Skip to main content

Kawauchi Struggles in Heat at Kasukabe Odako Half Marathon

2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (31, Saitama Pref. Gov't) ran Saitama's Kasukabe Odako Half Marathon on May 4. Running 1:05:45, Kawauchi lost to training partner and fellow amateur Saeki Makino (DNPL). "Things have been hectic since Boston and that's had an impact on me," Kawauchi said ruefully. "It feels like my friend here was saying, 'Snap out of it!' as he was knocking me out. No excuses, I need to get back to training."


Kasukabe was also a struggle with the heat. Temperatures at the start were only 18.3 C, but with the strong sunlight reflecting off the pavement the effect on the body felt like 30 C by the time Kawauchi finished. Right after finishing Makino and race staff helped him to a nearby fountain to douse his head with water to cool down. "If I hadn't been careful about drinking water that could've been dangerous," he said. "It's a good thing this was a half marathon and not a full."

Children playing near the fountain were startled to see the Boston Marathon champion suddenly appear, calling out "Kawauchi!" as he soaked his head. After recovering Kawauchi posed for individual pictures with over 100 local fans before departing to head straight to Hokkaido for the May 5 Toyohiragawa Half Marathon. "It's supposed to be less than 20 C and raining in Sapporo," he said. "Should be great conditions."

source articles:
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20180504-00000121-sph-spo
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20180504-00000108-spnannex-spo
translated and edited by Brett Larner
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that  Sis
Post a Comment
Read more

Saturday at Kanaguri and Nittai

Two big meets happened Saturday, one in Kumamoto and the other in Yokohama. At Kumamoto's Kanaguri Memorial Meet , Benard Koech (Kyudenko) turned in the performance of the day with a 13:13.52 meet record to win the men's 5000 m A-heat by just 0.11 seconds over Emmanuel Kipchirchir (SGH). The top four were all under 13:20, with 10000 m national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) bouncing back from a DNF at last month's The TEN to take the top Japanese spot at 7th overall in 13:24.57. The B-heat was also decently quick, Shadrack Rono (Subaru) winning in 13:21.55 and Shoya Yonei (JR Higashi Nihon) running a 10-second PB to get under 13:30 for the first time in 13:29.29 for 6th. Paris Olympics marathoner Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) was 9th in 13:30.62. South Sudan's Abraham Guem (Ami AC) also set a meet record in the men's 1500 m A-heat in 3:38.94. 3000 mSC national record holder Ryuji Miura made his debut with the Subaru corporate team, running 3:39.78 for 2n
1 comment
Read more

Three Japanese Men Running 128th Boston Marathon

Back in Japan's golden years Boston was a big draw for its top talent in the marathon, but for a long time it was off the list of first-choice marathons as the preoccupation shifted to times. That started changing again in 2017 when 5000 m NR holder Suguru Osako made his debut there with a 2:10:28 for 3rd, following in the footsteps of other Waseda University alum who ran well in Boston including two-time winner Toshihiko Seko and the late Tomoyuki Taniguchi . Osako was 3rd at October's Paris Olympic marathon trials, putting him in position to be on the Paris team unless someone runs 2:05:50 or better at February's Osaka Marathon or March's Tokyo Marathon. Having run 2:06:13 in Tokyo last year but beaten by two Japanese men who both went under 2:06, there wasn't really any upside to Osako doing Tokyo this time. Osaka seemed like the logical choice, but like he has for most of his life Osako is following his own motivations and opting to return to the 128th Boston
2 comments
Read more