Skip to main content

Weekend Japanese Road Results

by Brett Larner

The biggest domestic road action of the weekend took place in Shizuoka at the Yaizu Minato Half Marathon where Yoshiki Koizumi of 2013 Hakone Ekiden winner Nittai University battled last year's winner Tomoyasu Matsui (Meiji Univ.) from start to finish, both breaking the course record as Koizumi claimed the win in 1:03:26. 2013 National University Men's Ekiden champion Komazawa University had the next two men across the line, both Kohei Futaoka and Shoya Kurokawa timed at 1:03:48.  Komazawa took the win in Yaizu's University Pair Marathon team scoring based on the combined times of its top two finishers, setting a new record of 2:07:36. Nittai was just a second behind, likewise clearing the old record in 2:07:37.  The top non-collegiate runner was Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), 9th overall in 1:04:19 a week after his latest marathon course record win in Saga.  Almost simultaneously, his youngest brother Koki Kawauchi (Takasaki Keizai Univ.) won the Guam Marathon in 2:38:09.

Elsewhere internationally, London Olympics marathoner Ryo Yamamoto (Team SGH Group Sagawa) had a decent run in the Vienna City Marathon, 6th in 2:10:59 for the fastest time overseas so far this year by a Japanese man.  Ethiopian Getu Feleke set a quality course record of 2:05:41, bound to be the weekend's most overlooked performance.  World Championships marathoner Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), who ran 2:28:36 at February's Tokyo Marathon, ran a disappointing 2:35:15 for 7th in a race won in 2:28:59 by Germany's Anna Hahner.  Bunta Kuroki (Team Yasukawa Denki), a training partner of Yamamoto's Olympic teammate Kentaro Nakamoto, was 11th in the Warsawa Marathon in 2:14:27.  Across the channel at the London Marathon, track and ekiden star Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Kagaku) made her marathon debut, outrunning Ito's Vienna time in 2:32:00 but finishing 11th.

Vienna City Marathon
Vienna, Austria, 4/13/14
click here for complete results

Men
1. Getu Feleke (Ethiopia) - 2:05:41 - CR
2. Alfred Kering (Kenya) - 2:08:28
3. Philip Sanga (Kenya) - 2:08:58
4. Duncan Koech (Kenya) - 2:09:17
5. Oleksadr Sitkovskyy (Ukraine) - 2:10:44
-----
6. Ryo Yamamoto (Japan/Team SGH Group Sagawa) - 2:10:59

Women
1. Anna Hahner (Germany) - 2:28:59
2. Caroline Chepkwony (Kenya) - 2:29:18
3. Marta Lema (Ethiopia) - 2:31:10
4. Alice Chelangat (Kenya) - 2:32:46
5. Olga Glok (Russia) - 2:33:23
-----
7. Mai Ito (Japan/Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:35:15

London Marathon
London, U.K., 4/13/14
click here for complete results

Women
1. Edna Kiplagat (Kenya) - 2:20:21
2. Florence Kiplagat (Kenya) - 2:20:24
3. Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) - 2:20:35 - debut
4. Feyse Tadese (Ethiopia) - 2:21:42
5. Aberu Kebede (Ethiopia) - 2:23:21
-----
11. Yuko Shimizu (Japan/Team Sekisui Kagaku) - 2:32:00 - debut

Yaizu Minato Half Marathon
Yaizu, Shizuoka, 4/13/14
complete results coming shortly

 Men
1. Yoshiki Koizumi (Nittai Univ.) - 1:03:26 - CR, PB
2. Tomoyasu Matsui (Meiji Univ.) - 1:03:34 - PB
3. Kohei Futaoka (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:03:48 - PB
4. Shoya Kurokawa (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:03:48 - PB
5. Hajime Sakamoto (Nittai Univ.) - 1:04:01
-----
9. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:04:19

(c) 2014 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

'CAS Clears Japan’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ikeda of Doping, Overturns Ban'

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/10/23/cas-clears-japans-olympic-silver-medallist-ikeda-of-doping-overturns-ban The AIU's missteps in this case cost Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda , a Toyo University graduate who competes for the Asahi Kasei corporate team, the chance to represent Japan at a home soil World Championships last year. It is almost unheard of for an athlete to successfully fight a biological passport suspension as Ikeda did, making this a highly significant case. The CAS' press release about its decision stated: "The Panel stressed that the Athlete did not merely assert his position on the ABP abnormalities but adduced very extensive evidence in support of his explanations. In this highly complex case, the evidence brought during the CAS proceedings was far more abundant and specific than during the first instance proceedings with the WA Disciplinary Tribunal, implying the CAS Panel had further ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meijo Back With Morinomiyako Ekiden CR for National University Title

The last big dynasty school in Japanese women's distance running with 7-straight wins at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden from 2017 to 2023 and 6-straight titles at the season-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden from 2018 to 2023, Meijo University came back from a 3rd-place finish last year to win the 44th Morinomiyako Ekiden again, leading almost start-to-finish to set a 2:02:21 CR for the 6-stage, 38.0 km course in Sendai. 12 second back in 2nd after the opening leg, collegiate 3000 mSC champ Nozomi Kondo put Meijo out front with a 12:36 CR for the 4.0 km Second Stage, and the rest of the team never looked back. The biggest threat to a Meijo win was on the 9.2 m Fifth Stage, where this year's collegiate 10000 m winner Sarah Wanjiru from last year's runner-up Daito Bunka University started 50 seconds back from Meijo 1st-year Mao Kimura . In taking the 10000 m title Wanjiru had outrun Kimura by over a minute, but today Kimura was a revelation, strong and smooth out fr...
1 comment
Read more

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