Furuse and Godana Win Nagano Marathon

Wind and rain hit the 20th anniversary Nagano Marathon hard enough to slow things down, Japan's Asami Furuse (Kyocera) and Ethiopian Abdela Godana taking the top spots in the women's and men's races.

Coached by former men's half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato, Furuse and teammate Saki Tokoro were part of a lead group of five women that set out on low 2:33 pace. Kenyan Beatrice Jepkemboi dropped off he group near 20 km and Yukiko Okuno (Shiseido) did the same a few minutes later, leaving the Kyocera duo to face remaining Kenyan Pauline Wangui over the second half.

Tokoro cracked just before 30 km and Wangui around 32 km, leaving Furuse to push on alone to an evenly-paced 2:34:09. Wangui faded to 4th, run down first by Tokoro and then by Okuno. Tokoro made it a 1-2 finish for Kyocera, another success for Sato is his short coaching career to date. 4th last year, former Tenmaya runner Aki Otagiri moved up from the second pack to take the 5th spot this time out.

Godana went straight to the front of the large men's lead pack, leading through 5 km on 2:11-flat pace. The pace picked up just enough that 20 km it was down to five, Kenyan Julius Keter and Japanese runners Kyota Yabushita (Osaka Gas), Yuki Munakata (Kanebo) and Hiroshi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) hanging on to Godama through a 1:05:22 halfway split.

Munakata, coached by former marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka, slipped back over 20 seconds behind the group by 25 km, but as the lead pack splintered over the next 5 km he overtook Keter and Yabusthia to move back into 3rd, still just over 20 seconds behind Godana and Ichida. Over the final 5 km Godna shook Ichida off, taking 1st unchallenged in 2:13:54. Munakata ran Ichida down just before 40 km, finishing 2nd overall in 2:14:21. Ichida was 21 seconds back in 3rd, the only top-placing runner male or female to run a PB in the tough conditions.

20th Nagano Marathon

Nagano, 4/15/18
click here for complete results

Women
1. Asami Furuse (Kyocera) - 2:34:09
2. Saki Tokoro (Kyocera) - 2:36:21
3. Yukiko Okuno (Shiseido) - 2:36:44
4. Pauline Wangui (Kenya) - 2:39:31
5. Aki Otagiri (Takemura) - 2:44:16
6. Shiori Shimomura (Comody Iida) - 2:46:44
7. Yumiko Kinoshita (SWAC) - 2:48:33
8. Yuka Yamagami (Mie T&F Assoc.) - 2:54:59
9. Shiho Asada (Hachijuni) - 2:55:32
10. Seika Iwamura (Kumamoto T&F Assoc.) - 2:56:20

Men
1. Abdela Godana (Ethiopia) - 2:13:54
2. Yuki Munakata (Kanebo) - 2:14:21
3. Hiroshi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 2:14:42 - PB
4. Kazuya Deguchi (Asahi Kasei) - 2:17:06
5. Ryo Kuchimachi (Subaru) - 2:18:26
6. Shun Imamura (Press Kogyo) - 2:18:27
7. Takuma Shibata (Komori Corp.) - 2:18:39
8. Yusuke Hosokawa (Osaka Gas) - 2:18:55
9. Teppei Suegami (YKK) - 2:19:13
10. Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Cere Sports) - 2:19:32

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Osako Breaks Marathon NR for 3rd Time - Weekend Roundup

It looked like it was going to be a big weekend, and it delivered. For the 3rd time in his career Suguru Osako broke the men's marathon NR, running 1 second under the standing record to take 4th in the Valencia Marathon in 2:04:55. All the way to 40 km he was steady on 2:58/km, 2:05:10 pace, and like a surprising number of other people in both the men's and women's races, there was a massive jump over the last 2.195 km from his projected finish time to his actual one. His run put Osako back on top of the Japanese charts, put the average of Japan's 10 fastest marathon times of the year under 2:06 for the first time, and got him into the L.A. Olympics marathon trials. Valencia has been trying to get top-tier Japanese athletes to come for years, and now that they finally managed to do it it paid off in a big way. Expect more next year. Back home, former Takushoku University captain Derese Workneh won a 3-way race against Toyota teammates Kazuya Nishiyama and Bedan Ka...

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