Skip to main content

Chepchirchir, Ito, Kawauchi, Kisorio and Sato Headline Elite Field of 53 at Marugame International Half Marathon

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2012011600713
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/news/120116/oth12011619010032-n1.htm
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/01/16/kiji/K20120116002445470.html
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/region/news/120117/kgw12011702170000-n1.htm
http://www.shikoku-np.co.jp/sports/local/20120117000111

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Jan. 16 the organizers of the 66th Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon, scheduled for Feb. 5, announced the 36 men and 17 women making up this year's elite field.  Headlining the overseas men's field are 58:46 all-time #3 half marathoner Matthew Kisorio (Kenya) and course record holder Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya).  The top domestic draws in the men's race are national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and Olympic hopeful Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) in his final tuneup for the Tokyo Marathon.  Two-time World Championships marathoner Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo) will also run, and 2012 Hakone Ekiden top four Toyo University, Komazawa University, Meiji University and Waseda University will all send members of this year's teams.

1:08:07 half marathoner Sarah Chepchirchir (Kenya) leads the overseas women's field, along with Ethiopian Tiki Gelana.  2011 World Championships marathoner Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), 2009 World Championships marathoner Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) and Kagawa natives Yuka Izumi (Team Tenmaya) and Kumi Ogura (Team Shikoku Denryoku) top the women's race.   Making a return from giving birth to her first baby, marathoner Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) will also line up, and 2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon winner Yuri Kano (Team Shiseido) is entered in the women's general division.  11025 people are entered for the half marathon, with entrants in the 3 km and 1 km races swelling the total numbers to 12384.

2012 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon Elite Field Highlights
Marugame, Kagawa, 2/5/12
click here for complete elite field listing

Women
Sarah Chepchirchir (Kenya) - 1:08:07
Yuri Kano (Team Shiseido) - 1:08:57
Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) - 1:09:29
Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) - 1:09:33
Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) - 1:09:54
Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:10:03
Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia) - 1:10:22
Kaoru Nagao (Team Univ. Ent.) - 1:10:45
Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) - 1:10:51
Shino Saito (Team Shimamura) - 1:10:51
Yuka Izumi (Team Tenmaya) - 1:10:58
Yui Sakai (Team Shiseido) - 1:11:05
Sung-Eun Kim (Korea) - 1:11:34
Shoko Mori (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:11:41
Rika Shintaku (Team Shimamura) - 1:11:49
Sayo Nomura (Meijo Univ.) - 1:11:54
Chiharu Matsuo (Team Kyudenko) - 1:12:00
Misato Horie (Team Noritz) - 1:12:16
Kumi Ogura (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 1:12:21
Eriko Noguchi (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:12:44
Ho-Sun Park (Korea) - 1:12:58
Margarita Plaksina (Russia) - 2:27:07 (marathon)

