Skip to main content

Takaoka Wins Himejijo 10 Miler (updated)

http://osaka.nikkansports.com/news/f-on-tp2-20080211-319855.html
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/flash/KFullFlash20080211030.html
http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0000834508.shtml

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Japanese men's national marathon record holder Toshinari Takaoka (Team Kanebo) won the Himejijo 10 Mile Road Race in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture on Feb. 11, running a time of 47:40. Takaoka accelerated with 1.5 km to go, passing Takashi Toyota (Team Sanyo Tokusho Seiko) with 1 km left to take the lead for good. Kenji Noguchi (Team Shikoku Denryoku) took 2nd in 47:44, with Toyota 1 second back in 3rd. The 6th place finisher in last summer's Osaka World Championships marathon, Satoshi Osaki (Team NTT Nishi Nihon), was 4th in 47:46.

"It's been a long time since I won something," Takaoka smiled after the race. He was scheduled to run last weekend's Ome Marathon 30 km road race until the race was cancelled due to heavy snow, but was able to negotiate a last-minute entry for Himejijo. At last December's Fukuoka International Marathon Takaoka finished a disappointing 10th and did not qualify for the Beijing Olympics. "This win has brought my confidence back," a happy Takaoka commented during his victory interview. "I can go back to practicing confidently and then go on to my next marathon. Beijing is impossible. 4 years from now will also be impossible. But I still want to taste both the difficulty and the attraction of the marathon." In the fast-approaching spring, Takaoka will run an overseas marathon free of pressure and free to do as he pleases.

Kotaro Fujioka (Josuikan H.S., Hiroshima) won the high school boys' division in 51:38. The remaining 3 divisions, each 5 km in length, all saw strong performances. Yayoi Nishiyama (Team Wacoal, Suma Gakuen H.S.) won the 15+ women's class in 16:18, while Yoshitaka Ogawa (Tatsuno Nishi J.H.S.) won the junior high school boys' category in 15:24 and Risa Yokoe (Inami Kita J.H.S.) won the junior high schools girls' division in 16:55.

Himejijo 10 Mile Road Race Results
1. Toshinari Takaoka (Team Kanebo): 47:40
2. Kenji Noguchi (Team Shikoku Denryoku): 47:44
3. Takashi Toyota (Team Sanyo Tokusho Seiko): 47:45
4. Satoshi Osaki (Team NTT Nishi Nihon): 47:46
5. Kazuo Ietani (Team Sanyo Tokusho Seiko): 47:48
6. J. Young (U.K.): 47:49
7. Toshiya Katayama (Team NTT Nishi Nihon): 47:54
8. Shuichi Fujii (Team Nissin Shokuhin): 47:58
9. Sohei Wada (Team Shikoku Denryoku): 48:01
10. Toshihiro Iwasa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku): 48:01

Translator's note: Could Takaoka be running Boston or London? Having selected the hilly Ome 30 km as his tuneup race, it looks possible that Takaoka may be considering Boston. It would certainly make for a memorable race to see the aging national record holder turn up and have one more good run.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr