Skip to main content

Biwako Mainichi Marathon - Elite Field Preview

by Brett Larner

The next selection race for the Japanese men's marathon team for the 2009 World Championships in Berlin takes place Mar. 1 at the Biwako Mainichi Marathon, one of Japan's most prestigious elite races. Biwako, also known as the Lake Biwa Marathon and usually referred to in official listings as the Otsu marathon after the town in which the race takes place, became Japan's first IAAF Gold Label road race earlier this year in a suprising move possibly designed to counter main sponsor Rohm's withdrawal of support following this year's race. Biwako's future may be in question but as a World Championships selection race this year's edition is sure to continue the event's history of offering the spring's most dramatic domestic men's racing.

Biwako has not yet released its official entry list, but below is a compilation of athletes who have thus far publicly declared an intent to run. The official entry list should be available within the week.

2009 Biwako Mainichi Marathon - Preliminary Elite Field
Jose Rios (Spain) - 2:07:42 (Biwako '04)
Kazutoshi Takatsuka (Team Komori Corp.) - 2:08:56 (Biwako '04)
Tomoya Shimizu (Team Sagawa Express) - 2:09:23 (Biwako '08)
Kenichi Kita (Team Kyudenko) - 2:11:41 (Nobeoka '06)
Takashi Ota (Team Konica Minolta) - 2:12:10 (Tokyo '08)
Masaya Shimizu (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:12:31 (Biwako '06)
Masayuki Kobayashi (Team Subaru) - 2:14:41 (Biwako '04)
Hayato Kono (Team Subaru) - 2:15:11 (Biwako '06)
Tsuyoshi Kato (Team Komori Corp.) - 2:15:49 (Tokyo '08)
Tomoya Shirayanagi (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 2:29:37 (1/2 mar. PB 1:02:57)
Takashi Maeda (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 2:30:41 (1/2 mar. PB 1:02:38)

Debut Marathoners With Half Marathon PB
Kazuyoshi Shimozato (Team Nissan) - 1:02:00
Chiharu Takada (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:27
Noriaki Takahashi (Team Subaru) - 1:02:41
Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:03:21
Masatomo Akutsu (Team JAL Ground Service) - 1:03:28
Yuya Shiokawa (Team Subaru) - 1:03:47
Yuji Mizukami (Team Subaru) - 1:04:11
Shigeru Furukawa (Team Subaru) - 1:04:19
Issei Kowata (Team Subaru) - 1:04:41
Bunta Kuroki (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 1:05:35

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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."...
82 comments
Read more

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 .
77 comments
Read more

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...
54 comments
Read more