Sakamoto and Kawauchi Return to Stockholm Marathon (updated)

Amateur winners of two of the world's biggest marathons, 2016 Osaka Marathon champ Yoshiko Sakamoto (YWC) and 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) return to Sweden to run the Stockholm Marathon for the second year in a row this Saturday with support from JRN. For its 40th running Stockholm features a new course designed to cut most of the hills out of the first half of the race, but with temperatures expected to peak at 27C the quality elite field may not be able to take full advantage of the new configuration.

5th last year, Sakamoto is fresh off a 2:35:40 PB at February's Tokyo Marathon. She faces defending champion Konjit Tilahun Biruk (Ethiopia), seven-time winner Isabellah Andersson (Sweden) and #1-ranked Kumeshi Sichala (Ethiopia), the only woman in the field with a current sub-2:30 time. The 2:28:24 event record set way back in 1988 by the great Grete Waitz (Norway) will be a stretch, but however fast it goes Sakamoto hopes to at least match last year's run.

In his eighth race since winning Boston on April 16th Kawauchi will be running both his first international race and first marathon since then. Last year he was 6th in a performance he considered his worst of 2017. Back to make up for it, he faces Ethiopian talents Bazu Worku, Alebachew Wale, Samuel Getachew and Belay Assefa as his main competition. Still feeling the effects of the Nobeyama 71 km Ultra he ran May 20, the unusually hot temperatures will work against Kawauchi as he looks to extend his unbeaten streak in the marathon to six. In another year the 2:10:58 event record set two years ago by Stanley Kipchirchir Koech (Kenya) might have been in range, but this year Worku, Kawauchi and the others look to be facing more than they expected from an early June afternoon in Sweden.

40th Stockholm Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Stockholm, Sweden, 6/2/18
times listed are best within last three years except where noted

Women
Kumeshi Sichala (Ethiopia) - 2:28:43 (Warsaw 2016)
Isabellah Andersson (Sweden) - 2:30:02 (Tokyo 2016)
Konjit Tilahun Biruk (Ethiopia) - 2:31:39 (Pyongyang 2018)
Bekele Beji (Ethiopia) - 2:34:05 (Rabat 2017)
Zsofia Erdelyi (Hungary) - 2:35:37 (Dusseldorf 2016)
Yoshiko Sakamoto (Japan) - 2:35:40 (Tokyo 2018)
Hanna Vandenbussche (Belgium) - 2:37:28 (London 2017)
Mikaela Larsson (Sweden) - 2:38:41 (Valencia 2017)
Charlotte Karlsson (Sweden) - 2:45:21 (Stockholm 2017)

Man
Bazu Worku (Ethiopia) - 2:08:30 (Houston 2018)
Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) - 2:09:01 (Gold Coast 2016)
Alebachew Wale (Ethiopia) - 2:09:40 (Shanghai 2017)
Samuel Getachew (Ethiopia) - 2:09:44 (Rabat 2017)
Belay Assefa (Ethiopia) - 2:10:16 (Rennes 2017)
Workneh Tiruneh (Ethiopia) - 2:11:07 (La Rochelle 2017)
Stephen Kiplimo (Kenya) - 2:11:28 (Castelleon 2018)
Dominic Kimwetich (Kenya) - 2:11:43 (Barcelona 2016)
Urfessa Kedir (Ethiopia) - 2:12:19 (Pune 2017)
Felix Keny (Kenya) - 2:12:43 (Gyeongju 2017)
Lawi Kiptui (Kenya) - 2:13:21 (Lyon 2017)
Boaz Kipyego (Kenya) - 2:14:07 (Lyon 2017)
Eliud Sugut (Kenya) - 2:14:15 (Rabat 2017)
Sammy Nyokaye (Kenya) - 2:14:18 (Warsaw 2016)
Abraham Adhanom (Sweden) - 2:16:41 (Frankfurt 2009)
Mustafa Mohamed (Sweden) - 2:20:01 (Stockholm 2016)
John Kingstedt (Sweden) - debut - 1:06:08 (Den Haag Half 2016)

text and photos © 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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