Skip to main content

Augusto, Birmingham, Fujiwara, Mathathi Headline Marugame Half (updated)

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20140114-OHT1T00116.htm
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/region/news/140115/kgw14011502170000-n1.htm

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Jan. 14 the organizers of the Feb. 2 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon announced the 35 men and 12 women making up the domestic and overseas elite fields for the event's 68th running.  London Olympics marathoner Arata Fujiwara (Miki House), 2012 National Corporate Half Marathon champion Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota), Hakone Ekiden Seventh Stage winner Hazuma Hattori of Hakone champion Toyo University, 2013 Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden stage record setter Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.) and last month's Fukuoka International Marathon winner Martin Mathathi (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) top the domestic list for the men's race.  This year's race is a selection event for the men's team for March's World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, meaning many top corporate team stars are also on the list.  Their four overseas competitors include defending champion Collis Birmingham (Australia) and London Olympics 5000 m runner Amanuel Mesel (Eritrea).

The women's race features November's Yokohama International Women's Marathon runner-up Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease), 2009 Tokyo Marathon runner-up Yukari Sahaku (Team Univ. Ent.) and, from overseas, London Olympics marathon 7th-placer Jessica Augusto (Portugal).

A total of 11,705 people are entered in the half marathon, 3 km and 1 km divisions, with 10,577 entered in the half.  Although the application deadline has passed, entries will also be accepted the day before the race.  Final numbers are expected to be similar to last year's 12,810 entrants.

68th Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon Elite Field
Marugame, Kagawa, 2/2/14
click here for complete field listing

Women
Jessica Augusto (Portugal) - 1:09:10 (Ostia 2011)
Yukari Sahaku (Team Universal Entertainment) - 1:09:36 (Sapporo Int'l 2009)
Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto) - 1:10:13 (Marugame 2013)
Misato Horie (Team Noritz) - 1:10:26 (Marugame 2013)
Yolanda Caballero (Colombia) - 1:10:30 (New York 2013)
Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease) - 1:10:53 (National Corporate Championships 2009)
Ayame Takaki (Meijo University) - 1:11:10 (Matsue Ladies' 2012)
Aliaksandra Duliba (Belarus) - 1:11:30 (Chicago 2013)
Seongeun Kim (South Korea) - 1:11:34 (Marugame 2010)
Kikuyo Tsuzaki (Team Noritz) - 1:11:53 (Matsue Ladies' 2009)
Michi Numata (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 1:12:47 (Sanyo Ladies' 2013)
Ho-Sun Park (South Korea) - 1:12:58 (Marugame 2008)

Men
Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 58:56a (Great North Run 2011)
Amanuel Mesel (Eritrea) - 1:00:10 (Prague 2013)
Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:00:32 (Nagoya 2010)
Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota) - 1:00:53 (National Corporate Championships 2012)
Collis Birmingham (Australia) - 1:00:56 (Marugame 2013)
Daniel Gitau (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) - 1:01:01 (Marugame 2012)
Kenta Murayama (Komazawa University) - 1:01:19 (Marugame 2013)
Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota) - 1:01:31 (Marugame 2012)
Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) - 1:01:34 (Marugame 2012)
Yemane Tsegaye (Ethiopia) - 1:01:37 (Prague 2010)
Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) - 1:01:41 (National Corporate Championships 2009)
Tatsunori Hamasaki (Team Komori Corp.) - 1:01:45 (Marugame 2012)
Ryotaro Nitta (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:01:45 (Marugame 2012)
Yuta Igarashi (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:01:46 (Marugame 2012)
Hiromitsu Kakuage (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:01:56 (Marugame 2012)
Yuki Iwai (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:01:58 (Marugame 2012)
Akihiko Tsumurai (Team Mazda) - 1:01:58 (National Corporate Championships 2010)
Yusei Nakao (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:02:00 (Sendai 2008)
Yoshihiro Yamamoto (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 1:02:03 (Nat'l Corp. Championships 2004)
Osamu Ibata (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:02:08 (Sendai 2008)
Kenta Iinuma (Team SGH Group Sagawa) - 1:02:09 (Marugame 2012)
Tomohiro Tanigawa (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:02:17 (Marugame 2013)
Shuho Dairokuno (Meiji University) - 1:02:19 (Marugame 2012)
Chiharu Takada (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:22 (Marugame 2013)
Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) - 1:02:23 (Hakodate 2004)
Suehiro Ishikawa (Team Honda) - 1:02:23 (Kyoto 2003)
Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:02:26 (Marugame 2013)
Masatoshi Kikuchi (Team Fujitsu) - 1:02:28 (Marugame 2012)
Takashi Kumamoto (Team Toyota) - 1:02:29 (National Corporate Championships 2007)
Koki Takada (Waseda University) - 1:02:38 (Ageo 2013)
Yusuke Nishiyama (Komazawa University) - 1:02:54 (Ageo 2013)
Hazuma Hattori (Toyo University) - 1:02:54 (Ageo 2013)
Hiroto Inoue (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:58 (National University Championships 2013)
Jeffrey Eggleston (U.S.A.) - 1:03:41
Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Kenya/Nihon Univ.) - 58:00 (Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km 2013)
Kota Murayama (Josai University) - 59:17 (Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km 2013)
Kazuma Ganaha (Kanagawa University) - 59:29 (Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km 2013)

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...