Skip to main content

Triple Marathon Weekend Preview - Asian Games, Hokkaido and New Caledonia



Marathon season kicks off this weekend with three races featuring elite-level Japanese marathoners.

Saturday morning the athletics segment of the Jakarta Asian Games gets rolling with the men's marathon. With a 2:06:54 best from February's Tokyo Marathon Japan's Hiroto Inoue is the heavy favorite if he can handle the heat. His nearest competition, Ethiopian Bahraini Abdi Abdo, ran 2:08:32 in Rome this year, and Inoue's teammate Hayato Sonoda is the only other man in the field to have broken 2:10. With Bahrain's second man, the Moroccan El Hassan El Abbassi, ranked 4th at 2:10:57 it's pretty much a Japan-Bahrain dual on the men's side. Should Inoue succeed he'll be the first Japanese man to win Asian Games gold since Takeyuki Nakayama set the still-standing championships record of 2:08:21 at the 1986 Seoul Games. It's unusual to see an A-lister like Inoue run the Asian Games, but considering the weather conditions he'll face if he makes the Tokyo Olympics it seems like a good move for him to get in a test run now.

As of this writing start lists haven't been published yet, but with 2017 World Champion Rose Chelimo and three 2:24 women on the entry lists, whichever two athletes Bahrain fields it looks set to take gold and silver in the women's race on Sunday. The race for bronze should be interesting, with South Korean national record holder Do Yeon Kim ranked #3 at 2:25:41 just ahead of the 2:26 Japanese pair of Hanae Tanaka and Keiko Nogami and the 2:27 North Korean duo Hye Song Kim and Un Ok Jo. Of the four Japanese athletes in the Asian Games marathons only Tanaka hasn't yet qualified for the MGC Race 2020 Olympic Trials. To do that she'll need to medal or break 2:28:20 to qualify under the two-race sub-2:28 average option. Japanese women have medaled in every edition of the Asian Games marathon except the 2010 Guangzhou Games, but Tanaka and Nogami have a tough challenge ahead of them to add to that history. Whoever takes the top spots in Jakarta, the Indonesian all-comers records of 2:17:16 and 2:38:17 are bound to fall.

Other marathoners going for MGC qualification will be lining up Sunday at the Hokkaido Marathon, where they can get in via a sub-2:15 win or sub-2:13 top 6 finish for men, or a sub-2:32 win or sub-2:30 top 6 placing for women. On the women's side the favorites are London World Championships team member Mao Kiyota, Michi Numata, Misaki Kato, all of whom have run sub-2:30 in the relatively recent past, collegiate record holder Sairi Maeda, and debuting track star Ayuko Suzuki. On the men's, sub-2:10 men Takuya Fukatsu, Kentaro Nakamoto, Jo Fukuda and 2:10-level rivals Shohei Otsuka and Taiga Ito. Also of interest is former Aoyama Gakuin University ekiden runner Yuta Shimoda, making a return to the marathon for the first time since his 2:11:34 debut at age 19 at the 2016 Tokyo Marathon. Conditions at the Hokkaido Marathon are usually too hot for time to be much of a consideration, but with a major typhoon set to pass through the area the day before the race all bets are off right now about what exactly they will face come race time.

Also Sunday, Egyptian all-comers record holder Yuki Kawauchi returns to the site of his first-ever race outside Japan to run the New Caledonia International Marathon. The course and New Caledonia all-comers record of 2:14:25 set by Hiroyuki Suzuki in 2000 could be in range, but with another marathon on his schedule next weekend in northern Hokkaido Kawauchi may opt to take New Caledonia a little more conservatively.

Asian Games marathon entry lists are below. Hokkaido Marathon entry lists are here. Look also for Japan's Yuka Hori in the women's 10000 m in Jakarta Saturday evening.

2018 Asian Games Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Jakarta, Indonesia, Aug. 25-26, 2018
times listed are best in last three years except where noted

Men
Hiroto Inoue (Japan) - 2:06:54 (Tokyo 2018)
Abdi Abdo (Bahrain) - 2:08:32 (Rome 2018)
Hayato Sonoda (Japan) - 2:09:34 (Beppu-Oita 2018)
El Hassan El Abbassi (Bahrain) - 2:10:57 (Lisbon 2017)
Guojian Dong (China) - 2:11:41 (Chongqing 2016)
Kang Pom Ri (North Korea) - 2:12:53 (Pyongyang 2018)
Bujie Duo (China) - 2:13:15 (Chongqing 2016)
Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia) - 2:13:22 (Fukuoka Int'l 2017)
Jae Hoon Kim (South Korea) - 2:13:24 (Seoul 2018)
Kwang Sik Shin (South Korea) - 2:14:05 (Seoul 2018)
Chol Pak (North Korea) - 2:14:11 (Pyongyang 2016)
Andrey Petrov (Uzbekistan) - 2:15:17 (Seoul 2018)
Gantulga Dambadarjaa (Mongolia) - 2:17:19 (Seoul 2018)

Women
Rose Chelimo (Bahrain) - 2:22:51a (Boston 2017)
Desi Mokonin (Bahrain) - 2:24:05 (Dubai 2018)
Do Yeon Kim (South Korea) - 2:25:41 (Seoul 2018)
Hanae Tanaka (Japan) - 2:26:19 (Osaka Int'l 2017)
Keiko Nogami (Japan) - 2:26:33 (Nagoya 2018)
Hye Song Kim (North Korea) - 2:27:31 (Pyongyang 2018)
Un Ok Jo (North Korea) - 2:27:42 (Pyongyang 2018)
Lihua Gong (China) - 2:31:05 (Seoul 2018)
Munkhzaya Bayartsogt (Mongolia) - 2:31:12 (Seoul 2018)
Kyong Sun Choi (South Korea) - 2:32:27 (Daegu 2017)
Meixia Zhang (China) - 2:33:02 (Tokyo 2018)
Viktoriya Polyudina (Kyrgyzstan) - 2:33:25 (Shenzen 2017)
Yuliya Andreyeva (Kyrgyzstan) - 2:34:27 (Dongguan 2017)
Sudha Singh (India) - 2:35:35 (Beijing World Championships 2015)
Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh (Mongolia) - 2:35:55 (Wuxi 2018)
Sitora Khamidova (Uzbekistan) - 2:39:45 (Rio Olympics 2016)

Alternates
Eunice Chumba (Bahrain) - 2:24:27 (Rotterdam 2017)
Shitaye Habtegebrel (Bahrain) - 2:24:51 (Hamburg 2018)
Mariya Korobitskaya (Kyrgyzstan) - 2:34:50 (Dongguan 2017)

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...
3 comments
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...
Post a Comment
Read more

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...
1 comment
Read more