Men
Matthew Kisorio (Kenya) - 58:46
Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya) - 59:48
Atsushi Sato (Teak Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:00:25
Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:00:32
James Mwangi (Kenya/Team NTN) - 1:00:34
Alistair Cragg (Ireland) - 1:00:49
Daniel Gitau (Kenya/Team Konica Minolta) - 1:01:08
Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo) - 1:01:36
Kenta Oshima (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 1:01:48
Rachid Kisri (Morocco) - 1:01:52
Yuko Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:01:53
Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota) - 1:01:54
Soji Ikeda (Team Yakult) - 1:02:10
Arata Fujiwara (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 1:02:17
Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) - 1:02:17
Keita Kurihara (Team Chudenko) - 1:02:17
Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) - 1:02:20
Munehiro Sugaya (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 1:02:22
Makoto Tobimatsu (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 1:02:26
Cosmas Ondiba (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:27
Chiharu Takata (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:27
Keisuke Nakatani (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:30
Hiromitsu Kakuage (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:34
Ryotaro Nitta (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:02:35
Masaki Shimoju (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:02:35
Masatoshi Kikuchi (Team Fujitsu) - 1:02:36
Satoru Kasuya (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 1:02:40
Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 1:02:40
Takumi Owada (Team Hitachi Cable) - 1:02:40
Tsukasa Morita (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 1:02:42
Seiji Kobayashi (Team Mitsuibishi Juko Nagasaki) - 1:02:44
Shuji Yoshikawa (Team Kyudenko) - 1:02:44
Satoshi Yoshii (Team Sumco) - 1:02:45
Kazuya Deguchi (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:02:46
Daisuke Matsufuji (Team Kanebo) - 1:02:47
Kazuhiko Bando (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 1:02:49
Masanori Kitajima (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 1:02:50
Ryo Matsumoto (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 1:02:50
Shota Yamaguchi (Team Fujitsu) - 1:02:51
Ryo Yamamoto (Team Sagawa Express) - 1:02:51
Yuta Igarashi (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:52
Masaki Ito (Kokushikan Univ.) - 1:02:53
Tomoyuki Sato (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:02:53
Hidemi Yokomine (Team Yakult) - 1:02:53
Koji Matsuoka (Team Mazda) - 1:02:55
Yuki Iwai (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:02:59
Dmytro Baranovskyy (Ukraine) - 2:07:15 (marathon)
Jinhyeok Jeong (Korea) - 2:09:28 (marathon)
Benjamin Gandu (Kenya/Nihon Univ.) - 28:03.43 (10000 m)
Shuhei Yamamoto (Waseda Univ.) - 28:38.15 (10000 m)
Keita Shitara (Toyo Univ.) - 28:46.80 (10000 m)
Hiroyuki Sasaki (Waseda Univ.) - 28:48.47 (10000 m)

Comments

Kevin said…
It's clear that Yuri Kano won't make the Olympic team. I don't know why she even bother trying running Nagoya.

Most-Read This Week

Keita Satoh Running New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile

1500 m U20 NR holder Keita Satoh (Nike Swoosh TC) is running this weekend's New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile , the first time that a Japanese man has been invited in the race's 45-year history. In university Sato had to change focus away from middle distance to the half marathon-scale lengths of the Hakone Ekiden stages, but since graduating in March and relocating to Flagstaff he has refocused on the 1500 m, going from 3:43.19 in April in his first 1500 m in almost 4 years to 3:38.30 over the course of 5 races. Fifth Avenue will be his last race before heading back to Japan for one more track 1500 m and some down time. Men's entries with best 1500 m times in last 3 years: Stefan Nillessen (NED) - 3:29.23 (2025) Flavien Szot (FRA) - 3:30.74 (2025) Oliver Hoare (AUS) - 3:31.07 (2024) Jake Heyward (GBR) - 3:31.18 (2026) Titouan Le Grix (FRA) - 3:31.46 (2026) Romain Mornet (FRA) - 3:31.62 (2025) Adam Spencer (AUS) - 3:31.83 (2026) Pieter Sisk (BEL) - 3:31.85 (2025) Gary Martin (...

Multiple National Records This Weekend

Olympic and World champion Haruka Kitaguchi got the biggest headlines among Japanese athletes this weekend, overcoming a rough last year and a half that included injury and a coaching change to break her own javelin throw NR by over a meter and a half to win the inaugural WA Ultimate Championship in Budapest. U20 WR and Asian AR holder Ziyi Yan opened with a big 68.05, 0.67 m further than Kitaguchi's best-ever from back in 2023. That could have been the end, but Kitaguchi came back from a 61.15 m first attempt to throw a massive 68.92 m NR on her next one, ultimately enough for the win. She still has a long way to go to match the 18-year-old Yan's 71.74 m from May, but it was a clear statement that Kitaguchi is back. Back home at the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Kyoto, women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota continued a solid comeback season of her own, bettering her NR from May by 1 cm with a 4.51 m on her first attempt. Morota took another 3...