Skip to main content

Nakamoto and Kawauchi to Run Boston

Japan's Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki) will run the 2018 Boston Marathon as part of the John Hancock Elite Athlete Team. Kawauchi holds world records for everything from most career sub-2:12 marathons to most sub-2:20, while Nakamoto is Japan's best championships marathoner of modern times with four top 10 finishes at the Olympics and World Championships.

Longtime rivals, their duel at the 2013 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon was one of the classics of Japanese marathoning, both running sub-2:09 PBs as Kawauchi set a still-standing course record of 2:08:15. The pair has a 3-3 record in the marathon so far, their most recent meeting coming at last summer's London World Championships where Kawauchi ran Nakamoto down in the last kilometer to take 9th. Boston will be their 7th and likely final face-off.


2018 Boston Marathon 
John Hancock Elite Athlete Team
Boston, U.S.A., 4/16/18
times listed are best in last three years except where noted

Men
Tamirat Tola (Ethiopia) - 2:04:11 (Dubai 2017)
Lemi Berhanu (Ethiopia) - 2:04:33 (Dubai 2016)
Norbert Kigen (Kenya) - 2:05:13 (Amsterdam 2017)
Evans Chebet (Kenya) - 2:05:30 (Valencia 2017)
Felix Kandie (Kenya) - 2:06:03 (Seoul 2017)
Geoffrey Kirui (Kenya) - 2:06:27 (Amsterdam 2016)
Philemon Rono (Kenya) - 2:06:52 (Toronto Waterfront 2017)
Abdi Nageeye (Netherlands) - 2:08:16 (Amsterdam 2017)
Wilson Chebet (Kenya) - 2:08:19 (Amsterdam 2016)
Arne Gabius (Germany) - 2:08:33 (Frankfurt 2015)
Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) - 2:09:01 (Gold Coast 2016)
Lelisa Desisa (Ethiopia) - 2:09:17a (Boston 2015)
Galen Rupp (U.S.A.) - 2:09:20 (Chicago 2017)
Kentaro Nakamoto (Japan) - 2:09:32 (Beppu-Oita 2017)
Reid Coolsaet (Canada) - 2:10:28 (Berlin 2015)
Stephen Sambu (Kenya) - 2:11:07 (Chicago 2017)
Dathan Ritzenhein (U.S.A.) - 2:11:20a (Boston 2015)
Abdi Abdirahman (U.S.A.) - 2:11:23 (New York 2016)
Lusapho April (South Africa) - 2:11:27 (Hannover 2016)
Eric Gillis (Canada) - 2:11:31 (Toronto Waterfront 2015)
Elkanah Kibet (U.S.A.) - 2:11:31 (Chicago 2015)
Tim Ritchie (U.S.A.) - 2:11:56a (Cal Int'l 2017)
Shadrack Biwott (U.S.A.) - 2:12:01 (New York 2016)
Scott Smith (U.S.A.) - 2:12:21 (Frankfurt 2017)
Ryan Vail (U.S.A.) - 2:12:40 (Berlin 2017)
Andrew Bumbalough (U.S.A.) - 2:13:58 (Tokyo 2017)

photos © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...
3 comments
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...
Post a Comment
Read more

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .
Post a Comment
Read more