Skip to main content

Nagano Marathon Elite Field

by Brett Larner

The organizers of the Nagano Marathon have announced their IAAF bronze label elite field for next week's 19th edition.  Japan-based Mongolian national record holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Team NTN), serial marathoner Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) fresh off a PB 2:10:52 at February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, and, newly relocated from the corporate leagues to a civil servant runner position in Okinawa, Tatsunori Hamasaki (Nanjo City Hall) top the men's field.  Kenyans Henry Sugut and Cyrus Njui, Ugandan Moses Kibet and debuting Eritrean Okubay Tsegay provide the veneer of internationalism, Sugut the strongest of the lot with a 2:06:58 PB and a recent best of 2:12:40.  Nagano has only had a Japanese male winner once in its history, Yuki Kawauchi's 2013 title, but a solid run from Ito or Hamasaki could be enough to add another to the record books.

It's true that only one Japanese woman has won Nagano as well, but that doesn't look likely to change with this year's field.  The race looks set to be between Ethiopian Fantu Eticha, with a 2:26:14 best from Dubai in 2015, and Kenyan Mirriam Wangari, 3rd in Xiamen 2015 in 2:27:53.  A short distance back in Kenyan Racheal Jemutai Mutgaa at 230:11.  Aki Otagiri (Team Tenmaya) is the top Japanese woman at 2:30:24, meaning she would need a slow race or a breakthrough performance to compete with the lead African trio.  But as a teammate of 2017 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner and London World Championships marathon team member Risa Shigetomo at the Tenmaya corporate team the potential is there for that to happen.

19th Nagano Marathon Elite Field Highlights
Nagano,  4/16/17
click here for detailed field listing
times listed are best in last three years except where noted

Men
Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/NTN) - 2:08:50 (Fukuoka Int'l 2014)
Taiga Ito (Japan/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:10:52 (Beppu-Oita 2017)
Tatsunori Hamasaki (Japan/Nanjo City Hall) - 2:12:12 (Tokyo 2015)
Henry Sugut (Kenya) - 2:12:40 (Nice-Cannes 2016)
Shota Yamaguchi (Japan/Fujitsu) - 2:13:13 (Nagano 2015)
Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Cerespo) - 2:14:39 (Hokkaido 2016)
Moses Kibet (Uganda) - 2:14:50 (Melbourne 2014)
Yuki Oshikawa (Japan/Toyota Kyushu) - 2:15:53 (Hokkaido 2016)
Okubay Tsegay (Eritrea) - debut - 1:03:10 (Breda Half 2015)

Women
Fantu Eticha (Ethiopia) - 2:26:14 (Dubai 2015)
Mirriam Wangari (Kenya) - 2:27:53 (Xiamen 2015)
Racheal Jemutai Mutgaa (Kenya) - 2:30:11 (Guangzhou 2015)
Aki Otagiri (Japan/Tenmaya) - 2:30:24 (Nagoya Women's 2015)
Mizuho Nasukawa (Japan/unattached) - 2:33:16 (Saitama Int'l 2016)
Yumiko Kinoshita (Japan/SWAC) - 2:35:49 (Tokyo 2015)

© 2017 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

On the Loss of the ARRS Database

At some point in the last few months I discovered that both versions of the ARRS database, the static one and the searchable version , are gone. Last week David Monti posted a link to the ARRS history of an event he covered in Race Results Weekly, I guess copying and pasting a link from last year without looking at it, and that reminded me to write something about the loss of the database. The Association of Road Racing Statisticians was basically a one-man show operated from the remote Northern California shores by Ken Young . When the site existed its intro read: The Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS) is an independent, non-profit organization that collects, analyses and publishes results and statistics regarding elite distance running at distances 3000m and longer...The data of ARRS is stored in the ARRS database, which has more than 1.3 million performances from more than 240,000 races by more than 95,000 elite and sub-elite distance runners worldwide...This website ...
2 comments
Read more

Incheon Asian Games - Long Distance Preview

by Brett Larner Click here to enter JRN's Asian Games marathon prediction contest for a chance to win some quality limited-edition prizes. With over half the world's population represented making it the biggest of the world's regional championships, track and field events kick off September 27 at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.  It's a reality of the region that Bahrain and Qatar field distance teams virtually entirely made up of Ethiopian and Kenyan athletes who duly take home most of the medals, but with Japan hosting the 2020 Olympics it is not screwing around, sending its best talent to what Japanese broadcaster TBS is hyping as "The Asian Olympics." Saturday, Sept. 27: Women's 10000 m, Men's 5000 m, Women's 3000 mSC The women's 10000 m, men's 5000 m and women's 30000 m steeplechase get things moving on the 27th.  Complete start lists are as yet unavailable, meaning updates to this preview in coming days, b...
2 comments
Read more

Ichiyama and Kipkoech Win Sapporo Olympic Test Event Half Marathon

The test event for the Tokyo Olympics marathon went off as planned May 5 in Sapporo on a course more or less mirroring the first half of this summer's Olympic course. Strong winds from the south meant a slow start over the first 8 km, super fast splits from the turn to the north just before 10 km until after 15 km, and a technical finish into the wind over the narrow and winding last few km through the Hokkaido University campus. After a slow first km, Olympic marathon women's team members Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) and Mao Ichiyama  (Wacoal) plus alternate Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) took it out hard with pacing courtesy of one of Ichiyama's male coaches. They stayed together on 1:08 pace until almost 18 km before Suzuki slipped away, Ichiyama kicking to win in a 1:08:28 PB and Matsuda closing hard in 1:08:32 for 2nd, likewise a PB. Ichiyama's time moved her up to all-time Japanese #6, with Matsuda picking up the #7 spot and knocking her coach Miwako Yamanaka  out of t...
3 comments
Read more