Nogami Takes Silver in Asian Games Women's Marathon

2017 World Championships women's marathon gold medalist Rose Chelimo, a Kenyan-born Bahraini, duly took gold in Sunday's Jakarta Asian Games marathon, biding her time in a slow race mostly led by 2017 Asian Championships silver medalist Keiko Nogami before taking off at 25 km to win unchallenged in a 2:34:51 Indonesian all comers record.

Behind her the main pack featured duos from Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia, China and Kyrgyzstan, shedding members along the way before shaking down to a core chase group of four made up of Nogami, South Korean national record holder Do Yeon Kim and teammate Kyung Sun Choi, and North Korean rival Hye Song Kim. The fastest of the four, the South Korean Kim was the first to crack, leaving the other three to fight it out over the last 10 km for silver and bronze.

Choi, the only one in the chase trio not to have broken 2:30, launched a brief attack but was quickly reeled in by Nogami and Kim. Nogami returned fire with 5 km to go and dropped Choi, earning herself a medal in the process but the color still to be determined. She settled that at 40 km with another surge that broke her free of the North Korean, running alone the rest of the way to take silver in 2:36:27 and clearing the old Indonesian all comers record by nearly a minute. From 40 km to the finish she was 23 seconds faster than winner Chelimo but too far back to regain contact.

Kim held on to bronze in 2:37:20, with Choi close behind in 4th in 2:37:49. Un Ok Jo of North Korea overtook the South Korean Kim for 5th in 2:38:32, with Kim dropping to 6th in 2:39:28. Tanaka, who stopped at one point to tie her shoe, struggled in to a 9th-place finish in 2:42:35.

A relative latecomer to the marathon, Nogami's steady progress and quality performance in the hot conditions in Jakarta mark her as a stronger candidate for the Tokyo 2020 team than her 2:26:33 best would suggest. She qualified for the MGC Race 2020 Olympic with that 2:26:33 earlier this year, and a medal at the Asian Games only reinforces her position. Tanaka coming up short means she will have to try again, maybe once more before the qualifying deadline in March next year.

Jakarta Asian Games Women's Marathon

Jakarta, Indonesia, 8/26/18
complete results

1. Rose Chelimo (Bahrain) - 2:34:51 - ACR
2. Keiko Nogami (Japan) - 2:36:27
3. Hye Song Kim (North Korea) - 2:37:20
4. Kyung Sun Choi (South Korea) - 2:37:49
5. Un Ok Jo (North Korea) - 2:38:32
6. Do Yeon Kim (South Korea) - 2:39:28
7. Munkhzaya Bayartsogt (Mongolia) - 2:40:14
8. Meixia Zhang (China) - 2:41:30
9. Hanae Tanaka (Japan) - 2:42:35
10. Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh (Mongolia) - 2:42:57
-----
DNF - Mariya Korobitskaya (Kyrgyzstan)
DNF - Lihua Gong (China)

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges. Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

10 Meet Records and a National Record at Hyogo Relay Carnival

The grand prix distance events were absent from the program this year at the 73rd Hyogo Relay Carnival , with the top performances in the women's 5000 m and men's 10000 m Asics Challenge races going to steepler Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) in 15:49.48 and Japan-based Kenyan Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) in 28:12.42. But there were a lot of new meet records, and one national record. Ryosuke Kusumi (Shiga) set a T37-class NR of 58.35 m in the para men's 400 m. Kairi Ikeno (Suma Gakuen H.S.) came less than 2 seconds short of a new high school record in the women's 2000 m , beating her own MR from last year by over 3 seconds in 5:55.36, almost 17 seconds ahead of 2nd place. The top 5 all broke or tied the men's high jump meet record, with both Yuto Seko (FAAS) and Tomohiro Shinno (Kyudenko) clearing 2.25 m and Takashi Eto (Kobe Digital Labo), Chao-Hsuan Fu (Taiwan) and Naoto Hasegawa (Niigata Albirex RC) clearing 2.20 m. Yuki Hashioka (Fujitsu) won the men...

japan running news

Search This Blog