Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label hiroaki sano

Berlin Marathon - Japanese Results

Fresh off a 1:00:17 half marathon national record last weekend and a 28:55 road 10 km the one before, Yuta Shitara (Honda) lived up to expectations at today's Berlin Marathon, trying to go with the lead group and running the first part of the race alone between the first and second groups.

Whatever his plan, Shitara was swallowed up by the second pack, a good turn of events as it was travelling ahead of Japanese national record pace on track for just sub-2:06. Shitara hung with that group through 25 km before his projected time started to creep away, drifting to high-2:06 pace by 30 km, high-2:07 by 35 km, and high-2:08 by 40 km. In the end he was well short of Toshinari Takaoka's 2:06:16 national record, but with a 2:09:03 for 6th Shitara took 24 seconds off his best with the fastest Japanese men's performance in Berlin since Takayuki Inubushi's then-NR 2:06:57 in 1999. And just 8 days after the greatest half marathon performance in Japanese history.

『ベルリンマラソン動画 設楽悠太…
5 comments
Read more

2:24:38 Marathoner Reia Iwade Out of Sunday's Sendai International Half Marathon

http://www.sendaihalf.com/news/#id218

translated and edited by Brett Larner

We regret to announce that special invited athlete Reia Iwade (Team Noritz) has withdrawn from the May 14 Sendai International Half Marathon due to pain in her right ankle. Other notable withdrawals are listed below:

Men
Daichi Kamino (Konica Minolta) - illness
Chihiro Miyawaki (Toyota) - illness
Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA) - illness
Keita Baba (Honda) - illness
Kazuki Yamashita (Komazawa Univ.) - injury
Makoto Ozawa (Sekino Kosan) - injury
Kazuki Muramatsu (Sumitomo Denko) - other
Benjamin Ngandu (Fujitsu) - illness
Hiroaki Sano (Honda) - illness
Hiroki Miura (Sumitomo Denki) - other
Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) - illness
Shota Kawano (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) - other
Hinata Abe (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) - other

Women
Reia Iwade (Noritz) - injury
Haruna Maekawa (Juhachi Ginko) - injury
Miharu Shimokado (Shimamura) - team transfer
Kotomi Takayama (Sysmex) - injury

Post a Comment
Read more

Kipsang Predicts 2:02:50 - Tokyo Marathon Preview

by Brett Larner

2017 Tokyo Marathon top elites Wilson Kipsang, Dickson Chumba, Tsegaye Kebede, Amane Bersio, Amane Gobena, Birhane Dibaba, Masato Imai, Kazuhiro Maeda and Yuma Hattori.

The Tokyo Marathon celebrates its eleventh edition as a mass-participation race this year on a new course with relocated hills to make it faster for the front end and a scenic finish for the masses.  To try to bring its event records more into line with the rest of the Abbott World Marathon Majors Tokyo has brought in some big guns, none bigger than former world record holder Wilson Kipsang (Kenya).  Fresh from a 2:03:13 PB at September's Berlin Marathon, Kipsang brought Friday's press conference to a boil when he predicted in writing a 2:02:50 world record on the new Tokyo course.

Kipsang predicting a 2:02:50 world record.

That may be a stretch, but looking at the depth and quality of the competition the 2:05:42 Tokyo record held by Dickson Chumba (Kenya) looks vulnerable, with the 2:05:18 Japan…
2 comments
Read more

Tokyo Marathon Elite Field

by Brett Larner

Hot on the heels of Tuesday's announcement of the elite men's field for April's London Marathon comes the Tokyo Marathon's release of the men's and women's fields for its tenth running at the end of February.  Sporting six men recently under sub-2:06, the world record holder, 2015 world champion and reigning winners of four of the six World Marathon Majors, on paper London's field may be sexier up front than Tokyo's, but with defending Olympic gold medalist Stephen Kiprotich (Uganda), 2015 Chicago Marathon and 2014 Tokyo Marathon winner Dickson Chumba (Kenya), a raft of recent WMM top-3 placers including Kiprotich, Emmanuel Mutai (Kenya), Eliud Kiptanui (Kenya), and Feyisa Lilesa (Ethiopia), two-time defending Amsterdam Marathon winner Bernard Kipyego (Kenya) and the one thing none of the other WMM can deliver, a world-class domestic field, Tokyo more than holds its own.  For the last two years Tokyo has produced more gold label men'…
Post a Comment
Read more

Ethiopians Negesse and Dibaba Double, Imai 2:07:39 at Tokyo Marathon

by Brett Larner
photos by rikujolove and Dr. Helmut Winter, video by naoki620



Endeshaw Negesse and Birhane Dibaba scored the first-ever Ethiopian double at the Tokyo Marathon, both close to the course records as they won in 2:06:00 and 2:23:15.  Former Hakone Ekiden uphill star Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) made it a show for the home crowd with a 2:07:39 PB for 7th, making him the all-time #6 Japanese man and fastest-ever on the Tokyo course.

