The 36th Suffolkland Shibetsu Half Marathon and 10 km took place July 23 in Shibetsu, Hokkaido. 19-year-old Patrick Kamau (Jobu University) won the men's race in 1:02:27, beating his PB by exactly one minute. Tomoki Ota (Toyota) was the top Japanese finisher at 2nd in 1:02:42, a successful follow-up to his pair of 5000 m PBs earlier this month in the Hokuren Distance Challenge series despite temperatures over 20˚C. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) took 3rd in 1:03:41 with Ota's Toyota teammates Masashi Nonaka and Shunta Uchida going 4-5 in 1:03:41 and 1:04:17. Fumiya Tsuji (Waseda Univ.) was the top collegiate finisher at 6th in 1:04:24. In the women's race, Olympic marathon trials qualifier Rie Kawauchi (Otsuka Seiyaku) won in 1:13:18. Wacoal teammates Hina Yanagitani and Yuka Ando took 2nd and 3rd in 1:14:08 and 1:14:12. High schooler Samuel Korabo (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) won the men's 10 km in 29:06 by 18 seconds over Gilbert Kiprotich (Sunbelx). Natsuki O...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007