Skip to main content

Bat-Ochir, Mbote, Imai and Maeda to Face Off at Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo&k=2014011500595

translated and edited by Brett Larner

 On Jan. 15 the organizers of the 63rd Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon on Feb. 2 announced the names of this year's elite field.  On the domestic men's list are the fastest Japanese marathoner of 2013, Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), 2013 New York City Marathon 6th-place finisher Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) and Kenichi Shiraishi (Team Asahi Kasei), winner of last weekend's Oita City Half Marathon.  Their top foreign competition comes from 2013 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon winner and 2012 Beppu-Oita runner-up Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia) and 2:07:37 Kenyan Jason Mbote.

63rd Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon Elite Field
Oita, 2/2/14
click here for complete field listing

 Men
Daniel Njenga (Kenya/Team Yakult) - 2:06:16 (Chicago 2002)
Jason Mbote (Kenya) - 2:07:37 (Seoul 2008)
Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) - 2:08:00 (Tokyo 2013)
Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia) - 2:09:00 (Hofu 2013)
Yuko Matsumiya (Team Hitachi Butsuryu) - 2:09:18 (Lake Biwa 2005)
Tomoyuki Sato (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:09:43 (Tokyo Int'l 2004)
Fekadu Lema (Ethiopia) - 2:09:50 (Hamburg 2012) - withdrawn, Jan. 30
Masashi Hayashi (Team Yakult) - 2:09:55 (Lake Biwa 2012)
Bunta Kuroki (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 2:10:08 (Fukuoka Int'l 2012) - withdrawn, Jan. 30
Gezahegn Abera (Ethiopia) - 2:10:17 (Barcelona 2013)
Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 2:10:29 (Tokyo 2013)
Seiji Kobayashi (Mitsubishi Juko RC) - 2:10:38 (Beppu-Oita 2009)
Soji Ikeda (Team Yakult) - 2:10:59 (Tokyo 2013)
Takaaki Koda (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:11:08 (Tokyo 2011)
Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:11:15 (Tokyo 2013)
Yuki Moriwaki (Team JFE Steel) - 2:11:52 (Beppu-Oita 2012)
Kazuya Ishida (Team Nishitetsu) - 2:11:57 (Nobeoka 2012)
Tatsunari Hirayama (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 2:12:38 (Nobeoka 2013)
Kazuaki Shimizu (Team Yakult) - 2:12:49 (Nobeoka 2013)
Norihide Fujimori (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:13:11 (Tokyo 2013)
Masayuki Obata (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 2:13:17 (Lake Biwa 2013)
Yu Chiba (Team Honda) - 2:13:19 (Beppu-Oita 2013)
Abraham Kiplimo (Uganda) - 2:13:32 (Rotterdam 2013)
Naoya Hashimoto (Team Chudenko) - 2:13:50 (Beppu-Oita 2010)
Keisuke Nakatani (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:14:16 (Tokyo 2011)
Najim El Qady (Morocco) - 2:14:29 (Seoul 2009)
Kiyokatsu Hasegawa (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:15:15 (Tokyo 2010)
Naoki Inoue (Team Komori Corp.) - 2:15:38 (Nobeoka 2012)

Debut Men
Mamoru Hirano (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 1:01:49 (Marugame 2012)
Ryo Kiname (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) - 1:02:22 (Marugame 2012)
Kenichi Shiraishi (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:02:23 (Nat'l Corp. Championships 2007)
Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:02:43 (Marugame 2013)
Ryuji Watanabe (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 1:02:58a (Great North Run 2013)
Ryuji Ono (Team Asahi Kasei) - 27:53.19 (Niigata 2008)

Women
Mika Okunaga (Yufuin Hammock AC) - 2:27:16 (Osaka Int'l 2009)
Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) - 2:28:49 (Sapporo 2002)
Rina Abe (Canon AC Kyushu) - debut - 1:18:20 half marathon
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
And why Yuki is not running ???
January 16, 2014 at 5:44 AM
Brett Larner said…
He is running the Kumamoto-jo Marathon on Feb. 16 instead.
January 16, 2014 at 6:37 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

2026 Tokyo Marathon Elite Field

The Mar. 1 Tokyo Marathon has great fields this year, so let's get right to it. The women's field has 3 of last year's top 10, winner for the 2nd year in a row and Tokyo CR holder Sutume Asefa Kebede , 3rd-placer and 2025 Chicago winner Hawi Feysa , and 5th-placer and 2025 Berlin winner Rosemary Wanjiru , plus 2024 Valencia winner Megertu Alemu , 2025 Prague winner Bertukan Welde , 2024 Paris winner Mestawut Fikir , 2024 Osaka winner Waganesh Mekasha , former WR holder Brigid Kosgei , and a lot more. Japanese hopes pretty much go to all-time #7 Ai Hosoda , 2:20:31 in Berlin 2024 but who announced this month that she is retiring after Tokyo despite having qualified for the 2028 Olympic marathon trials with her 2:23:27 for 6th in Sydney last year. Other internationals include Canadian Malindi Elmore , American Sara Hall , a big Chinese group led by Yuyu Xia , Poland's Aleksandra Brzezińska and Australian Vanessa Wilson . The men's race has 5 of last year's top 1...
4 comments
Read more

Measuring Marathon Courses by Bicycle

http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2013&d=0110&f=column_0110_034.shtml translated by Brett Larner The full marathon is a sport where you compete over 42.195 km, but how do they go about measuring that distance?  Today we're going to look a little bit at how they go about certifying the distance of a marathon. The reality is that major international marathons use a bicycle to measure the distance.  This rule is an international standard, and the same method of measurement is used everywhere.  It was put into place in 1986.  In order to ensure that the same method is used everywhere, a bicycle that meets IAAF specifications must be used for measurement. In the case of Japan's major marathons, to be certain that the distance is correct a provisional measurement is first made.  Before the course is certified using a bicycle the course is measured using a 50 m-long length of wire to determine that it is in fact 42.195 km.  When a bicycle is u...
2 comments
Read more

Ai Hosoda Announces Retirement

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...
2 comments
Read more