With decent weather conditions the massive lead pack went out slower than the 1:02:35 first half planned to get them in range of Ethiopian Tsegay Kebede's 2:05:18 Japanese all-comers' record, Kebede among those up front as they went through half in 1:03:08.  Early casualties included last year's top Japanese man and 2014 Asian Games silver medalist Kohei Matsumura (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki), 2012 Tokyo winner Michael Kipyego (Kenya), debuting great Tariku Bekele (Ethiopia), 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gita…
Post a Comment
Read more

Keitany, Farah and Cramond Make History at Great North Run

by Brett Larner


The Great North Run celebrated three-part history Sunday, with the great Mary Keitany breaking marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe's course record and Mo Farah bringing home the first British men's win in 29 years to set the stage for the millionth finisher in GNR history, the first race in the world to hit that mark.


In beautiful conditions with a comfortable tailwind heavy favorite Keitany soloed the race the entire way on track for Radcliffe's 1:05:40 record, only appearing to falter near the end.  Bearing down in the home straight she looked to hit the line dead on, but when official results were posted it was announced that she had made it by a second with a new record of 1:05:39.  Nearly a kilometer back, the U.K.'s Gemma Steel was shockingly strong, going head-to-head with London Olympics gold medalist Tiki Gelana, Commonwealth Games silver medalist Caroline Kilel and two-time World Championships gold medalist Edna Kiplagat before droppi…
1 comment
Read more

Great North Run Entry Lists

2014 Copenhagen World Half Marathon team members Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta) and Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) lead the best-ever Japanese contingent at Sunday's Great North Run half marathon, appearing with support from JRN.

2014 Great North Run
Newcastle, U.K., 9/7/14
click here for complete entry list

Men
Mike Kigen (Kenya) - 59:58
Mo Farah (Great Britain) - 1:00:10a / 1:00:59
Mark Kiptoo (Keya) - 1:00:29
Ezrah Sang (Kenya) - 1:01:03
Stephen Kiprotich (Uganda) - 1:01:15
Masato Kikuchi (Japan/Team Konica Minolta) - 1:01:17
Paulo Roberto de Almeida Paula (Brazil) - 1:02:30
Thomas Ayeko (Uganda) - 1:02:32
Keisuke Tanaka (Japan/Team Fujitsu) - 1:02:38
Hiroaki Sano (Japan/Team Honda) - 1:02:40
Sho Matsueda (Japan/Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) - 1:02:41
Ian Hudspith (Great Britain) - 1:02:53
Tariku Bekele (Ethiopia) - 1:02:59
Jonathan Mellor (Great Britain) - 1:02:59
Takamitsu Hashimoto (Japan/Team Komori Corp.) - 1:03:13
Luis Feiteira (Portugal) - 1:03:43
Tadele Geremew…
Post a Comment
Read more

Kikuchi and Takenaka Join Farah, Kiprotich, Kiplagat and Keitany at Sept. 7 Great North Run

by Brett Larner
photos by rikujolove

2014 Copenhagen World Half Marathon Japanese national team members Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta) and Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) will join London Olympics and Moscow World Championships 5000 m and 10000 m double gold medalist Mo Farah (GBR), London and Moscow marathon gold medalist Stephen Kiprotich (Uganda), Daegu and Moscow World Championships marathon gold medalist Edna Kiplagat (Kenya), Birmingham World Half Marathon gold medalist Mary Keitany (Kenya) and others at the Sept. 7 Great North Run half marathon in Newcastle, U.K.

