Skip to main content

London, Boston, Daegu International Named as Women's WC Selection Race Replacements

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&rel=j7&k=2011032300862&m=rss

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Mar. 23, Rikuren announced that three overseas races, the April 10 Daegu International Marathon, the April 17 London Marathon, and the April 18 Boston Marathon have been designated as the official replacement selection races for this summer's Daegu World Championships women's marathon team. Due to the earthquake and tsunami disasters in northeastern Japan, both the final domestic selection race, the Nagoya International Women's Marathon, and its replacement, the Nagano Marathon, were cancelled, leading to the necessity of designating overseas events as the selection race. Only women who were entered in Nagoya are elligible for a World Championships team berth.

Following the preemptive withdrawal of 2010 Nagoya winner Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC), Beijing Olympian Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) leads eight Japanese women in London. 2011 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) was already entered in London and her performance there will not count in the national team selection process. 2011 Ome 30 km winner Hiromi Ominami (Yutic AC) is the lone Japanese woman in Boston, while Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon) and four others will run Daegu International.

Rikuren's criteria for World Championships consideration on the strength of results from the three races remain unchanged, "Sub-2:26 and top Japanese woman." At the press conference announcing the races, Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki commented, "We originally planned to use the April 17 Nagano Marathon as the replacement selection race, but since it isn't possible for that race to take place we want to pick up Japanese athletes from London."

The World Championships marathon team will be made up of five athletes. Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei), winner of February's Yokohama International Women's Marathon in 2:23:56, is the only woman to have secured a guaranteed spot on the team. The remaining four places will be decided following the three races in April.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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

Shikama and Njeri Win Sendai International Half Marathon

Shunsuke Shikama (Logisteed) and Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) won the Sendai International Half Marathon Sunday in Sendai, Shikama in 1:01:31 and Njeri in 1:09:20. Mizuki Nishimura (Tenmaya) was the top Japanese woman at 2nd overall. The men's race went through 5 km in 14:34 and 10 km in 29:22. Shikama ran alongside top competition including Shoki Yamaguchi (Soka Univ.), who has been running well in half marathons this season, and Tokyo World Championships marathon team member Naoki Koyama (Honda). On a course with many small ups and downs, Shikama attacked on a downhill just after 15 km, quickly breaking free of the lead group of 7. 13 seconds up by 20 km, Shikama covered the last 1.0975 km in 3:06 to seal his first Sendai title. A graduate of Juntendo University , Shikama is in his 4th season with Logisteed. At the 2024 National Corporate Half Marathon he ran 1:00:41, and at last year's East Japan Corporate Ekiden he won the Third Stage. In his marathon d...
Post a Comment
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