Skip to main content

Tanaka, Ino and Yoshimatsu Take on Harmony Geneva Marathon

Three elite-level Japanese athletes will race the 14th edition of Switzerland's Harmony Geneva Marathon Sunday with support from JRN. In a women's field headed by Ethiopian Alemitu Lema and debuting Kenyan Ruth Waithera, 2017 Osaka Marathon runner-up Mitsuko Ino seeks to rebound from a poor performance at March's Skechers Performance Los Angeles Marathon with a bettering of her 2:34:39 breakthrough in Osaka.

2016 Osaka runner-up Hisae Yoshimatsu will be aiming to follow her 3rd place finish at last September's Volksbank Muenster Marathon and 2nd-place finish at December's Hofu Yomiuri Marathon with another top three placing, ideally cracking 2:35 on Geneva's slightly net downhill course.

The men's field features four men with recent sub-2:10 times led by 2:08 man Joseph Aperumoi of Kenya. Seeded 6th on recent time, club runner and Tokai University alumnus Asuka Tanaka makes his international marathon debut after a surprise 2:10:13 PB in Tokyo in February. "I'm less focused on time and more on just being as competitive as I can," Tanaka said.

JRN will be on-hand throughout the weekend to provide support and cover the race live. Follow @GeneveMarathon for more coverage.


14th Harmony Geneva Marathon Elite Field

Geneva, Switzerland, 5/6/18
times listed are best within last three years except where noted

Women
Alemitu Lema  (Ethiopia) - 2:31:36 (Mersin 2017)
Berha Lemelem (Ethiopia) - 2:33:10 (Seville 2017)
Ametework Fekadu  (Ethiopia) - 2:34:25 (Lodz 2017)
Mitsuko Ino (Japan) - 2:34:39 (Osaka 2017)
Hisae Yoshimatsu (Japan) - 2:35:46 (Hofu 2015)
Ruth Waithera (Kenya) - debut - 1:10:15 (Milan Half 2018)

Men
Joseph Aperumoi (Kenya) - 2:08:26 (Amsterdam 2017)
Wilfred Murgor (Kenya) - 2:09:37 (Seoul 2015)
Abraraw Misganaw (Ethiopia) - 2:09:47 (Lubljana 2015)
Wycliff Biwott (Kenya) - 2:09:55 (Zagreb 2017)
William Yegon (Kenya) - 2:10:11 (Hefei 2015)
Asuka Tanaka (Japan) - 2:10:13 (Tokyo 2018)
Alfred Kering (Kenya) - 2:10:27 (Lisbon 2016)
Bernard Cheruiyot (Kenya) - 2:10:42 (Gyeongju 2017)
Abdelkabir Saji (Morocco) - 2:13:44 (Marrakech 2018)
Tadese Tolesa (Ethiopia) - 2:16:04 (Metz 2014)
James Kiplagat (Kenya) - 2:19:06 (Nairobi 2017)
Tamiru Sahelu (Ethiopia) - debut - 29:00 (Addis Abeba 10 km 2017)

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

CR Holder Teruki Shimada Returns to Launceston Half - Preview and Streaming

Last year's McGrath Launceston Running Festival Peppers Silo Half Marathon in Tasmania, Australia shaped out into a great Australia vs. Japan dual meet , with Jessica Stenson outrunning Yumi Yoshikawa to take the women's title in a 1:09:51 CR, and Teikyo University school record holder Teruki Shimada executing a tactically brilliant race to drop Isaac Heyne , then-NR holder Brett Robinson , and Teikyo teammate Jinya Ozaki for the win in 1:01:12, just a second off the Australian all-comers record. Marathon NR holder Andy Buchanan took that record down to 1:01:08 at the Gold Coast Half a month later, but its chances of surviving this weekend aren't looking good. Shimada leads last year's top 4 back to Launceston this year, and there's a lot of tough new competition. 2025 National Corporate Half winner Tsubasa Ichiyama , Australia's Haftu Strintzos , new Teikyo record holder Yuta Asakawa and American Ethan Shuley have all run faster that Buchanan's rec...
Post a Comment
Read more

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer.  These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly.  I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes.  As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway.  That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...
18 comments
Read more