Kikuchi, formerly captain of Meiji University's Hakone Ekiden team, has broken 62 minutes for the half marathon three times so far this year including a 1:01:17 PB for 2nd at February's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships and a 1:01:23 at March's Copenhagen World Half Marathon, where he was the only athlete born outside Africa to make the top 25.  Takenaka, a former captain of National Universi…
Post a Comment
Read more

William Malel Drives Honda to Second-Straight Towada Hachimantai Ekiden Title

by Brett Larner

Despite thunderstorms bringing heavy rain that shut down highways and roads in the area, the Honda corporate team came through with its second-straight win today at the 67th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden in Akita.  The rain may actually have helped the situation by alleviating Towada's normal summer heat as times were fast across the board compared to other years.  None was faster than Honda's William Malel (Kenya), who covered the 13.4 km, 180 m downhill Second Stage in 35:27 and took an incredible 45 seconds off the stage record set just last year.  Malel started the Second Stage in 7th, but by the time he handed off to Honda's third man Hiroaki Sano he had a lead of 33 seconds and from there Honda never looked back.

Sano, the top Japanese man at last year's Chicago Marathon, extended the lead to 1:29, running 46:23 for the 16.2 km Third Stage.  Honda's Keita Baba ran 49:17 for the 16.4 km Fourth Stage, its fastest mark by over a minute, to put the te…
Post a Comment
Read more

Maina and Okada Win Sendai Half

by Brett Larner

2012 Sendai International Half Marathon winner Johana Maina (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) returned to the top at this year's race, outrunning last year's winner Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) and all Japanese competition for a second Sendai title.  Mogusu took the race out hard, leading Maina through 5 km before losing touch.  From there it was a one-man show as Maina soloed his way to the win in 1:01:43.  2013 Nobeoka Nishi Nihon Marathon winner Hiroaki Sano (Team Honda), the lone Japanese man to go in pursuit of the two Kenyans, ran down Mogusu for 2nd in 1:02:40, a PB by nearly 45 seconds.

Mogusu barely held on to 3rd in 1:03:19, with Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) in close pursuit on the final lap of the track.  Kawauchi, running just a week after his 2:09:36 season best at the Hamburg Marathon, did his best to catch Mogusu but came up just short in 1:03:23 for 4th, the fastest of his eight half marathons so far this year. Newly Japan-based Se…
2 comments
Read more

Kipruto, Worku, Gitau and Kawauchi - Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon Preview

by Brett Larner

It’s still early in the year, but the Japanese men’s major domestic spring marathon season is already reaching its peak with Sunday’s Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon. Lake Biwa was Japan’s first IAAF gold label marathon and is one of its oldest continuous races, but with last weekend’s Tokyo Marathon having joined the Fukuoka International Marathon in 2:05 course record territory it is due for an improvement on Wilson Kipsang’s 2:06:13 course record. To get there it has enlisted defending champion and Daegu World Championships silver medalist Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) and former junior world record holder Bazu Worku (Ethiopia), both with 2:05 bests. The pair’s duel, or teamwork, up front should be one of this year’s main story lines.

Another is Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov’t) and his quest for a 2:07. Kawauchi is the lone A-list Japanese man in the field this year, at Lake Biwa for the sole purpose of joining Japan’s sub-2:08 club. Since his world record-setting pai…
Post a Comment
Read more

Chicago Marathon - Japanese Results

by Brett Larner
photos by Collin Winter and Dr. Helmut Winter

In the distance behind Kenyan winners Dennis Kimetto and Rita Jeptoo, Japanese runners Hiroaki Sano (Team Honda) and Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) each took 7th at the 2013 Chicago Marathon, Sano running almost dead even half splits for a 2:10:29 PB and Akaba fading to 2:27:49 after starting out among the leaders.  Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) also sneaked into the men's top ten, dropping dropping American Matt Tegenkamp in the last 3 km to take 9th in 2:11:29.

Oda started out on 2:10-flat pace, with Sano and other 2:12~2:13 Japanese entrants Kenji Higashino (Team Asahi Kasei), Norihide Fujimori (Team Chugoku Denryoku), Hiroki Tanaka (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and Yoshiki Otsuka (Team Aichi Seiko) running in Tegenkamp's group with Alistair Cragg (Ireland) and Michael Shelley (Australia) at 2:11:30 pace.  As the pace gradually increased toward 2:10 first Oda was absorbed, then the group of Japanese men began to fall away.

