Skip to main content

Obare Wins Matsue Ladies' Half

by Brett Larner

2010 Matsue Ladies Half Marathon winner Doricah Obare (Kenya/Team Hitachi) returned to the top Mar. 17, winning the 2013 edition of the race in 1:11:11.  Doubling as the National University Women's Half Marathon Championships and the selection race for the Japanese women's half marathon squad for this summer's World University Games, Obare was up against an almost entire collegiate field and saw tough competition from Yasuka Ueno (Tsukuba Univ.), who challenged for the win before falling back and taking 2nd in 1:11:30.  Ayako Mitsui of 2012 national champion Ritsumeikan University and Meijo University ace Aki Odagiri rounded out the collegiate top three to secure themselves places on the World University Games team, while last year's winner Ayame Takaki (Meijo Univ.) was only 26th.  Ayumi Hagiwara (Team Uniqlo) took the 10 km division in 33:19.

2013 Matsue Ladies Half Marathon
National University Women's Half Marathon Championships
Matsue, 3/17/13
click here for complete results

Half Marathon
1. Doricah Obare (Kenya/Team Hitachi) - 1:11:11
2. Yasuka Ueno (Tsukuba Univ.) - 1:11:30
3. Ayako Mitsui (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1:12:28
4. Aki Odagiri (Meijo Univ.) - 1:12:58
5. Yukiko Okuno (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) - 1:13:05
6. Hitomi Suzuki (Tamagawa Univ.) - 1:13:16
7. Aiko Sakata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1:13:26
8. Maki Ashi (Nittai Univ.) - 1:13:29
9. Kana Orino (Osaka Geidai Univ.) - 1:13:38
10. Hiromi Hikida (Nittai Univ.) - 1:13:40

10 km
1. Ayumi Hagiwara (Team Uniqlo) - 33:19
2. Misato Yamaguchi (Team Hokuren) - 34:56
3. Maria Tanaka (Hirata H.S.) - 35:23

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Weekend Road and Track Roundup

A roundup of the main road and track action on the last weekend of Japan's 2024-25 academic and fiscal year: Doubling off a 2:07:06 PB at the Tokyo Marathon 4 weeks ago, Tatsuya Maruyama took bronze at the Asian Marathon Championships in Jiaxing, China in 2:11:56. Gold went to North Korea's Il Ryong Han in a breakaway 2:11:18, with silver medalist Tianyu Chen of China just ahead of Maruyama in 2:11:50. Japan's Shungo Yokota was a distant 4th in 2:14:00, with Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir 6th in 2:15:14. Japanese women Kaede Kawamura and Natsumi Matsushita were 5th and 6th in 2:31:26 and 2:34:40, with medals going to China's Bing Wu , gold in 2:26:01, North Korea's Kwang-Ok Ri , silver right behind her in 2:26:07, and defending gold medalist Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh landing in bronze this time in 2:28:56, her third sub-2:29 performance so far in 2025. Back home, four men broke 2:20 at the Fukui Sakura Marathon . Ko Kobayashi from the Shi...

Tokyo Olympics Marathon Trials Winner Nakamura Enters Waseda Grad School

An Olympian in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) announced on his social media that he has entered Waseda University 's Graduate School of Sport Science with the start of the new academic year this week. A graduate of Mie's Ueno Kogyo H.S. , Nakamura went to Komazawa University before joining Fujitsu in 2015. His senior year of high school he was 3rd overall and 2nd Japanese in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in the fall the same year he ran what was at the time the 7th-fastest high school mark ever, 13:50.38. At Komazawa he scored four individual stage wins across the three big university ekidens. In 2019 he won the MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the Tokyo Olympics, where he was 62nd in 2:22:23. Nakamura indicated that he would be studying "top sports management" under professor Takeo Hirata . "I'll be balancing competition and academics," Nakamura wrote. "I'm r...

Japan Names Marathon Teams for Tokyo World Championships

On Mar. 26 the JAAF named its women's and men's marathon teams for September's Tokyo World Championships. On the women's side the team has veterans Sayaka Sato and Yuka Ando off the strength of a runner-up finish for Sato in Nagoya this year and a win in Nagoya last year by Ando, and newcomer Kana Kobayashi , 23, who has risen quickly from being a fun runner at Waseda University last year to a 2nd-place finish in Osaka Women's this year. Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki was named alternate after finishing 3rd behind Kobayashi in Osaka Women's. On the men's side the team is led by last year's Fukuoka International Marathon CR breaker Yuya Yoshida and this year's Osaka runner-up Ryota Kondo . The 3rd spot on the team is reserved for JMC Series winner Naoki Koyama , who hasn't cleared the 2:06:30 World Championships qualifying standard and has to wait for the May 4 qualifying deadline for confirmation that the 1184 points he has in the Roa...