Skip to main content

Yoshimatsu Wins 7th Hofu Marathon Title, Kawauchi Over Bat-Ochir

2018 Geneva Marathon runner-up Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) became the winningest champion in the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon's 49-year history Sunday, soloing a 2:38:58 to win Hofu for the 7th time. Running in cold and rainy conditions just three weeks after finishing 5th at the Osaka Marathon in 2:37:01, Yoshimatsu set off at mid-2:36 pace before slowing. Crossing halfway in 1:19:18 she turned the pace back around toward 2:37 territory before slowing again past 35 km to just squeeze under 2:39.

The fourth-fastest of her Hofu wins, Yoshimatsu beat her first winning time from way back in 2006 by 20 seconds and runner-up Chika Tawara (Team RxL) by almost 5 minutes. "I'm disappointed with my time," she told JRN post-race. "Other amateur women are running 2:34ish so it's hard to be satisfied with this. Maybe that's just being greedy." After the Osaka-Hofu double she will wrap her season in 3 weeks at China's Xiamen Marathon.

The men's race ran steadily near 2:09-flat pace until the departure of the pacers at 25 km, when it abruptly slowed by over 7 seconds per km. Two weeks after setting a Mongolian national record at the Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, three-time Hofu winner Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (NTN) made a few injections of pace as the lead group shrank down to a core group of five, but in the end he couldn't match the closing speed of fellow three-time winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't).

Kawauchi closed from 40 km to the finish in 6:30 to win in 2:11:29, his best time of the year and making him the first man to win Hofu four times. Bat-Ochir was next in 2:12:12, his fastest time since 2015, just holding off Kenyan Ezekiel Cheboitibin (Sunbelx) who was 3rd in a PB of 2:12:17. South Korean Jong-Sub Shim was 6th in 2:14:05, fading late in the race to just miss setting the fastest mark of the year by a South Korean man.


49th Hofu Yomiuri Marathon

Hofu, Yamaguchi, 12/16/18
complete results

Women
1. Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) -2:38:58
2. Chika Tawara (Team RxL) - 2:43:49
3. Chihiro Aibara (Nidaime Kiyomi Shokudo) - 2:48:09
4. Masa Shimizu (Amagasaki T&F Assoc.) - 2:48:18
5. Ai Ogo (Himeji T&F Assoc.) - 2:50:43

Men
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 2:11:29
2. Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/NTN) - 2:12:12
3. Ezekiel Cheboitibin (Kenya/Sunbelx) - 2:12:17 - PB
4. Shinichi Yamashita (Takigahara SDF Base) - 2:12:28 - PB
5. Michael Githae (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:13:42
6. Jong-Sub Shim (South Korea) - 2:14:05
7. Kohei Oshita (Hiroshima Keizai Univ.) - 2:15:09 - PB
8. Tatsunori Hamasaki (Nanjo City Hall) - 2:20:17
9. Masashi Hashimoto (Takeda Yakuhin) - 2:20:35
10. Tomonori Sakamoto (Kanagawa T&F Assoc.) - 2:21:01

photo © 2018 M.Kawaguchi, all rights reserved
text © 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Metts said…
Yohsitomi, Sawahada, Yoshimatsu? They just keep it going. I think more sub-elite women or whatever you want to call seem more prevalent than the men in this category? I see a Chihiro.... What has C.T., been up to lately?
December 17, 2018 at 1:42 PM
Brett Larner said…
Chihiro has been supporting her daughter Nozomi the last few years. Nozomi won the 3000m gold medal at World Juniors this year.
December 17, 2018 at 5:36 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Keita Sato Joins Swoosh TC

After appearing at a Nike event on Apr. 3, U20 1500 m NR and indoor 3000 m and 5000 m NR holder Keita Sato , 22, updated his Instagram profile to announce that he is joining Nike's Swoosh TC . At the Nike event Sato said that he plans to run the 1500 m at the Apr. 11 Kanaguri Memorial Meet, then will move to the U.S. "To be successful at the global level I need to train and grow alongside world-class athletes," he said. "I have to take every day seriously in order to achieve that dream of being internationally competitive." Swoosh TC was founded last year. Its coach Mike Smith has guided many athletes to international championships, including prior to Swoosh TC's launch, with some earning medals and podium finishes under his leadership. photo © 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved source article: https://www.rikujyokyogi.co.jp/archives/204241/2 translated by Brett Larner
Post a Comment
Read more

Weekend Track Roundup

There were 2 decently competitive meets in the Tokyo area this weekend. Saturday saw the new year's first edition of the Setagaya Time Trials meet. Takuma Akiyoshi took the men's 3000 m A-heat over his MABP Maverick teammate Festus Kiprono Cheruiyot with a 7:58.32 PB. Cheruiyot just held off 3rd-placer Nao Kurihara 7:59.92 to 8:00.02, with MABP runners taking the top 5 spots. The top 7 in the men's 5000 m A-heat all cleared 14 minutes. Still a 6-way race with 400 m to go, Tatsuya Maruyama of Komori Corp. came out on top in 13:48.49, with 5th-placer Kazuki Ishii of Yakult just over a second behind in 13:49.63. Lacking the gear to stay with them, new American marathon sensation Ethan Shuley fell back to 6th in 13:57.12 in his first-ever track 5000 m, holding off 7th-placer Daiki Nomimura of NTT Nishi Nihon who came up from behind to finish in 13:58.30. Sunday was the 59th edition of the Tokyo Big 6 meet between Waseda University , Meiji University , Hosei Univers...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kipyegon and Yamaguchi Win Kanto Regionals D1 and D2 Half Marathon Titles

The men's half marathon component of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships relocated this year away from the main part of the meet in May to be held as part of the Yaizu Minato Half Marathon in Shizuoka, a longstanding part of the collegiate half marathon calendar with its Pair Marathon team competition. At Kanto Regionals D1 and D2 teams are usually split into 2 separate starts with a time stagger and run on a loop course. This time around they started together, giving people who wouldn't usually be racing together the chance to go head-to-head. Soka University 3rd-year Shoki Yamaguchi was the only one to try to go with Yamanashi Gakuin University 4th-year Brian Kipyegon , both hitting 5 km in 14:28 before Kipyegon said goodbye. Kipyegon rolled on solo to take the D1 title in 1:01:23, just 9 seconds off his own meet record on a different course. Yamaguchi hung on well enough for 1st in the D2 field in 1:02:55, runner-up Kuranosuke Yoshida of last year...
Post a Comment
Read more