Skip to main content

Jepkemboi, Okunaga, Kawauchi and Sang the Favorites at April 21 Nagano Marathon

by Brett Larner

The Nagano Marathon has released the names of its elite field lineup for its 15th running, to be held Apr. 21.  It's a field heavy on veterans, including 40+ runners William Kiplagat (Kenya), Chihiro Tanaka (Athlec RC) and Yoshimi Hoshino (eAthletes Shizuoka), imminently retiring former national record holder Atsushi Fujita (Team Fujitsu) and, freshly departed from the Kyudenko corporate team, top-ranked woman Mika Okunaga (Yufuin Hammock AC).

Two of last year's top four men return in the form of Silas Sang (Kenya) and Alexey Sokolov (Russia), joined from overseas by silver label Eritrean Isaias Beyn.  The domestic favorite in his fourth marathon of 2013 is Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), but the interest level in the Japanese field extends further to include silver label men Chiharu Takada (Team JR Higashi Nihon) and Kazuya Ishida (Team Nishitetsu) and three men with promising runs at February's Nobeoka Nishi Nihon Marathon, Hirokatsu Kurosaki (Team Konica Minolta), Tatsunari Hirayama (Team Yasukawa Denki) and amateur Sho Matsumoto (Dream AC).

Okunaga's main competition in the women's race comes from Kenyan Beatrice Jepkemboi with a 2:27:41 best from last year's Hamburg Marathon.  First-time marathoner Esther Nganga could prove another rival, along with 2:30:17 Russian Natalia Puchkova and, just 22, the up-and-coming Shoko Shimizu (Team Aichi Denki).

2013 Nagano Marathon Elite Field
Nagano, 4/21/13
click here for complete elite field listing

Men
William Kiplagat (Kenya) - 2:06:50 (Amsterdam 1999)
Atsushi Fujita (Team Fujitsu) - 2:06:51 (Fukuoka 2000)
Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 2:08:14 (Seoul 2013)
Silas Sang (Kenya) - 2:09:10 (Nagano 2012)
Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) - 2:10:51 (Lake Biwa 2010)
Alexey Sokolov (Russia) - 2:10:59 (Nagano 2012)
Isaias Beyn (Eritrea) - 2:11:53 (Frankfurt 2012)
Chihiro Takada (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:11:53 (Tokyo 2013)
Kazuya Ishida (Team Nishitetsu) - 2:11:57 (Nobeoka 2012)
Hirokatsu Kurosaki (Team Konica Minolta) - 2:12:22 (Nobeoka 2013)
Tatsunari Hirayama (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 2:12:38 (Nobeoka 2013)
Sho Matsumoto (Dream AC) - 2:13:38 (Nobeoka 2013)
Hiro Tonegawa (Alps Tool) - 2:19:34 (Tokyo 2011)

Women
Mika Okunaga (Yufuin Hammock AC) - 2:27:16 (Osaka Int'l 2009)
Beatrice Jepkemboi (Kenya) - 2:27:41 (Hamburg 2012)
Chihiro Tanaka (Athlec RC) - 2:29:30 (Nagoya Int'l 2002)
Natalia Puchkova (Russia) - 2:30:17 (Hannover 2012)
Shoko Shimizu (Team Aichi Denki) - 2:32:43 (Tokyo 2013)
Seika Iwamura (Team Higo Ginko) - 2:33:15 (Osaka Int'l 2010)
Yoshimi Hoshino (eAthletes Shizuoka) - 2:35:58 (Ohtawara 2005)
Sayaka Maeda (Second Wind AC) - 2:42:27 (Tsukuba 2012)
Esther Nganga (Kenya) - debut - 1:12:27 (Singapore Half 2012)

(c) 2013 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