Skip to main content

Barsosio Leads Gold Coast Women



For its 40th anniversary running Australia's Gold Coast Marathon has brought in a woman capable of giving the event a course record worthy of its gold label status, and maybe of taking a swing at the fastest marathon ever run on Australian soil, Naoko Takahashi's 2:23:14 gold medal run at the Sydney Olympics. Runner-up at last year's Paris Marathon in 2:20:59, Kenyan Agnes Jeruto Barsosio is the class of the field, almost five minutes faster than her strongest competition, fellow Kenyan Ruth Chebitok. Despite a scarcity of results this year it's Barsosio's race to lose.

That said, the long travel to Australia often takes a toll on the top competitors, leaving the top of the podium accessible to women in the 2:25-2:27 range. Along with Chebitok, Australia's Jessica Trengove and Japan's Ayaka Fujimoto (Kyocera) and Miharu Shimokado (Nitori) are positioned at exactly that level and should contend for top three at the worst. The 2015 Melbourne Marathon winner, Trengove set her PB of 2:27:01 while finishing 10th at last year's London Marathon before doubling back to take 9th in the London World Championships marathon. Gold Coast hasn't had an Australian winner male or female since Lauren Shelley in 2009, but Trengove looks like its best chance of breaking that dry spell.

Japanese women have won six of the last eight years at Gold Coast. Coached by former half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato, Fujimoto's 2:27:08 breakthrough in Tokyo at age 19 last year marked her as one of the country's highest-potential young athletes. Shimokado has gone through coaching changes since her 2:27:54 best in Nagoya last year but if she is back on track should be up with Trengove, Fujimoto and the others. Australia's Celia Sullohern rounds out the subgroup of sub-2:30 women on the entry list.

Fujimoto, Shimokado and the other Japanese women in the race will also be chasing qualifying for marks for the MGC Race, Japan's new 2020 Olympic trials event to be held in the fall of 2019. The sub-2:24 auto-qualifier is probably out of range at Gold Coast, but a decent time would count toward the two-race sub-2:28 average route to qualification. Mao Uesugi (Starts) is the only woman there who already has one mark on the books counting toward MGC qualification, her 2:31:49 in Tokyo this year necessitating a 2:24:11 to make the trials.

Also running in the half marathon division are Japan's Hanae Tanaka (Shiseido), 6th in March's Nagoya Women's Marathon, and Misaki Hayashida (Toyota Jidoshokki), Rie Fujita (Kyocera) and Anna Matsuda (Kyocera), the 3rd through 5th-placers February's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships. $6000 is the prize for 1st place, sweet pickings for a race that has only gone under 70 minutes three times in its history.

Look for the men's field listing on Monday. JRN will be on-site at the Gold Coast Marathon throughout race weekend and will once again be doing race commentary on the official webcast. Check back for more closer to race date.

40th Gold Coast Marathon Elite Women's Field Highlights

Gold Coast, Australia, July 1, 2018
times listed are best within last three years except where noted

Agnes Jeruto Barsosio (Kenya) - 2:20:59 (Paris 2017)
Ruth Chebitok (Kenya) - 2:25:49 (Barcelona 2018)
Jessica Trengove (Australia) - 2:27:01 (London 2017)
Ayaka Fujimoto (Japan) - 2:27:08 (Tokyo 2017)
Miharu Shimokado (Japan) - 2:27:54 (Nagoya Women's 2017)
Celia Sullohern (Australia) - 2:29:27 (Melbourne 2017)
Mao Uesugi (Japan) - 2:31:49 (Tokyo 2018)
Yukari Abe (Japan) - 2:35:47 (Nagoya Women's 2015)

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters