japan running news

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0002533364.shtml
http://www.47news.jp/CN/200911/CN2009112201000157.html
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/other/091122/oth0911221928033-n1.htm
http://www.pjnews.net/news/291/20091122_10

translated and edited by Brett Larner

At the 2009 Kobe National Women's Half Marathon on Nov. 22, Misato Horie (Team Noritz) took her first win on the Rikuren-certified 21.0975 km course from Kobe's Nagisa Park to Kobe Harborland, running a time of 1:13:09.

Manami Takemori (Team Sysmex) was 2nd in 1:13:54, with Kaori Yoshida (Amino Vital AC) 3rd and Satoko Uetani (Kobe Gakuin Univ.) 4th. The four women set out together in a pack from the start and stayed together through 15 km. By 17 km Horie had pulled ahead and kept her lead all the way to the finish.

A native of Kobe, Horie attended Seiryo High School and Mukogawa Women's University before joining Team Noritz last spring. Along the course she saw many friends and former teachers who turned out to cheer her on.…

http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/sports/191179.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

At the 2009 Hakodate Half Marathon in Hakodate, Hokkaido on Sept. 27, Joseph Mwaniki (Team Konica Minolta) ran the Rikuren-certified course in a time of 1:01:57 to take his third-straight win and become Hakodate's first-ever three-time winner. Mwaniki aggressively took the lead from the start, beating runner-up Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei) by over two minutes.

Keiko Nakasu (Team Noritz) won the women's race in 1:17:12, her first win. Nakasu ran the race in a dead heat with last year's runner-up Mizuho Kishi (Team Yamada Denki) before dropping Kishi on the final loop of the track in Hakodate's Chiyoda Park stadium.

1768 people including 305 women started Hakodate's 19th edition race with 1711 reaching the finish, 294 of them women. Temperatures at the start were a warm 18.5 degrees.