Skip to main content

Akaba Crushes Field to Win Her First Sendai International Half Marathon (updated)

http://www.kahoku.co.jp/news/2009/05/20090510t14030.htm
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/f-sp-tp0-20090510-492731.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On a Rikuren-certified 21.0975 km course starting at the Sendai Civic Track and Field Grounds in Sendai's Miyagino Ward and ending in front of City Hall in Aoba Ward, Berlin World Championships marathon team member Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) ran 1:08:50 to win the 19th Sendai International Half Marathon on May 10. The mother of a nearly three year old daughter, Akaba's first win in Sendai fittingly came on Mother's Day.

Running in cloudy but warm and humid conditions which saw few athletes clock their best times, Akaba dropped the three others in the lead pack after only 8 km. 2nd place finisher Julia Mombi (Team Aruze) was over 2 1/2 minutes behind, while Hiroko Shoi (Team Nihon ChemiCon) came up from 45 seconds behind at 10 km to take 3rd, just missing catching Mombi but earning one of the only PBs in the top 10. Early lead pack members Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) and Miyuki Ando (Team Daiichi Seimei) held on for 4th and 5th. Akaba ran the race in the midst of marathon training and rejoiced at recording such a strong time. "I didn't think I was going to break 1:09 today at all, so it's a fantastic result!" she celebrated afterwards.

Last year's winning man Harun Njoroge (Team Komori Corp.) ran 1:02:02 to score a second-straight victory. In contrast to the women's race, a large pack of ten hung together until well into the race. Not until the last 5 km did Njoroge break free of eventual runner-up Julius Gitahi (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and top Japanese finisher Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN), who ran side by side to finish 2nd and 3rd overall and just one second apart. Kenji Kotani of Hyogo Prefecture won the wheelchair race. As the top Japanese finishers, Akaba and Kitaoka will be selected for the Japanese national team for October's World Half Marathon in the U.K. Both Akaba and Kitaoka ran in last year's World Half Marathon in Brazil.

2009 Sendai International Half Marathon - Top Finishers
Click division header for complete results including splits.
Women
1. Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) - 1:08:50
2. Julia Mombi (Team Aruze) - 1:11:21
3. Hiroko Shoi (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 1:11:27 - PB
4. Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:12:08
5. Miyuki Ando (Team Daiichi Seimei) - 1:13:05
6. Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 1:13:38
7. Sumiko Suzuki (Team Hokuren) - 1:14:09 - PB
8. Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC) - 1:14:12
9. Rie Matsumoto (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 1:15:00
10. Kasumi Oyagi (Team Panasonic) - 1:15:07
11. Mizuho Kishi (Team Yamada Denki) - 1:16:26 - debut
12. Xu Jun Liang (China) - 1:16:52
13. Kozue Saito (Yamagata Amateur Sports Assoc.) - 1:16:57
14. Rika Kawashima (Bukkyo Univ.) - 1:16:58
15. Takako Shimada (Team Shimamura) - 1:17:27
16. Eriko Okishi (Bukkyo Univ.) - 1:17:47
17. Ami Shoji (Josai Univ.) - 1:18:14
18. Chihiro Sakata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1:18:29
19. Yurika Wakimoto (Kobe Gakuin Univ.) - 1:18:33
20. Anastasiya Padalinskaya (Belarus) - 1:19:21
21. Tomo Kaneko (Bukkyo Univ.) - 1:19:30

Men
1. Harun Njoroge (Team Komori Corp.) - 1:02:02
2. Julius Gitahi (Team Nissin Shokuhin Grp.) - 1:02:33
3. Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) - 1:02:34
4. Joseph Mwaniki (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:02:52
5. Ryosuke Fukuyama (Team JAL Ground Service) - 1:02:58
6. Minoru Okuda (Team Honda) - 1:02:58
7. Michinori Takano (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 1:03:20
8. Masatoshi Oike (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:03:21
9. Tetsuo Nishimura (Team YKK) - 1:03:23
10. Kazuyuki Maeda (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:03:52
11. Yuki Mori (Team Sumco Techxiv) - 1:03:53
12. Tomonori Onitsuka (Team Kyudenko) - 1:03:54
13. Akinori Iida (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:03:54 - PB
14. Isamu Sueyoshi (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:04:04 - PB
15. Tetsuo Nishikawa (Team YKK) - 1:04:04
16. Keisuke Nakatani (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:04:13
17. Sohei Wada (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 1:04:13
18. Kiyokatsu Hasegawa (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:04:22
19. Yuzo Onishi (Team Nissin Shokuhin Grp.) - 1:04:30
20. Akira Okada (Team Hitachi Cable) - 1:04:33
21. Tomohiro Seto (Team Kanebo) - 1:04:38
22. Satoshi Yoshii (Team Sumco Techxiv) - 1:04:40
23. Toshinari Suwa (Team Nissin Shokuhin Grp.) - 1:04:46
24. Naoto Morimoto (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 1:04:48
25. Masahisa Fujiwara (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:59
Labels:

Comments

dennis said…
Julia Mumbi is one of the best Japan base kenyan runners. She won Kobe twice and Mizayaki. And she challenge Noguchi to just 6 seconds last year. Very impressive Kenyan runner.
May 17, 2009 at 8:10 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Hakone Champ AGU Hits 50 km a Day in Spring Break Training Camp

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...
1 comment
Read more

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more

70th Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden

The 70th running of the Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden happened over the start of the Golden Week holidays, a 3-day, 29-leg race covering 306.9 km around the northern prefecture of Yamagata. There used to be a lot more of these races where people from the prefecture run for their hometown teams on a Tour de Whatever prefecture or area it happens to be held in, but Yamagata's is one of the few to have survived this long. And amazingly enough, local broadcaster YBC live streamed the entire thing on Youtube. There aren't many corporate teams in the mostly rural area, so runners from the ND Software corporate team played a heavy role, its 2 best runners Masato Arao and Ryoma Takeuchi winning their stages on Day 2 with Takeuchi doubling to anchor the Kita-Murayama team to an overall 5th-place finish, and Koichi Shoji breaking the 2nd leg CR on Day 1 and winning the 2nd-to-last stage on Day 3 to play a key role in the Yamagata city team taking the overall win in 16:06:51, 3:09/km ...
1 comment
Read more