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

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...
1 comment
Read more

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more