Kiprop and Hunde Win Nagano Marathon

Ugandan Jackson Kiprop and Ethiopian Meskerem Hunde won Sunday's 21st edition of the Nagano Marathon. Running a steady and well-paced race that went out near 2:10:30 pace and sped up slightly to a 1:04:58 halfway split, Kiprop wore down the competition until there were only four left at 30 km. Ethiopian Deresa Geleta stayed with him until the very end, but Kiprop had the finish in him to open 3 seconds on Geleta to become Nagano's first-ever Ugandan winner in 2:10:39.

Geleta's 2:10:42 was good for a PB, with Japan's Naoya Sakuda (JR Higashi Nihon) also dropping a big PB of 2:11:21 for 3rd over Kenyan Alfred Kering. #1-ranked Asuka Tanaka (Hiramatsu Byoin) was one of the first to drop off Kiprop's early pace but rallied late in the race to take 5th in 2:14:35, his best performance since a stress fracture following his breakthrough in Tokyo last year.

Hunde pulled off an equally evenly-paced run to win the women's race, projected to run 2:33:44 after 5 km and ending up with a 2:33:32. With every 5 km that passed another competitor dropped off the lead group until only fellow Ethiopian Kebene Chala was left at 40 km. Not waiting as late as Kiprop, Hunde went for a long surge to drop Chala, opening 14 seconds by the time she crossed the finish line.

Pre-race favorite Valentine Kipketer was 3rd in 2:35:03 nearly a minute ahead of another Kenyan, Pauline Wangui. In the absence of #1-ranked Japanese woman Hiroko Yoshitomi (Memolead), the unsponsored Yumiko Kinoshita took the top Japanese spot at 5th in 2:36:28.

21st Nagano Marathon

Nagano, 4/21/19

Men
1. Jackson Kiprop (Uganda) - 2:10:39
2. Derese Geleta (Ethiopia) - 2:10:42 - PB
3. Naoya Sakuda (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:11:21 - PB
4. Alfred Kering (Kenya) - 2:12:45
5. Asuka Tanaka (Japan/Hiramatsu Byoin) - 2:14:35
6. Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Kenya/Kanebo) - 2:14:41 - debut
7. Tadashi Suzuki (Japan/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:14:49
8. Hiromasa Fukushima (Japan/Press Kogyo) - 2:14:56
9. Ezekiel Jafary (Tanzania) - 2:15:13
10. Yuta Inage (Japan/Press Kogyo) - 2:15:24

Women
1. Meskerem Hunde (Ethiopia) - 2:33:32 - PB
2. Kebene Chala (Ethiopia) - 2:33:46
3. Valentine Kipketer (Kenya) - 2:35:03
4. Pauline Wangui (Kenya) - 2:36:02
5. Yumiko Kinoshita (Japan) - 2:36:28
6. Kasumi Yoshida (Japan/Nitori) - 2:37:14
7. Honoka Yuzawa (Japan) - 2:39:05
8. Aki Odagiri (Japan) - 2:39:49
9. Seika Iwamura (Japan) - 2:51:13
10. Tizita Terecha (Ethiopia) - 2:52:58

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

Japan Post was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's Ayuko Suzuki and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...

japan running news

Search This Blog