by Brett Larner
For many a long year Japanese women's marathoning has gotten far more media attention and public respect than the men; at the 2010 London Marathon the Japanese broadcast only followed the women and never mentioned that 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) and two-time World Championships team member Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo) were in the men's race, even when they were inadvertently on-camera. It's telling, then, of expectations of this year's Japanese women's marathon team that government broadcaster NHK's pre-Olympic preview of six events for Japanese fans to follow prominently featured the men's marathon but said nothing about the women's marathon.
To give credit where it's due it's a good squad, featuring 2009 Berlin World Championships silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (Daiichi Seimei), 2012 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), whose 2:23:2…
For many a long year Japanese women's marathoning has gotten far more media attention and public respect than the men; at the 2010 London Marathon the Japanese broadcast only followed the women and never mentioned that 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) and two-time World Championships team member Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo) were in the men's race, even when they were inadvertently on-camera. It's telling, then, of expectations of this year's Japanese women's marathon team that government broadcaster NHK's pre-Olympic preview of six events for Japanese fans to follow prominently featured the men's marathon but said nothing about the women's marathon.
To give credit where it's due it's a good squad, featuring 2009 Berlin World Championships silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (Daiichi Seimei), 2012 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), whose 2:23:2…