Skip to main content

Mathathi and Mogusu Set to Go For Wanjiru's Record in Sendai

by Brett Larner

The Sendai International Half Marathon has announced the lineup for this year's 20th anniversary edition on May 9. The top end of the men's field promises a great duel as sub-27 10000 m man and 10 mile junior world record holder Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) makes his half marathon debut against three-time sub-hour half marathoner Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Aidem). Their goal will no doubt be not just the win but Samuel Wanjiru's course and Japanese all-comers record of 59:43, a target that has so far eluded Mogusu by as little as 5 seconds.

With a mixed field of Japanese elites, Japan-resident Africans and Japanese university men there are too many noteworthy runners to mention, but other names on the entry list include 2010 Asian Games marathon team member Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN), multiple World Half Marathon national team member Kazuo Ietani (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko), Tokyo Marathon 4th placer Yuki Kawauchi (unatt.), Kenyans James Mwangi (Team NTN), Harun Njoroge (Team Komori Corp.) and Cyrus Njui (Team Hitachi), and Yu Chiba and Takashi Chiba of two-time defending Hakone Ekiden champion Toyo University.

2009 World Championships marathoner Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) is the biggest name in the women's field, but she faces tough competition from Kenyan Julia Mumbi (Team Universal Entertainment), 2009 Kobe National Women's Marathon winner Misato Horie (Team Noritz), World Half Marathon national team members Chisato Osaki (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon) and Team Kyocera's Miyauchi twins among others.

For a complete field listing click here. JRN will publish a more detailed preview including info on how to watch online the week of the race.

(c) 2010 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

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