Skip to main content

Ten Sub-2:10 Japanese Men Lead Fukuoka International Marathon Field



The best year in Japanese men’s marathon history is drawing to a close, and with it the chances for them to qualify for the new MGC Race 2020 Olympic trials are running out. The Dec. 2nd Fukuoka International Marathon features one of the best Japanese fields ever assembled, with ten Japanese men under 2:10 since 2016 offering it a good chance of its first home-grown winner since 2004. Five have already qualified for the MGC Race and will line up there alongside dozens of hopefuls who have three ways to make the cut:

1. Go under 2:08:30.
2. Be in the top three Japanese men under 2:11:00 not counting those who are already qualified, or in the next three and under 2:10:00.
3. Average under 2:11:00 between Fukuoka and one other marathon since August, 2017.

Places at the 2019 Doha World Championships are also in the mix, but with the MGC Race scheduled to be held just a couple of weeks before Doha it’s safe to say virtually nobody is aiming for that team.

Half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda), 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov’t), 2017 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon winner Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki), Hayato Sonoda (Kurosaki Harima) and Yoshiki Takenouchi (NTT Nishi Nihon) make up the list of those already qualified for the MGC Race, Shitara running a marathon for the first time since his now-former national record 2:06:11 in Tokyo in February and Kawauchi hoping to turn things back around after a string of bad races since Boston.

Those with a realistic chance of qualifying off the two-race average include 2017 Gold Coast Marathon winner Takuya Noguchi (Konica Minolta), who missed it by seconds at this year’s Gold Coast, recent sub-2:10 men Kohei Ogino (Fujitsu), Yuma Hattori (Toyota) and Jo Fukuda (Nishitetsu), and a trio who finished together just over the 2:10 mark in Tokyo this year, Asuka Tanaka (Hiramatsu Byoin), Hiroki Yamagishi (GMO) and Daichi Kamino (New Balance).

There’s a good number of others on the list who ran well in 2015 and 2016 and will be hoping to get back on board in Fukuoka, including sub-2:10 teammates Takuya Fukatsu, Fumihiro Maruyama and Satoru Sasaki (all Asahi Kasei), and given the depth of Japanese men’s marathoning and the tendency for dark horses to post seemingly out-of-nowhere breakthroughs like Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) earlier this month in Chicago there’s almost no limit to who else could have their day. Twins Hiroshi and Takashi Ichida (both Asahi Kasei) would make a lot of people happy if they finally broke through in Fukuoka. Both 100 km world record holder Nao Kazami (Aisan Kogyo) and 100 km silver medalist Takehiko Gyoba (Ashiya T&F Assoc.) are also in the race.

It being a nominally international marathon, Fukuoka also has its usual small contingent of overseas runners perfectly positioned to pace the Japanese men to times in the 2:07 to 2:08 range and to lend a little shine to the race with their medals. 2011 world championships silver medalist Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) tops the list with a 2:06:14 in Berlin last year, with 2015 world champion Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (Eritrea) and past Fukuoka champ Yemane Tsegay (Ethiopia) potentially in range of the win if they can show some of their past ability again. Last year Norway’s Sondre Moen broke through with a European record win in Fukuoka. The talented Callum Hawkins (Great Britian) could be poised to follow Moen’s lead with a breakthrough performance after a 1:01:00 at last weekend's Valencia Half Marathon.

Check back closer to race date for live broadcast details and more coverage.

Fukuoka International Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Fukuoka, Dec. 2, 2018
complete field listing
times listed are best in last three years except where noted

