Skip to main content

Rikuren Announces Four-Loop Course for Yokohama International Women's Marathon

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/other/090525/oth0905251840020-n1.htm

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On May 25 Rikuren announced the course for the Nov. 15 Yokohama International Women's Marathon, a new event which replaces the Tokyo International Women's Marathon. The 42.195 km course begins in front of Yokohama's Yamashita Park, finishes within the park's grounds, and consists of a 1.7 km loop and a longer 13.2 km loop which runners will cover three times. The route will be the first-ever Rikuren-certified loop course and the first marathon on Japan's elite circuit not to start and finish on a 400 m track.

Following the start, the 1.7 km loop travels from Yamashita Park to the Kanagawa Prefectural Office and then through Yokohama's famous Chinatown before returning to the park. The longer loop extends from the park to the Akarenga Warehouse district, the site of the start and finish of the discontinued Yokohama International Women's Ekiden. From there it passes the east exit of Yokohama Station and Yokohama Stadium, returning once again to Yamashita Park at the end of each loop. The course features a net elevation loss of 13 m and is almost entirely flat, meaning it is likely to be extremely fast. Rikuren officials said that the new marathon's prize money purse is "under discussion," but added that the field would be limited to 500 or 600 runners.
Labels:

Comments

dennis said…
Is there any news on Akane Wakita and Kazue Ogoshi? How come she's not running any track races? Ruth Wanjiru ran 2:27:38 in Osaka and should make the world championships
May 28, 2009 at 1:02 PM
dennis said…
Irene Limika Nagano marathon runner up make the world champs. I've read about it. I feel so bad for japan based kenyan Julia Mumbi and Ruth WAnjiru. It seems like Kenyans athletics don't care about them. Ruth wanjiru ran 2:27:38 in osaka which is faster then Irene Limika and she won't make the team!!!.
May 28, 2009 at 1:04 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...
3 comments
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...
Post a Comment
Read more

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .
Post a Comment
Read more