Skip to main content

Fujita and Kisaki Headline, Ono Returns From Disaster in Kyoto City Half Marathon

http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/article.php?mid=P2008022000192&genre=L1&area=K10

translated by Brett Larner

On Feb. 20 the elite field for the 15th Kyoto City Half Marathon on Mar. 9 was announced. Headlining the men's field is former full marathon national record holder Atsushi Fujita (Team Fujitsu), while last year's winner Ryoko Kisaki (Bukkyo University) is back to defend her title in the women's race. Facing Fujita will be Helsinki World Championships men's marathon competitor and Kyoto Sangyo University graduate Michitaka Hosokawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) and top Japanese finisher at the 2006 World Road Running Championships Kazuo Ietani (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko).

Also entered in the men's race are a number of Hakone Ekiden star runners including Soji Ikeda (Komazawa University, 2008 Hakone winners) who was 2nd on the 1st stage, East Japan Intercollegiate 10,000 m 2nd place finisher Hiroyuki Ono (Juntendo Univesity), Hakone Ekiden 3rd place finisher Chuo Gakuin University's ace Masato Kihara, and 7th place finisher Chuo University's star Yuichiro Ueno.

Apart from Kisaki, the women's race includes last year's 2nd place finisher Tomomi Hamasaki (Meijo University) and 4th place finisher Noriko Higuchi (Ritsumeikan University), National Intercollegiate 5000 and 10000 m competitor Yui Sakai (Josai University) and 5th place finisher in last summer's Universiad 5000 m Seika Nishikawa (Meijo University).

The race starts at 9:00 a.m. in front of Heian Jingu in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto.

Translator's note: Hiroyuki Ono is the runner who repeatedly collapsed just before the end of the last stage on the first day of this year's Hakone Ekiden. Ono was forced to retire from the race with less than 500 m to go and eliminated his school, defending champions Juntendo University, from the race. Kyoto will be his first major race since then.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .