Skip to main content

Japanese Distance Runners Racing Overseas

Japanese distance runners didn't exactly impress in Rio, but the next month or two will see quite a few racing on the roads overseas in search of  keiken, that ever-elusive experience that is somehow going to someday transform them into Olympic marathon medalists.  A few of the road races with Japanese athletes on their entry lists:

Sept. 11: Muenster Marathon, Germany
men: Shingo Igarashi (Josai University Coaching Staff)
women: Yoshiko Sakamoto (Y.W.C.)

Sept. 11: Great North Run, U.K.
men: Kazuhiro Maeda (Kyudenko)

Sept. 18: Sydney Marathon, Australia
men: Sota Hoshi (Fujitsu)

Sept. 18: Porto Half Marathon, Portugal
men: Hiroshi Ichida (Asahi Kasei), Shun Inoura (Yachiyo Kogyo), Yusei Nakao (Smiley Angel AC)
women: Nao Isaka (Hitachi), Ayumi Kubo (Kagoshima Ginko)

Sept. 25: Berlin Marathon, Germany
men: Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't)
women: Reia Iwade (Noritz)

Sept. 25: Warsaw Marathon, Poland
men: Akiyuki Iwanaga (Kyudenko)

Oct. 9: Chicago Marathon, U.S.A.
men: Takuya Fukatsu (Asahi Kasei), Koji Gokaya (JR Higashi Nihon), Kazuya Ishida (Nishitetsu), Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei)

Oct. 23: Venice Marathon, Italy
men: Yusei Nakao (Smiley Angel AC)

Nov. 6: Porto Marathon, Portugal
men: Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
54 comments
Read more