Skip to main content

World Leads at Lake Saroma Ultra As Federation Cancels Team Selection for World Championships

by Brett Larner

The 28th edition of Japan's premier ultra, the Lake Saroma 100 km and 50 km Ultramarathon, took place June 30 along the northeastern shore of Hokkaido.  Lake Saroma was to have been the official selection race for the Japanese team for this year's IAU 100 km World Championships, but on Friday organizers posted a notice on the race website informing top-ranked participants that due to uncertainty surrounding South Africa's readiness to host the World Championships this October the team selection would be cancelled.

Despite both this disappointment and hot temperatures, both the men's and women's 100 km races saw world-leading performances.  In the men's 100 km division, 2009 winner Hideo Nojo (New Balance) improved on his 2nd-place finish last year with a world-leading 6:37:16 for this year's title, 4 1/2 minutes ahead of 2:18 marathoner Takayoshi Shigemi (Urugimura).  Two-time Olympic medalist and 2010 Lake Saroma champion Erick Wainaina (Kenya/New Balance) was 5th in 6:55:09, well off his best of 6:38:40.  Last year's runner-up also improved a place in the women's 100 km, Mai Fujisawa (Sapporo City Hall) taking the win in a world-leading 8:10:39.

In the 50 km division, defending women's champion Chiyuki Mochizuki (Canon AC Kyushu) won again in 3:30:10, Norifumi Goto (Chiboryo RC) winning the men's race in 3:18:51.

Lake Saroma Ultramarathon
Yubetsu, Hokkaido, 6/30/13
click here for top results

 Men's 100 km
1. Hideo Nojo (New Balance) - 6:37:16 - WL
2. Takayoshi Shigemi (Urugimura) - 6:41:44
3. Tsutomu Nagata (Takada SDF Base) - 6:44:33
4. Yuki Takada (Aichi T&F Assoc.) - 6:49:53
5. Erick Wainaina (Kenya/New Balance) - 6:55:09

Women's 100 km 
1. Mai Fujisawa (Sapporo City Hall) - 8:10:39 - WL
2. Tomoko Hara (Sokyu RC) - 8:23:33
3. Hisayo Matsumoto (Saitama) - 8:30:37
4. Wakako Oyagi (Kiso RC) - 8:31:13
5. Mikiko Ota (Kyoto Tanzan RC) - 8:33:10

Men's 50 km
1. Norifumi Goto (Chiboryo RC) - 3:18:51
2. Takashi Fujiwara - 3:26:56
3. Kazuo Otaki - 3:29:35

Women's 50 km
1. Chiyuki Mochizuki (Canon AC Kyushu) - 3:30:10
2. Asami Kagawa - 4:04:02
3. Atsuko Shimokawara - 4:05:37

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

TokyoRacer said…
Under 4 minutes a kilometer for 100 kilometers.
Wooow!
July 1, 2013 at 6:08 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more