Skip to main content

Rikuren Announces Japanese Women's WC Marathon Team

by Brett Larner

The Japanese federation Rikuren held a press conference Apr. 21 to announce the lineup of the Japanese women's marathon team for August's Daegu World Championships and to present the ten athletes on the men's and women's teams to the media. The men's team was announced late last month, but the women's team decision was delayed until this week following the cancellation of the Nagoya International Women's Marathon after the Mar. 11 disasters.

2009 World Championships marathon silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) returns to lead the team on the strength of her 2:23:56 win at February's Yokohama International Women's Marathon, accompanied by Daiichi Seimei teammate and former XC skiing national team member Azusa Nojiri who ran a PB of 2:25:29 at last weekend's London Marathon to finish as the top Japanese woman among those relocated to London following Nagoya's cancellation. Both Ozaki and Nojiri are coached by 1991 World Championships women's marathon silver medalist Sachiko Yamashita.

As expected, 2011 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren), fresh from a 2:24:09 PB at the London Marathon, was named to the team along with Yokohama runner-up Remi Nakazato (Team Daihatsu). The surprise came with the final member of the team, as Osaka runner-up Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) was named over Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido), who ran a PB of 2:25:40 in London to finish as the second Nagoya relocatee. While Fujinaga cleared Rikuren's stated criterion of a sub-2:26 clocking in difficult circumstances following Nagoya's cancellation and the disasters in Japan and finished only 11 seconds behind Nojiri, Ito, coached by Rikuren's director of road racing Tadasu Kawano, ran 2:26:55 in Osaka in very windy conditions and was 26 seconds behind Akaba. The selection of Ito over Fujinaga elicited surprise and a series of questions from journalists as to the decision's rationale. Officials said that it was a difficult decision, and that while Ito was impressively aggressive throughout the race, Fujinaga had faded in the final stages of London and was passed by Nojiri in the final km. Regardless of the reasoning, it remains a controversial decision.

Rikuren officials also announced that all ten members of the men's and women's teams would be dedicated their World Championships runs to the Run for Japan charity initiative. Ozaki and Nojiri indicated that they would do the bulk of their training in Boulder, Colorado, while Nakazato said she plans to train in Flagstaff, Arizona. Akaba and Ito said they are still considering their plans. In individual comments, all five runners said they expected heat and humidity to be a major factor in the World Championships race and would be taking that into account in their preparations. "It'll be hot and humid. I don't think it'll be a fast race," said Akaba. "Kenyans and Africans may be faster," added Nakazato, "but we Japanese are tougher. In a difficult, hot race we can hang on until the end." "I'm good in the heat and am confident of my chances," said Ozaki. "In Berlin I won a silver medal, but this time I want gold."

2011 World Championships Japanese Women's Marathon Team

Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei)
Born: July 1, 1981 (30 yrs.)
PB: 2:23:30 - 2008 Tokyo International Women's Marathon, 1st
Other main results:
2:23:56 - 1st, 2011 Yokohama International Women's Marathon
2:25:25 - 2nd, 2009 Berlin World Championships Marathon
2:26:19 - 2nd, 2008 Nagoya International Women's Marathon

Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren)
Born: Oct. 18, 1979 (31 yrs.)
PB: 2:24:09 - 2011 London Marathon, 6th
Other main results:
2:26:29 - 2011 Osaka International Women's Marathon, 1st
2:24:55 - 2010 London Marathon, 6th
2:25:40 - 2009 Osaka International Women's Marathon, 2nd

Remi Nakazato (Team Daihatsu)
Born: June 24, 1988 (23 yrs.)
PB: 2:24:29 - 2011 Yokohama International Women's Marathon, 2nd
Other main results:
2:34:29 - 2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon, 12th
2009 World Half Marathon Championships - 16th
2009 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships - 4th

Azusa Nojiri (Team Daiichi Seimei)
Born: June 6, 1982 (29 yrs.)
PB: 2:25:29 - 2011 London Marathon, 12th
Other main results:
2:29:12 - 2010 Osaka International Women's Marathon, 8th
2010 World Half Marathon Championships - 13th
former XC ski national team member

Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku)
Born: May 23, 1984 (27 yrs.)
PB: 2:26:55 - 2011 Osaka International Women's Marathon, 2nd
Other main results:
2:29:13 - 2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon, 4th
2006 Kyoto City Half Marathon - 1st


(c) 2011 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