Yuta Shitara (Japan/Honda) – 2:06:11 (2nd, Tokyo 2018)
Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) – 2:06:14 (5th, Berlin 2017)
Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (Eritrea) – 2:07:46 (4th, London 2016)
Yemane Tsegay (Ethiopia) – 2:08:48 (1st, Fukuoka Int’l 2016)
Takuya Noguchi (Japan/Konica Minolta) – 2:08:59 (1st, Gold Coast 2017)
Yuki Kawauchi (Japan/Saitama Pref. Gov’t) – 2:09:01 (2nd, Gold Coast 2016)
Amanuel Mesel (Eritrea) – 2:09:22 (5th, Fukuoka Int’l 2017)
Takuya Fukatsu (Japan/Asahi Kasei) – 2:09:31 (5th, Lake Biwa 2016)
Kentaro Nakamoto (Japan/Yasukawa Denki) – 2:09:32 (1st, Beppu-Oita 2017)
Hayato Sonoda (Japan/Kurosaki Harima) – 2:09:34 (2nd, Beppu-Oita 2018)
Kohei Ogino (Japan/Fujitsu) – 2:09:36 (12th, Tokyo 2018)
Fumihiro Maruyama (Japan/Asahi Kasei) – 2:09:39 (6th, Lake Biwa 2016)
Yuma Hattori (Japan/Toyota) – 2:09:46 (13th, Tokyo 2017)
Jo Fukuda (Japan/Nishitetsu) – 2:09:52 (3rd, Gold Coast 2018)
Yoshiki Takenouchi (Japan/NTT Nishi Nihon) – 2:10:01 (7th, Fukuoka Int’l 2017)
Satoru Sasaki (Japan/Asahi Kasei) – 2:10:10 (4th, Lake Biwa 2017)
Asuka Tanaka (Japan/Hiramatsu Byoin) – 2:10:13 (16th, Tokyo 2018) - withdrawn
Hiroki Yamagishi (Japan/GMO) – 2:10:14 (17th, Tokyo 2018)
Callum Hawkins (Great Britain) – 2:10:17 (4th, London World Champs 2017) - withdrawn
Daichi Kamino (Japan/New Balance) – 2:10:18 (18th, Tokyo 2018)
Ryo Hashimoto (Japan/GMO) – 2:10:19 (4th, Gold Coast 2017)
Chiharu Takada (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) – 2:10:43 (4th, Gold Coast 2016)
Tatsunori Hamasaki (Japan/Nanji AC) – 2:11:26 (2nd, Hofu 2017)
Ryu Takaku (Japan/Yakult) – 2:11:45 (6th, Gold Coast 2018)
Paul Kuira (Kenya/Konica Minolta) – 2:11:58 (2nd, Hokkaido 2018)
Kazuya Ishida (Japan/Nishitetsu) - 2:12:25 (4th, Beppu-Oita 2016)
Keisuke Tanaka (Japan/Fujitsu) - 2:12:41 (4th, Nobeoka 2018)
Keisuke Kusaka (Japan/Hitachi Butsuryu) - 2:12:42 (9th, Beppu-Oita 2017)
Shogo Kanezane (Japan/Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:12:58 (6th, Hofu 2017)
Masanori Sakai (Japan/Kyudenko) - 2:13:31 (23rd, Tokyo 2018)
Yoshiki Koizumi (Japan/Raffine) - 2:13:50 (25th, Tokyo 2018)
Koji Gokaya (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:13:52 (22nd, Tokyo 2017)
Jeffrey Eggleston (U.S.A.) – 2:14:00 (4th, Warsaw 2017)
Kansuke Morihashi (Japan/Raffine) - 2:14:25 (27th, Tokyo 2018)
Yoshiki Otsuka (Japan/Aichi Seiko) - 2:14:32 (17th, Beppu-Oita 2018)
Hiroshi Ichida (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 2:14:42 (3rd, Nagano 2018)
Kenichi Jiromaru (Japan/Raffine)- 2:14:48 (31st, Tokyo 2018)
Takashi Ichida (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 2:15:09 (35th, Tokyo 2018
Yusuke Tobimatsu (Japan/Hioki City Hall) - 2:15:32 (1st, Kagoshima 2017)
Kinya Hashira (Japan/Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 2:15:51 (38th, Tokyo 2018)
Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Japan/Koncia Minolta) - 2:15:57 (9th, Hokkaido 2018)
Nao Kazami (Japan/Aisan Kogyo) - 2:17:23 (22nd, Fukuoka Int'l 2017)
Shinobu Kubota (Japan/Toyota) - 2:19:18 (28th, Lake Biwa 2018)
Takehiko Gyoba (Japan/Ashiya T&F Assoc.) - 2:19:47 (13th, Gold Coast 2017)
Brett Robinson (Australia) - 1:04:15 ((1st, Melbourne Half 2018)

text and photo © 2018 Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more