Skip to main content

Looking Forward to Running With Naoko! Hara and Kano Join Nagoya Field

http://www.chunichi.co.jp/article/feature/niwm/CK2008020602085895.html
http://www.daily.co.jp/general/2008/02/06/0000827072.shtml

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Feb. 5, two of the top contenders for the Beijing Olympic women's marathon team, both of whom withdrew from last month's Osaka International Women's Marathon, were added to the field for the final Olympic selection race, the Nagoya International Women's Marathon on Mar. 9.

Yumiko Hara (Team Kyocera) ran in the women's marathon at last summer's World Championships. She withdrew from Osaka, where she was the defending champion, the day before the race after coming down with a cold. Hara won her debut marathon at the 2005 Nagoya to qualify for the 2005 World Championships. She will be keen to qualify for the Olympics here as well.

Also joining the Nagoya field after withdrawing from Osaka is Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC), the winner of last summer's Hokkaido Marathon. Kano retired from this year's Osaka after only 17 km due to pain in her left leg, but her Olympic dream was not finished. She did not want to wait four more years for another chance.

Sydney Olympic women's marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahashi (Team Phiten) is also scheduled to run Nagoya. While waiting for her plane to Second Wind's training camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kano told reporters, "I probably won't have another chance to run with Takahashi. I'm so excited for it!"

photo caption: Yuri Kano leaving from Narita Airport for a training camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .

Chesang Wins Osaka Women's Marathon in 2:19:31, Yada Drops 2:19:57 Debut NR

This year's Osaka International Women's Marathon was a race run with a high level of methodicalness, starting slower than the planned 3:19/km but ramping up until the lead pack was skimming around the 2:20:15-30 projected finish level. After hitting halfway in 1:10:13 with a group of 6, by 25 km only 4 were left up front, sub-2:19 runners Workenesh Edesa , Stella Chesang and Bedatu Hirpa , and the debuting Mikuni Yada , and when the last 2 pacers stepped off at 30 km it was Yada who went to the front. Despite never have raced longer than the 10.6 km Third Stage at November's Queens Ekiden where she had helped the Edion team score its first-ever national title, Yada was very, very impressive, fearlessly surging from 12 km and never letting up, even laughing and smiling to fans along the course. When she started sustaining a pace around 3:15/km the projected finish dropped under 2:20 and all the way down to 2:19:28 by 35 km, and even when all 3 of the more experienced ru...

Hirayama Breaks Osaka Half CR, Martinez Set Puerto Rican NR

The Osaka Half Marathon took another big step up the domestic half marathon rankings from a mass-participation race run alongside the Osaka International Women's Marathon to one of the country's top-tier races. In the women's race, the debuting Jecinta Nyokabi (Denso) went out fast, only to be run down by veteran Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon AC) by 10 km. Nyokabi faded to 6th in 1:10:41, but Yoshikawa pushed on to a PB 1:09:14 for the win. Rina Shimizu (Noritz), Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) and Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.) all broke 70 minutes, Tsuchiya taking the Kansai Region collegiate title in 1:09:32 for 4th overall. Everyone in the top 10 who wasn't debuting ran a PB, a mark of how fast the day was even with cold and windy conditions. The men's race went out on sub-61 pace courtesy of Yudai Shimazu (GMO), then got a big injection of speed when Kyuma Yokota (Toyota Kyushu) took off close to 60-flat pace. Yokota opened a 10-second lead by 15 km, but over ...