Maina and Okada Win Sendai Half

by Brett Larner

2012 Sendai International Half Marathon winner Johana Maina (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) returned to the top at this year's race, outrunning last year's winner Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) and all Japanese competition for a second Sendai title. Mogusu took the race out hard, leading Maina through 5 km before losing touch. From there it was a one-man show as Maina soloed his way to the win in 1:01:43. 2013 Nobeoka Nishi Nihon Marathon winner Hiroaki Sano (Team Honda), the lone Japanese man to go in pursuit of the two Kenyans, ran down Mogusu for 2nd in 1:02:40, a PB by nearly 45 seconds.

Mogusu barely held on to 3rd in 1:03:19, with Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) in close pursuit on the final lap of the track. Kawauchi, running just a week after his 2:09:36 season best at the Hamburg Marathon, did his best to catch Mogusu but came up just short in 1:03:23 for 4th, the fastest of his eight half marathons so far this year. Newly Japan-based Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/Team NTN), Kawauchi's main foreign competition for gold at this fall's Asian Games marathon, was nine seconds behind Kawauchi in 1:03:32, an apparent new Mongolian national record.

2013's fastest Japanese marathoner Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) ran a lukewarm 1:04:19 for 8th, with his 2012 equivalent Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) far back in the pack in 1:05:42 in his first race experimenting with high-mileage training. Mogusu, Kawauchi, Bat-Ochir and Fujiwara will all line up again next weekend at the Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon where they will face top trio Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea), Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and Bedan Karoki (Kenya/DeNA RC).

In the women's race, the young Yui Okada (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) made a successful debut at the half-marathon, taking the win in 1:11:27. Okada ran a solidly even race, head-to-head with Sachi Tanaka (Sports Yamagata 21 AC) on low-1:11 pace at 10 km before getting away for the win. Tanaka held on for 2nd in a PB of 1:11:50 far ahead of 3rd-placer Misato Horie (Team Noritz). Having just turned 20, Okada looks to have plenty of room to improve in coming seasons.

24th Sendai International Half Marathon
Sendai, Miyagi, 5/11/14
click here for complete results

Men
1. Johana Maina (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) 1:01:43
2. Hiroaki Sano (Team Honda) - 1:02:40 - PB
3. Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 1:03:19
4. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:03:23
5. Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/Team NTN) - 1:03:32 - NR
6. Shigeki Tsuji (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:03:34
7. Shota Inoue (Team Toyota) - 1:03:52
8. Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) - 1:04:19
9. Yudai Yamakawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:04:26
10. Takuya Noguchi (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:04:32

Women
1. Yui Okada (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:11:27 - debut
2. Sachi Tanaka (Sports Yamagata 21 AC) - 1:11:50 - PB
3. Misato Horie (Team Noritz) - 1:13:21
4. Miya Nishio (Team Hokuren) - 1:14:58
5. Aiko Sakata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1:15:17
6. Yuri Kano (Team Shiseido) - 1:16:16
7. Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) - 1:16:51
8. Kana Unno (Team Noritz) - 1:17:57
9. Ema Harada (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 1:18:11
10. Eri Suzuki (Noshiro Yamamoto T&F Assoc.) - 1:18:20

(c) 2014 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

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

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

Queens Ekiden Streaming and Preview

Sunday is the first big race of championship ekiden season, the Queens Ekiden in Sendai, the season-ending national championship for corporate women. 24 teams race 42.195 km in 6 legs, with the top 8 scoring places for 2025. TBS' live nationwide broadcast starts at 11:50, with multi-camera streaming on Youtube above. Last year Sekisui Kagaku won by almost a minute and a half, and with Paris Olympian Yuma Yamamoto , 2023 World Championships marathoner Sayaka Sato on its entry list and collegiate 1500 m record holder Mizuki Michishita having come on board this season it looks like a contender for another win. But last year's runner-up Japan Post got a big boost this season with the addition of its first non-Japanese member, two-time double 1500 m and 3000 m high school champion Caroline Kariba . The Queens Ekiden limits non-Japanese athletes to a 3.8 km leg, so it'd be tough for Kariba to bridge a 1:25 gap by herself with that little ground to work with. But what she can

japan running news

Search This Blog