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

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that Sis

Saturday at Kanaguri and Nittai

Two big meets happened Saturday, one in Kumamoto and the other in Yokohama. At Kumamoto's Kanaguri Memorial Meet , Benard Koech (Kyudenko) turned in the performance of the day with a 13:13.52 meet record to win the men's 5000 m A-heat by just 0.11 seconds over Emmanuel Kipchirchir (SGH). The top four were all under 13:20, with 10000 m national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) bouncing back from a DNF at last month's The TEN to take the top Japanese spot at 7th overall in 13:24.57. The B-heat was also decently quick, Shadrack Rono (Subaru) winning in 13:21.55 and Shoya Yonei (JR Higashi Nihon) running a 10-second PB to get under 13:30 for the first time in 13:29.29 for 6th. Paris Olympics marathoner Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) was 9th in 13:30.62. South Sudan's Abraham Guem (Ami AC) also set a meet record in the men's 1500 m A-heat in 3:38.94. 3000 mSC national record holder Ryuji Miura made his debut with the Subaru corporate team, running 3:39.78 for 2n

93-Year-Old Masters Track and Field WR Holder Hiroo Tanaka: "Everyone has Unexplored Intrinsic Abilities"

In the midst of a lot of talk about how to keep the aging population young, there are people with long lives who are showing extraordinary physical abilities. One of them is Hiroo Tanaka , 93, a multiple world champion in masters track and field. Tanaka began running when he was 60, before which he'd never competed in his adult life. "He's so fast he's world-class." "His running form is so beautiful. It's like he's flying." Tanaka trains at an indoor track in Aomori five days a week. Asked about him, that's the kind of thing the people there say. Tanaka holds multiple masters track and field world records, where age is divided into five-year groups. Last year at the World Masters Track and Field Championships in Poland he set a new world record of 38.79 for 200 m in the M90 class (men's 90-94 age group). People around the world were amazed at the time, which was almost unbelievable for a 92-year-old. After retiring from his job as an el

japan running news

Search This Blog