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

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...

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...

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...