Skip to main content

The 2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon - Watch Online

by Brett Larner

So far this year Japan's major marathons have been cursed with bad weather. January's Osaka International Women's Marathon, February's Tokyo Marathon and last week's Biwako Mainichi Marathon all had cold, rainy, windy conditions which put the brakes on hopes of good times. This Sunday's Nagoya International Women's Marathon looks set to have the first genuinely nice spring day, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid to upper teens. Could it be too much of a good thing?

The race is being pitched in the Japanese media as a battle between the holder of the fastest PB in the field, 2007 Rotterdam Marathon winner Hiromi Ominami (Team Toyota Shatai), and the field's highest-placing finisher from last summer's World Championships marathon, 7th-placer Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC). Ominami hasn't broken 2:30 since 2007 but turned in strong performances at February's Marugame Half Marathon and Ome 30 km which indicate she is in good shape. Probably not enough for the win, but she is an experienced competitor who can't be discounted. The diminuitive Kano comes to Nagoya from altitude training in Albuquerque without any major race results this year. She says she has no other goal than the win, but there is a phrase in Japanese, "Kanousei ga hikui," which when spoken can mean either "Kano is short" or "Not much chance." If she succeeds in picking up the second marathon win of her career, Kano will join her teammate Kiyoko Shimahara as a top contender for the Japanese team at November's Asian Games marathon.

Derartu Tulu (Ethiopia) will be the woman wearing the #1 bib. Until winning last year's New York City Marathon Tulu had not been a factor at the international level since setting her PB, the best in the field after Ominami, at the 2005 World Championships. Nagoya will be her chance to show her surprise New York win wasn't a fluke. It is a little surprising to see Lyubov Denisova (Russia) in the field after a late-career two-year ban for a drug violation, but it will be interesting to see whether she can approach anywhere near the stable 2:25-2:26 range she held from 2002-2006 before being caught. Her countrywoman Tatiana Aryasova, Chinese runner Jiala Wang and Kenyan Rose Nyangacha round out the overseas field.

Looking at the rest of the domestic field, Mika Okunaga (Team Kyudenko) is worth keeping an eye on. After a modest 2:27:17 PB at last year's Osaka in January, Okunaga joined Kano at the London Marathon in April where she ran in the lead pack at near 2:20 pace for the first part of the race. Okunaga doesn't look to be that caliber of athlete but the ambition she showed in London suggests that if she has learned from that performance she may be a contender this Sunday.

Several strong women are debuting in Nagoya, chief among them Yoko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera). One half of a set of fast twins, Miyauchi PB'd at February's Marugame Half Marathon in 1:09:51. Not far behind is Remi Nakazato (Team Daihatsu), who with a PB of 1:10:03 has a shot at breaking 2:27. Four other debut women have half marathon PBs in the 1:11 range and could perform. Also worth watching out for is Yoshio Koide-coached Akane Wakita (Team Toyota Jidoshoki), whose 2:31:16 debut at last year's Osaka didn't accurately represent her potential.

The marathon will be broadcast live nationwide on Fuji TV from 11:50 a.m. to 2:55 p.m. this Sunday, Mar. 14. Overseas fans should be able to watch online for free thanks to the miracle of Keyhole TV. Click here for more information on watching the race.

2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon Elite Field With Bib Numbers
click here for complete field listing
1. Derartu Tulu (Ethiopia) - 2:23:30 (World Championships '05)
2. Lyubov Denisova (Russia) - 2:25:18 (New York '04)
3. Jiali Wang (China) - 2:26:34 (Zhengzhou '08)
4. Tatiana Aryasova (Russia) - 2:29:09 (Los Angeles '08)
5. Rose Kerubo Nyangacha (Kenya) - 2:29:22 (Hamburg '07)
11. Hiromi Ominami (Team Toyota Shatai) - 2:23:26 (Berlin '04)
12. Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) - 2:24:27 (Tokyo Int'l '08)
13. Mika Okunaga (Team Kyudenko) - 2:27:17 (Osaka '09)
14. Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 2:29:35 (Nagoya '09)
15. Mayumi Fujita (Team Juhachi Ginko) - 2:29:56 (Osaka '09)
16. Akane Wakita (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) - 2:31:16 (Osaka '09)
17. Yoko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) - debut - 1:09:51 (Marugame Half '10)
18. Remi Nakazato (Team Daihatsu) - debut - 1:10:03 (Jitsugyodan Half '09)
101. Misuzu Okamoto (Team Hokkoku Ginko) - 2:34:12 (Sapporo '09)
103. Yukiko Matsubara (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:34:05 (Osaka '08)
104. Shoko Miyazaki (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) - debut - 1:11:06 (Jitsugyodan Half '09)
105. Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - debut - 1:11:11 (Kyoto Half '06)
115. Kayo Sugihara (Team Denso) - 1:11:35 - debut - 1:11:35 (Miyazaki Half '07)
116. Aimi Horikoshi (Team Yamada Denki) - debut - 1:11:20 (Miyazaki Half '08)
117. Ikumi Wakamatsu (Team Denso) - 2:27:44 (Nagoya '01)

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Anonymous said…
its so nice to see how the gorvement and the people of jajan are nurturing young tarlent of poor african and other all over the world and making them world beaters in marathonthanks to the people of japan am kariuki from kenya.

Most-Read This Week

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr