Skip to main content

National Corporate Half Marathon, Nobeoka Marathon and More - Weekend Preview



It's a relatively quiet weekend ahead in the middle of Japan's busiest road racing season, but there are still four important races going on in the southern part of the country. The biggest is the National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships in Yamaguchi.  Men's national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) is entered in what would be his first race since catching the flu post-Fukuoka and leads the domestic component of a field that includes nine men with recent sub-1:02 times and a million more right on the cusp. If he runs his main competition is sub-60 man Paul Kuira (Konica Minolta). 61:30ish runners Keisuke Nakatani (Nissin Shokuhin) and Kengo Suzuki (Fujitsu) will be looking to make comebacks after long periods of injury.

The women's field is split between the half marathon and 10 km. Only three women in the half have broken 70 minutes before, Miho Shimizu (Hokuren) doing it the most recently with a 1:09:27 at Nationals in 2016. Shiori Yano (Canon AC Kyushu) is the most exciting newcomer in the field, one of the six women who cleared the Doha World Championships 10000 m qualifying standard in Yamaguchi in December. Two of the other qualifiers, Harumi Okamoto (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Yuka Hori (Panasonic) lead the 10 km, where two-time winner Yui Fukuda (Toyota Jidoshokki) is a DNS. The men's and women's half will be broadcast on delay on TBS starting at 14:00 local time Sunday.

The Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon is the weekend's highest-level full, a developmental-level race that saw its top four finish seconds apart in 2:12 last year. With a lot of 2nd and 3rd-tier men having taken a swing at Olympic trials qualification last weekend in Beppu-Oita the Nobeoka entry list is a bit thin this year, but two-time winner Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) is slated to be back again to try to win Nobeoka for the third time. Next-best on the entry list after Matsuo is Shingo Igarashi (Josai Univ. Staff), 2nd last October at the Osaka Marathon in 2:14:19, exactly two minutes behind Matsuo's  runner-up mark in Nobeoka last year.

The Ehime Marathon is also Sunday, a longstanding mass-participation race with a sub-elite field that sometimes produces times in the top 25 best Japanese marks for the season. 2:15:05 amateur Naoki Inoue (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) leads the men's field, with Hiroki Shoi (Ehime Ginko) leading the women's field at 2:33:04.

The Karatsu 10-Miler rounds out the main action, with an interesting matchup between Jakarta Asian Games marathon gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (MHPS) and Ibusuki Nanohana Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) ahead of their duel at April's Boston Marathon. Sub-62 half marathoners Ken Yokote (Fujitsu) and Takuya Fujikawa (Chugoku Denryoku) and 2:08:59 marathoner Takuya Noguchi (Konica Minolta) are also in the mix. Opting for Karatsu over Nationals, Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) leads the women's 10 km field with a track best of 31:33.33.

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Endo, Nishikawa and Yamakawa Announce Corporate Team Changes

The SG Holdings men's corporate team announced on Oct. 1 that long-distance athletes Hyuga Endo and Yuichiro Nishikawa have joined its roster after leaving the Sumitomo Denko team. Endo, 28, won the Junior Olympics 3000 m while at Koriyama Nishi J.H.S. before going on to Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. where he was the the top Japanese placer in the 5000 m at the National High School Championships 2 years in a row. After graduating from Gakuho Ishikawa he joined the Sumitomo Denko team, winning the National Championships 5000 m in 2021. He won gold at the 2023 Asian Championships and represented Japan at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. "I will give everything I have as part of the team and work hard toward helping it win the New Year Ekiden," he said of his new environment. Of his personal goals he said, "I want to focus on the 5000 m and reach new levels to compete internationally." Nishikawa, 28, was a member of Tokai University 's winning teams at the H...
Post a Comment
Read more

3 Athletes Provisionally Suspended After Positive Drug Tests at Asian Games (updated)

The International Testing Agency announced on Oct. 2 that provisional suspensions have been imposed on two athletes, Kazakhstan's Aiana Bolatbekkyzy in track and field, and Tajikistan's Issamjon Sharifov in tennis, after they tested positive for prohibited substances at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Aichi. Bolatbekkyzy, 19, tested positive for the steroid drostanolone in a sample collected during an in-competition test at the Games. A diuretic drug was found in the sample collected from Sharifov, 23. Update:  On Oct. 3 a third athlete, kurash wrestler Yash Kumar Chauhan  of India, was provisionally suspended after an in-competition test detected the steroid metandienone, the metabolic modulator GW1516, and the stimulant mephentermine in his system. source article: https://www.sanspo.com/article/20261002-X4FJLT5MMZKFND6WXPOESAKETQ/ translated by Brett Larner
Post a Comment
Read more