Skip to main content

Noguchi and Njoroge Win Sendai International Half Marathon (updated)

by Brett Larner

Athens Olympic marathon gold medalist and Japanese marathon national record holder Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) successfully defended her title at the Sendai International Half Marathon on May 11, running 1:08:25 to beat her time from last year`s race by 29 seconds and erase doubts about her fitness level after a spring filled with minor setbacks. The Sendai course, which features a 35 m elevation gain over the final 9 km, played to Noguchi`s strengths as she employed a similar strategy to that she used in winning last November`s Tokyo International Women`s Marathon.

Noguchi went out hard, running course record pace through 15 km despite the cold, rainy conditions which blanketed most of Japan over the weekend. Despited dropping off record pace, she applied pressure on rival Julia Mombi (Team Aruze) of Kenya over the length of the uphill, finally breaking away with an attack around 20 km. Mombi held on to finish 2nd in 1:08:31, a sizeable PB over her previous best mark of 1:09:34 from this past January. The rest of the field was far behind, with 3rd place finisher Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon) coming to the goal in 1:11:44.

Noguchi told reporters after the race that she was very pleased with her result and what it means for Beijing. She said her body felt strong and that she is now highly confident for the Olympics.

In the men`s race, Team Komori Corp.`s young ringer Harun Njoroge captured a tight competition, winning in 1:01:55 while rookie Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku) ran a massive 3:34 personal best to take 2nd in 1:02:00. It was a near-replay of Njoroge`s victory in February`s Marugame Half Marathon, where he won by a narrow margin in cold and rainy conditions despite moving to Japan only days before.

Half marathon ace Kazuo Ietani (Team Sanyo Tokusho Seiko) and Osamu Ibata (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) was close behind Njoroge and Nakao, finishing in 1:02:05 and 1:02:08 respectively. 12 more runners recorded times under 1:03 including marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka who was 9th in 1:02:32. Defending champion Onbeche Mokamba was 32nd with a time of 1:04:44.

Top Results

Women
1. Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex): 1:08:25
2. Julia Mombi (Team Aruze): 1:08:31 PB
3. Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon): 1:11:44
4. Mikiko Hara (Team Nihon ChemiCon): 1:12:38
5. Hiroko Shoi (Team Nihon ChemiCon): 1:13:26
6. Mai Tagami (Team Aruze): 1:14:47
7. Mizuho Kishi (Team Yamada Denki): 1:15:02 PB
8. Tomomi Higuchi (Team Daihatsu): 1:15:06
9. Miki Oka (Team Daihatsu): 1:15:55
10. Saki Matsumoto (Ritsumeikan University): 1:17:30

Men
1. Harun Njoroge (Team Komori Corp.): 1:01:55
2. Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku): 1:02:00 PB
3. Kazuo Ietani (Team Sanyo Tokusho Seiko): 1:02:05
4. Osamu Ibata (Team Otsuka Seiyaku): 1:02:08 PB
5. Joseph Mwaniki (Team Konica-Minolta): 1:02:23
6. Kiyokatsu Hasegawa (Team JR East): 1:02:26 PB
7. Takahiro Kitagawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku): 1:02:28 PB
8. Yuki Abe (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki): 1:02:28 PB
9. Toshinari Takaoka (Team Kanebo): 1:02:32
10. Masaki Shimoju (Team Konica-Minolta): 1:02:39

Complete men`s and women`s results are available from the Sendai International Half Marathon website.

The IAAF`s report on Sendai is here.

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Fukuoka International Marathon Elite Field

The Dec. 1 Fukuoka International Marathon is the first of this winter season's big selection races for the home soil team for next year's Tokyo World Championships, and the domestic field is a great one. Kenya Sonota , 2:05:59 in Tokyo last year, and 2:06 men Yusuke Nishiyama , Yuya Yoshida , Kazuya Nishiyama and Daisuke Doi make up the main contenders to get a spot, with internationals Lemeck Too , Jie He , Bethwel Yegon , Vincent Raimoi , last year's winner Michael Githae , and Shaohui Yang perfectly positioned to add momentum to the shot at the 2:06:30 Worlds standard that they'll all be taking. 8 other Japanese men in the 2:07 to 2:09 range make it one of the most competitive Fukuoka editions in a long, long time. Last year Githae outkicked Yang by 1 second to win 2:07:08 to 2:07:09, Yang with a Chinese NR that was broken a few months later by He in Wuxi. Chinese men's marathoning has momentum right now too, and it wouldn't be surprising to see either He

Koku Gakuin Wins National University Ekiden for First Time in Anchor Stage Turnaround

Last month's Izumo Ekiden season opener was unusually action-packed with turnovers in the lead on every stage and a dramatic showdown between anchors Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ,), Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin Univ.). All three schools were expected to be up front again at today's National University Men's Ekiden , and race-morning lineup changes unexpectedly put Shinohara, Ota and Hirabayashi against each other again on the 2nd-to-last stage of the day. Komazawa was immediately in trouble when its first two runners Kosuke Shimako and Shunsuke Kuwata tanked, falling to 16th. AGU was out front after two of the eight legs, with Hibiki Yoshida from Izumo 4th-placer Soka University giving him a run for it and both just missing the 2nd leg CR. AGU led the rest of the way, with a 33:03 CR for the 11.8 km 4th leg by Asahi Kuroda giving it a lead of almost 1:30 that it took another CR from KGU's Ayumu Yamamoto to cut back down

It's Koku Gakuin's Year - National University Ekiden Preview and Streaming

Komazawa University is trying to line up its fifth-straight National University Men's Ekiden win this Sunday, but after a runner-up finish to Koku Gakuin University last month at the Izumo Ekiden it's got a tough road ahead with two extra stages and a longer average stage length to deal with. TV Asahi has the live broadcast starting at 7:45 a.m. local time, with official streaming on TVer and unofficial streaming on mov3.co . Izumo was an unusually close and exciting race between Komazawa, KGU and Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University that saw the lead change every stage. All three teams were within a few seconds of each other at the start of the anchor stage, where Osaka Marathon winner Kiyoto Hirabayashi of KGU dropped Hakone First Stage winner Kotaro Shinohara from Komazawa and Third Stage winner Aoi Ota of AGU to take the win. KGU looks like the favorite here too, its top-8 10000 m average of 28:16.61 the class of the field and giving it a solid advantage ov