Beppu-Oita, Marugame and More

Beppu-Oita, Marugame and More - Weekend Preview

With championship ekiden season a wrap this weekend gets Japan's winter road racing season up to full steam. The main race of the weekend is Sunday's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. Everything is about qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics more-or-less one-shot trials right now, and that's obvious with a look at what's probably the strongest-ever Beppu-Oita entry list. Ten men in the field have broken 2:10 in the last three years, five of them Japanese, with last year's top two Desmond Mokgobu (South Africa) and Hayato Sonoda (Kurosaki Harima) leading the way.

Sonoda, Daisuke Uekado (Otsuka Seiyaku) and 2018 Hokkaido Marathon winner Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) have already qualified for September's MGC Race trials event, but anyone else in the 2:10 to 2:11 range will have a shot. With a 2:09:36 in Tokyo last year Kohei Ogino (Fujitsu) only needs to run 2:12:24 to qualify, making him the probable favorite to qualify, but the field also features the debuts of sub-61 and sub-62 half marathoners Keijiro Mogi and Shuho Dairokuno of three-time national champion Asahi Kasei.

Along with Mokgobu recent 2:08 runners Hicham Laqouahi (Morocco) and Abdela Godana (Ethiopia) and 2018 Muenster Marathon winner Justus Kiprotich (Kenya) make up the front end of the international field, raising a strong chance of a sub-2:10 winning time if the weather cooperates. Right now the forecast is looking good, with temperatures in the mid-teens and cloudy skies shifting to light rain later in the day. All that remains to be seen are the infamous Oita winds. Beppu-Oita will be broadcast live nationwide on TBS starting at 11:50 a.m. Follow @JRNLive for English-language coverage.

Also Sunday is the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon, one of Japan's top races all around. Last year's Kenyan winners Betsy Saina and Edward Waweru are both on the entry list again, up against tough competition including Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal), Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post), Sinead Diver (Australia) and Sara Hall (U.S.A.) on the women's side and Geoffrey Kirui (Kenya), Shadrack Kiplagat (Kenya) and Evans Cheruiyot (Kenya) on the men's. Suzuki's debut is one of the more exciting parts of the race, along with that of Richard Ringer (Germany), both with great histories in the track 10000 m behind them. The weather in Marugame looks to be similar to that in Oita with temperatures a few degrees cooler.

Along with Marugame, the Kanagawa Half Marathon and Moriya Half Marathon each feature loads of university men, both Hakone Ekiden regulars and B-team runners trying to make the jump to their schools' A-rosters. Kanagawa in particular has grown into a quality race with winning times in the 62-minute range and depth approaching that of some of the higher-level Japanese half marathons. Hakone Ekiden top four programs Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University are Kanagawa regulars, but look for plenty of others to be right there with them. No rain is in the forecast for either race, making for excellent conditions overall.

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...

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