept. 15, making his goals on the Gold Coast a question mark, but a minimum goal is sure to be the Olympic standard of 2:1:30 or a top five finish.  His competition includes Kenya's Douglas Chebii, 2:08:43 in Seville last year, and Kiwi Zane Robertson.

Last year's 3rd-placer Agnes Barsosio of Kenya is the strongest on paper with a 2:20:59 best from two years ago in Paris, but the freshest times comes from fellow Kenyans Rodah Jepkorir and Truphena Chepchirchir, both sub-2:28 earlier this year. Despite a good history of Japanese winners in the Gold Coast women's race no top-tier women are in the f…

Just over 2 months out from Japan's 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon trials, the Sept. 15 MGC Race, 13 of the 34 men and 9 of the 15 women to have qualified for the trials will be tuning up the first weekend of July.

In Australia, 7 male qualifiers will run the Gold Coast Marathon and Asics Half Marathon. Half marathon national record holder and former marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) leads the way in the marathon, a surprising step in what has so far been a solid recovery season from the injuries that held him back for most of last year following his 2:06:11 marathon national record. Yuma Hattori (Toyota), 2:07:27 for the win in Fukuoka last December, and Taku Fujimoto (Toyota), 2:07:57 two months earlier in Chicago, head the list in the half, where 3 of their Toyota teammates with sub-62 bests including Minato Oishi, the fastest Japanese man so far this year in the half marathon, are likewise entered.

3rd in the marathon last year on the Gold Coast, Jo Fukuda (Ni…

Running on his 29th birthday, Takuya Noguchi (Team Konica Minolta) became just the sixth Japanese man to ever win a marathon outside Japan in a sub-2:10 time as he shot down favorites and past champions Kenneth Mungara (Kenya) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) to win the Gold Coast Airport Marathon in a 2-minte-plus PB of 2:08:59. In the women's race #1-ranked Abebech Bekele (Ethiopia) became only the second Ethiopian woman to ever win Gold Coast as she took more than a minute off the year-old course record to win in 2:25:34.

Pre-race Noguchi's wife Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido), the 2015 Gold Coast women's winner and running again this year, told JRN that he was in better shape than she was and had come in part to try to outgun Kawauchi. With a good season behind him including a 1:02:37 half marathon PB and 2:11:04 marathon PB in February and a 1:02:21 half marathon best in May Noguchi had the momentum to see that through. Two-time defending champ Mungara had c…

http://goldcoastmarathon.com.au/2017/06/14/asics-half-marathon-assembles-stellar-cast-of-elite-runners/

Japanese elites in the ASICS Half Marathon include Mizuki Tanimoto (Team Tenmaya), Koji Gokaya (Team JR Higashi Nihon), Keita Nagura (Team Mazda) and Hiroki Yamagishi (Team GMO Athletes).

The elite field for the Gold Coast Airport Marathon led by previous winners Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) is listed here.