Skip to main content

Murayama and Tanaka Crack Top Ten at New York City Half Marathon



by Brett Larner
photos courtesy Photo Run / NYRR

Invited to race after finishing in the top two spots at last November's Ageo City Half Marathon, Kenta Murayama (Komazawa University) and Kento Otsu (Toyo University) ran the 2013 New York City Half Marathon on Mar. 17.  Up front through the slow 15:04 first 5 km, Otsu dropped back before the lead pack left Central Park while Murayama took the lead near halfway and stayed with the leaders including world-level medalists Wilson Kipsang (Kenya), Bernard Lagat (U.S.A.) and Dathan Ritzenhein (U.S.A.) through 15 km.  "I looked around at 15 km and couldn't believe some of the people I was still there with," Murayama told JRN post-race.

Falling behind with Kipsang's move at 15 km, he still managed to get into the top ten with a time of 1:02:02, exactly one minute off winner Kipsang and beating his hero Lagat by nearly 30 seconds.  Otsu, who suffered injury setbacks following January's Hakone Ekiden, ran 1:04:03 for 19th, slower than his 1:03:14 at last year's New York Half but improving on his 25th-place finish.  "Central Park is hard," he told JRN.  2012 National Corporate Half Marathon winner Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) ran 1:10:31 for 8th in the women's race, almost 45 seconds off her best.

2013 New York City Half Marathon
New York, 3/17/13
click here for complete results

Men
1. Wilson Kipsang (Kenya) - 1:01:02
2. Daniele Meucci (Italy) - 1:01:06 - PB
3. Dathan Ritzenhein (U.S.A.) - 1:01:10
4. Leonard Korir (Kenya) - 1:01:19 - debut
5. Juan Luis Barrios (Mexico) - 1:01:21 - PB
6. Sam Chelanga (Kenya) - 1:01:26
7. Stephen Sambu (Kenya) - 1:01:34 - PB
8. Julius Arile (Kenya) - 1:01:38
9. Jason Hartmann (U.S.A.) - 1:01:51 - PB
10. Kenta Murayama (Japan/Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:02
-----
12. Bernard Lagat (U.S.A.) - 1:02:33 - debut
19. Kento Otsu (Japan/Toyo Univ.) - 1:04:03

Women
1. Caroline Rotich (Kenya) - 1:09:09
2. Diane Nukuri-Johnson (Burundi) - 1:09:12 - NR
3. Lisa Stublic (Croatia) - 1:09:18 - NR
4. Sabrina Mockenhaupt (Germany) - 1:09:42
5. Lyudmila Kovalenko (Ukraine) - 1:09:43 - NR
6. Madai Perez (Mexico) - 1:10:27
7. Yolanda Caballero (Colombia) - 1:10:30 - NR
8. Tomomi Tanaka (Japan/Team Daiichi Seimei) - 1:10:31
9. Stephanie Rothstein-Bruce (U.S.A.) - 1:10:53 - PB
10. Sara Moreira (Portugal) - 1:11:03
-----
DNF - Kim Smith (New Zealand)

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

 photos (c) 2013 Photo Run/NYRR
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...
Post a Comment
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
54 comments
Read more

Fujisan GX Breaks CR to Win 79th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden

The 79th edition of the Towada Hachimantai Ekiden took place Aug. 1 in Akita. Covering a 5-leg 71.4 km course, the race hosted 14 teams. Yamanashi's Fujisan GX took the overall win in a 3:42:17 course record. The best-placing team from within the prefecture, the Akita T&F Association team made the podium at 6th overall. The women's race was canceled again this year due to lack of participation. 79th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden Akita, 1 Aug. 2026 5 stages, 71.4 km, 14 teams complete results Top Team Results 1. Fujisan GX - 3:42:17 - CR 2. Corporate Select Team - 3:46:24 3. Tokyo Police A - 3:48:00 4. Comodi Iida - 3:48:41 5. Tokyo Police B - 3:50:14 6. Akita T&F Assoc. - 3:57:58 7. Fukushima T&F Assoc. - 4:08:20 Top Individual Stage Results First Stage  (13.0 km) 1. Ryota Seki (Tokyo Police A) - 39:47 2. Takuma Nakayama (Fujisan GX) - 40:01 3. Ryota Sato (Tokyo Police B) - 40:02 Second Stage  (13.0 km) 1. Yuki Seto (Fujisan GX) - 37:03 2. Shunsuke Watanabe (Comodi ...
Post a Comment
Read more