Skip to main content

Start Lists for Beijing Paralympics Marathon

by Brett Larner

Japan will field three athletes in the visually impaired division of the Sept. 17 Beijing Paralympics Marathon and eight in the two wheelchair divisions. Leading the team is visually impaired division defending gold medalist Yuichi Takahashi. Takahashi has said his target is 2:30 but will face serious competition from world record holder Henry Wanyoike of Kenya, who ran 2:31:31 earlier this season, as well as from Tunisia's Abderrahim Zhiou, 2:32:52, and Italy's Fabrizio Cocchi, 2:33:20.

Visually Impaired Division - T12
Yuichi Takahashi, 43, SB: 2:39:02
Masahito Niino, 51, SB: 2:49:05
Hiroaki Kajisa, 34, SB: 2:56:51

Wheelchair Division - T54
Masazumi Soejima, 38, SB: 1:21:23
Hiroki Sasahara, 34, SB: 1:29:12
Kota Hokinoue, 34, SB: 1:29:42
Hiroyuki Yamamoto, 42, SB: 1:30:40
Choke Yasuoka, 35, SB: 1:37:14
Jun Hiromichi, 34, SB: 1:39:37

Impaired Limb Mobility Wheelchair Division - T52
Toshihiro Takada, 43, SB: 1:44:04
Hirokazu Ueyonabaru, 37, SB: 1:44:55

Complete start lists for the Beijing Paralympics Marathon are available here. All five divisions in the marathon begin together at 7:30 a.m. local time.

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...

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...

Fujisan GX Breaks CR to Win 79th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden

The 79th edition of the Towada Hachimantai Ekiden took place Aug. 1 in Akita. Covering a 5-leg 71.4 km course, the race hosted 14 teams. Yamanashi's Fujisan GX took the overall win in a 3:42:17 course record. The best-placing team from within the prefecture, the Akita T&F Association team made the podium at 6th overall. The women's race was canceled again this year due to lack of participation. 79th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden Akita, 1 Aug. 2026 5 stages, 71.4 km, 14 teams complete results Top Team Results 1. Fujisan GX - 3:42:17 - CR 2. Corporate Select Team - 3:46:24 3. Tokyo Police A - 3:48:00 4. Comodi Iida - 3:48:41 5. Tokyo Police B - 3:50:14 6. Akita T&F Assoc. - 3:57:58 7. Fukushima T&F Assoc. - 4:08:20 Top Individual Stage Results First Stage  (13.0 km) 1. Ryota Seki (Tokyo Police A) - 39:47 2. Takuma Nakayama (Fujisan GX) - 40:01 3. Ryota Sato (Tokyo Police B) - 40:02 Second Stage  (13.0 km) 1. Yuki Seto (Fujisan GX) - 37:03 2. Shunsuke Watanabe (Comodi ...