…
Post a Comment
Read more

A Few Words on Chicago

by Brett Larner
photos by Dr. Helmut Winter

Chicago comes at a tough time for Japan's corporate leagues, just before the start of the fall ekiden season's regional qualifiers.  Although just about every team has more than enough people to fill their lineups for these relatively minor events, head coaches will usually not let their better athletes do an October marathon, whether because of the limited recovery time in the event that they decide a big gun has to run in a qualifier, or because it would give them the hassle of explaining to the parent corporation why a star is off doing his or her own thing instead of being there for the team.  As a result you typically only see Japanese runners at Chicago when they are looking to drop something big, as with Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) and Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) this year, or, like the block of  Japanese men at 2:12~2:13, as part of a corporate federation junket for promising third-tier men to get the experience of running in …
Post a Comment
Read more

Mogusu and Noguchi Win Sendai International Half Marathon (updated)

by Brett Larner

Past greats returned to the top of the 23rd Sendai International Half Marathon on May 11, as Moscow World Championships marathon team member Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) won the women's race in a virtually solo 1:10:36 and sub-60 Kenyan Mekubo Mogusu (Team Nissin Shokuhin) took a hard-earned 1:01:54 win over 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) and defending Sendai champion Johana Maina (Kenya/Team Fujitsu).

Noguchi easily outdistanced 2011 Tokyo Marathon winner Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) for her third Sendai title and first win since 2008, one of her last races before the injury that knocked her out of the Beijing Olympics and far beyond.  Coming on the heels of her strong 2:24:05 for 3rd at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon her win suggests that Noguchi is still on the way back up to her former greatness leading on to Moscow.

For Mogusu, winner of most of Japan's other top-level half marathons during his colle…
Post a Comment
Read more

24-Year-Old Sano Wins Nobeoka in Marathon Debut

by Brett Larner

Screencap by @Nakajima_LA. Click to enlarge.  Many more screencaps on Nakajima's feed and on the Nobeoka Facebook page.

For the third weekend in a row Japanese audiences were treated to a great marathon broadcast as 24-year-old Hiroaki Sano (Team Honda) made a superlative debut Feb. 10 at the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon in Miyazaki, outkicking 2009 Ome 30 km winner and fellow debutant Hirokatsu Kurosaki (Team Konica Minolta) over the final kilometer to win in 2:12:14, the 4th-fastest winning time in Nobeoka's 51-year history.

Perfect weather and outstanding mid-2:11 pacing by Ryo Kiname (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) kept a large pack together near course record pace until Kiname's departure at 25 km.  Although the pace began to slip, the numbers up front thinned over the next 5 km before a surge at 30 km by full-time-working Sho Matsumoto (Dream AC) dramatically culled the numbers.  Three first-timers, Sano, Kurosaki and Kazuaki Shimizu (Team Yakult), a…
Post a Comment
Read more

Jeilan Again - Solo 13:21.29 at Saitama Time Trials

by Brett Larner

Just a week after running one of the fastest 10000 m of the year, 2008 World XC Jr. Champion Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) ran a solid 13:21.29 to win the men's 5000 m A-heat at the Saitama Prefecture Time Trials on Oct. 2. It was a completely solo performance as second-placer Makoto Iwase (SDF Academy) was over a minute behind in 14:23.73. Despite neither being a PB, Jeilan's two solid efforts show he is adapting to life and training in Japan and will be a major factor in the upcoming jitsugyodan ekiden season.

In other results from the meet, Atsushi Yamazaki (Team Subaru) led three under 29 minutes in the men's 10000 m A-heat, while Josai University runners Hiromi Katakai and Miki Yamada went 1-2 in the women's 5000 m A-heat.

2010 Saitama Prefecture Time Trials
click here for complete results
Men's 10000 m A-Heat
1. Atsushi Yamazaki (Team Subaru) - 28:52.06
2. Keita Baba (Team Honda) - 28:55.16
3. Hiroaki Sano (Team Honda) - 28:57.75

Men's 5000 …
Post a Comment
Read more

Toyo Takes First-Ever Hakone Ekiden Win

by Brett Larner

Click here for a video digest of Day Two and individual stage highlights.


Toyo University celebrates its first-ever Hakone Ekiden win. Click photo for additional pictures courtesy of Sanspo.com.

On Day Two of the 2009 Hakone Ekiden Toyo University defied the odds, hanging on to its slim lead over pre-race favorite Waseda University to come up victorious for the first time in the school’s 67 Hakone appearances. Riding on the momentum of Toyo’s first day victory, the team’s 6th, 7th and 8th stage runners ran impeccably, dueling with Day One runner-up Waseda at every turn before 9th leg runner Shogo Otsu dealt Waseda’s hopes of its first win in sixteen years a death blow with a tactical masterstroke. Waseda anchor Itaru Sando tried his best to close the gap Otsu opened but could get no closer than 41 seconds, leaving Waseda in 2nd place once again. Toyo’s time of 5:35:50 for the 109.9 km Day Two course was also the fastest in the field, giving it a rare triple crown with Day…
3 comments
Read more