'Mungara Chases Unique Hat-Trick on Gold Coast'

https://www.iaaf.org/news/preview/2017-gold-coast-marathon-preview

Past Gold Coast Airport Marathon winners Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) return to Sunday's race to lead a sizable Japanese contingent in both the full and half marathons. 2015 women's winner Takenaka will be seeking to improve on her PB of 2:28:09 and to extend the Japanese women's winning streak on the Gold Coast to six years in a row. 2013 men's winner Kawauchi will be running Gold Coast for the sixth year in a row as his final tuneup for next month's London World Championships. His 70th career marathon, his goal at Gold Coast is a sub-2:10. If he clears 2:12 he will break Abebe Mekonnen's world record of 22 career sub-2:12 marathons.

Other top Japanese competition includes last year's 4th-placer Chiharu Takada (Team JR Higashi Nihon), Takenaka's husband Takuya Noguchi (Team Konica Minolta), and 2016 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon winner Ryo Hashimoto (Team GMO Athletes) who in just his second marathon ran 2:11:20 to beat Kawauchi in Hofu. Japanese runners in the half marathon include Takada's teammate Koji Gokaya (Team JR Higashi Nihon) in the men's race and Mizuki Tanimoto (Team Tenmaya) in the women's race.

The 39th Gold Coast Airport Marathon and ASICS Half Marathon will be streamed live here starting at 5:45 local time on Sunday, July 2. The half marathon is set to start at 6:00 a.m. with the wheelchair race at 7:15 and the marathon at 7:20. JRN's Brett Larner will be doing commentary on the marathon broadcast again this year.

39th Gold Coast Airport Marathon and ASICS Half Marathon

Elite Field Highlights
Gold Coast, Australia, 7/2/17
click here for detailed field listing
times listed are best marks within last three years except where noted

Men's Marathon
Kenneth Mungara (Kenya) - 2:08:32 (Milan 2015)
Jonah Chesum (Kenya) - 2:08:57 (Barcelona 2017)
Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) - 2:09:01 (Gold Coast 2016)
Tewelde Hidru (Eritrea) - 2:09:16 (Frankfurt 2015)
Matthew Kipsaat (Kenya) - 2:09:19 (Rome 2017)
Feyera Dadi (Ethiopia) - 2:09:42 (Dongying 2016)
Abraraw Tegegne (Ethiopia) - 2:09:47 (Ljubljana 2016)
Douglas Chebii (Kenya) - 2:09:48 (Seville 2017)
Chiharu Takada (Japan) - 2:10:03 (Fukuoka International 2014)
Takuya Noguchi (Japan) - 2:11:04 (Tokyo 2017)
Ryo Hashimoto (Japan) - 2:11:20 (Hofu 2016)
Yuta Takahashi (Japan) - debut - 1:02:13 half (2015)

Women's Marathon
Abebech Bekele (Ethiopia) - 2:23:33 (Dubai 2015)
Letebrhan Gebreslasea (Ethiopia) - 2:25:01 (Dongying 2017)
Mercy Kibarus (Kenya) - 2:26:52 (Seoul 2017)
Meseret Tolwak (Ethiopia) - 2:27:17 (Frankfurt 2015)
Leah Kiprono (Kenya) - 2:27:39 (Zhengzhou 2016)
Risa Takenaka (Japan) - 2:28:09 (Nagoya 2015)
Azusa Nojiri (Japan) - 2:28:54 (Yokohama Women's 2014)
Elizeba Cherono (Netherlands) - debut - 1:10:10 half (2015)

Men's Half Marathon
Koji Gokaya (Japan) - 1:04:20 (New Year Ekiden 4th Stage - 22.0 km, 2015)
Liam Adams (Australia) - 1:03:29 (Gold Coast 2015)
Hiroki Yamagishi (Japan) - 1:03:41 (Marugame 2015)
Keita Nagura (Japan) - 1:03:56 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2017)
Jeffrey Hunt (Australia) - 1:06:44 (Gold Coast 2014)

Women's Half Marathon
Sara Hall (U.S.A.) - 1:10:07 (Houston 2016)
Milly Clark (Australia) - 1:10:48 (Cardiff 2016)
Desiree Linden (U.S.A.) - 1:11:05 (NYC 2017)
Jess Tengrove (Australia) - 1:11:07 (San Diego 2015)
Cassie Fien (Australia) - 1:11:13 (Cardiff 2016)
Mizuki Tanimoto (Japan) - 1:12:39 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2017)

photo © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

Japan Post was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's Ayuko Suzuki and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...

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