Skip to main content

Japanese Athletes at 2016 Chicago Marathon

by Brett Larner
photo by Dr. Helmut Winter

Four Japanese men are scheduled to run tomorrow's Chicago Marathon, the site of the 2:06:16 Japanese national record set back in 2002 by Toshinari Takaoka.  Koji Gokaya (Team JR Higashi Nihon) is running Chicago for the second time, having run 2:12:15 for 7th in his second career marathon back in 2011.  Since then he has run 2:11:43 in Frankfurt 2014 and 2:09:21 in Tokyo 2015.  His 2:10:58 at last year's Berlin Marathon was the fastest time outside Japan by a Japanese man the entire year.  Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) leads 2016 with a 2:09:01 at July's Gold Coast Airport Marathon; Gokaya ran that race as a pacemaker and at that point told JRN that he was aiming for 2:08 in Chicago.  Only nine Japanese man have ever run that fast on foreign soil, and only Takaoka and Toshihiko Seko have ever done it in Chicago.

Part of a dominant quartet while at Komazawa University, Takuya Fukatsu (Team Asahi Kasei) debuted in 2:11:48 in Nagano last year, following up with a 2:09:31 at Lake Biwa this spring while trying unsuccessfully to make the Rio de Janeiro Olympic team.  Chicago is his third career marathon apart from a turn as a pacer at the 2012 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon.

Kazuya Ishida (Team Nishitetsu) won his marathon debut with a 2:11:57 at the 2012 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon, but in five of his six marathons since then he has run in the 2:17~2:23 range.  A 2:12:25 for 4th at Beppu-Oita in February was a minor return to form.

Fukatsu's teammate Ryoichi Matsuo (Team Asahi Kasei) is the most experienced of the quartet, having run 13 marathons to date in his career.  His best of 2:12:11 came while finishing 2nd at Nobeoka in 2014, returning there this year to win in 2:15:09.  His most recent marathon was a 2:22:43 in Hokkaido in late August.

76 Japanese men including Gokaya and Fukatsu have broken 2:10 in the marathon a total of 159 times.  Of those, only 18 have done it outside Japan a total of 23 times.  Can Gokaya and Fukatsu join the club?  History may be against them, but a repeat of last year's slower race in Chicago would play to their benefit.

Top 25 Japanese Men's Overseas Marathon Times
  1. 2:06:16 - Toshinari Takaoka, 3rd, Chicago 2002
  2. 2:06:57 - Takayuki Inubushi, 2nd, Berlin 1999
  3. 2:07:35 - Taisuke Kodama, 1st, Beijing 1986
  4. 2:07:40 - Hiromi Taniguchi, 2nd, Beijing 1988
  5. 2:07:50 - Toshinari Takaoka, 3rd, Chicago 2004
  6. 2:07:57 - Kunimitsu Ito, 2nd, Beijing 1986
  7. 2:08:14 - Yuki Kawauchi, 4th, Seoul 2013
  8. 2:08:21 - Takeyuki Nakayama, 1st, Seoul 1986
  9. 2:08:27 - Toshihiko Seko, 1st, Chicago 1986
  10. 2:08:46 - Muneyuki Ojima, 5th, Rotterdam 1999
  11. 2:09:01 - Yuki Kawauchi, 2nd, Gold Coast 2016
  12. 2:09:11 - Masaki Oya, 8th, Rotterdam 1997
  13. 2:09:16 - Atsushi Sato, 8th, London 2009
  14. 2:09:23 - Nozomi Saho, 5th, Rotterdam 1998
  15. 2:09:26 - Shigeru Aburuya, 5th, Paris 2003
  16. 2:09:26a - Toshihiko Seko, 1st, Boston 1981
  17. 2:09:32 - Shinichi Watanabe, 6th, Berlin 2004
  18. 2:09:34 - Arata Fujiwara, 1st, Ottawa 2010
  19. 2:09:35 - Noriaki Igarashi, 5th, Chicago 2001
  20. 2:09:36 - Yuki Kawauchi, 9th, Hamburg 2014
  21. 2:09:49 - Kazuhiro Matsuda, 6th, Berlin 2003
  22. 2:09:50 - Hiromi Taniguchi, 1st, London 1987
  23. 2:09:52 - Kurao Umeki, 7th, Berlin 2003
  24. 2:10:01 - Yuki Kawauchi, 1st, Gold Coast 2013
  25. 2:10:02 - Toshihiko Seko, 1st, London 1986

 photo © 2011 Dr. Helmut Winter, all rights reserved
text and stats © 2016 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...
2 comments
Read more

Rui Aoki and Shunsuke Kuwata Making U.S. Debut at United Airlines NYC Half

When the National University Half Marathon was canceled in 2011 after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan 2 days before the race, JRN talked to the New York Road Runners about bringing 2 collegiate runners to the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon the next weekend as a show of support. It wasn't possible to pull it together in the immediate aftermath of the disasters, but a year later we brought 2 young 2nd-years from Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Toyo University , Kento Otsu and Yuta Shitara , who had been the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers at the Ageo City Half Marathon in November before Hakone. Shitara ran 1:01:48, at the time the fastest-ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, with Otsu running a solid 1:03:15. Thanks to that great start the Ageo-NYC partnership became a regular thing, and except for the pandemic it's continued every year since, expanding this year to June's New York Mini 10 km when 2 runners from Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden runne...
Post a Comment
Read more

16 Women and 26 Men on the Current Olympic Trials Qualifier List

Last weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon and the Tokyo Marathon the weekend before brought the main part of the first year of qualification for the Marathon Grand Championship Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials to be held in Nagoya in October, 2027, to an end. There are still a few races like the Nagano Marathon and overseas World Athletics platinum label races this season where people might qualify, but for the most part we're not likely to see many new additions until August's Hokkaido Marathon, where the qualifying period opened last year. As of right now 16 women and 26 men have qualified, although the first woman to make the cut, Ai Hosoda , announced that she was retiring after Tokyo earlier this month. Out of the 16 women to have qualified so far, Mikuni Yada is the fastest with her 2:19:57 debut at Osaka Women's in January. Including Hosoda that makes 2 qualifiers for the Edion corporate team, but Daihatsu has the biggest share of the field so ...
Post a Comment
Read more