Skip to main content

Weekend Half Marathon Roundup


Along with the National Cross-Country Championships and Tokyo Marathon, the weekend saw competitive half marathons across the country and nearby in South Korea.

Yuta Shimoda of four-time Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University turned the fastest time of the weekend with a 1:03:20 win at the Kashima Yutoku Road Race half marathon, beating sometime training partner Aritaka Kajiwara (Hiramatsu Byoin) by 35 seconds.

A week after his course record-breaking win at the Kitakyushu Marathon, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) won the local Fukaya City Half Marathon in Saitama in 1:04:26, beating corporate leaguer Rui Watanabe (Shindengen) by 29 seconds. Amateur Tomomi Sawahata (Sawahatters) scored yet another road race win in 1:15:42, the fastest time of the weekend by a Japanese woman.

At the 40th anniversary running of the Inuyama Yomiuri Half Marathon, Toyo University first-year Ryoga Asai won in 1:04:44. Eri Watanabe (Aichi Denki) took the women's race in 1:16:30.

Across the seas in South Korea, former Konica Minolta runner Samuel Kariuki (Kenya) took 10 seconds off the course record to win the Gyeonggi International Half Marathon in 1:02:30. Japan's Kohei Nakajima (Josai Univ.) led the second pack to take 4th overall in 1:04:33 in a sprint finish against South Korea's Jae Hoon Kim and Mongolian Dambadarjaa Gantulga.

67th Kashima Yutoku Road Race

Kashima, Saga 2/25/18

Men's Half Marathon
1. Yuta Shimoda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:20
2. Aritaka Kajiwara (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 1:03:55
3. Ryosuke Nara (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 1:04:00
4. Shun Sadakata (Toyo Univ.) - 1:04:39
5. Ayumu Tsutsumi (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:05:26
6. Tomoya Kaneko (Nihon Univ.) - 1:05:42

Women's Half Marathon
1. Natsumi Morino 1:22:13

Men's 10 km
1. Ryuichi Hashimoto 29:45

Women's 10 km
1. Misa Kanda 34:43

12th Fukaya City Half Marathon

Fukaya, Saitama 2/25/18

Men
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:04:26
2. Rui Watanabe (Shindengen) - 1:04:55

Women
1. Tomomi Sawahata (Sawahatters) - 1:15:42

40th Inuyama Yomiuri Half Marathon

Inuyama, Aichi 2/25/18

Men
1. Ryoga Asai (Toyo Univ.) - 1:04:44

Women
1. Eri Watanabe (Aichi Denki) - 1:16:30

Men's 10 km
1. Hayate Takeuchi (NTN) - 30:03

Women's 10 km
1. Honoka Sugiura (Chukyo Univ.) - 34:10

Gyeonggi International Half Marathon

Suwon, South Korea 2/25/18

Men
1. Samuel Kariuki (KEN) 1:02:30 - CR
2. Abebe Negewo Degefe (ETH) 1:02:39
3. Brahom Oukhouya (MAR) 1:02:47
4. Kohei Nakajima (JPN) 1:04:33
5. Jae Hoon Kim (KOR) 1:04:34
6. Dambadarjaa Gantulga (MGL) 1:04:36

photo © Shingo Igarashi, all rights reserved
text © 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...
1 comment
Read more

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...
1 comment
Read more

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more