Skip to main content

Japanese Amateur Yamaguchi and Ugandan Kusuro Break Kobe Course Records



Amateur Japanese club runner Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) and Ugandan Geoffrey Kusuro had dominant wins at the 9th running of the Kobe Marathon Sunday, both running PBs and winning by almost 4 minutes in course record time.

Yamaguchi, who ran a PB 2:33:06 in Sydney in September and dropped a surprise 31:58 at last weekend's East Japan Women's Ekiden, slipped away early, never challenged by the pack of invited African elites or by friend and rival club runner Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto). Going through halfway faster than her half marathon PB in 1:13:08. She slowed slightly in the second half, especially on the large bridge out to the island finish line, but her win was never in doubt as she broke the tape in 2:27:39. Previously, the fastest pure amateur Japanese women's marathon performance was Chihiro Tanaka's 2:29:30 in Nagoya in 2002. Breaking that by almost two minutes, Yamaguchi staked her claim as Japan's best-ever amateur.


2nd through 5th were close together but a distant afterthought. Almost 4 minutes back from Yamaguchi, Sisay Meseret Gola (Ethiopia) was 2nd in 2:31:30 ahead of compatriot Tesfanesh Merga, Kenyan Tesfanesh Merga, and Kaneshige, who took almost a minute and a half off of her PB of 2:33:16 at last month's Chicago Marathon.

Kusuro had a different race than Yamaguchi, running down early frontrunning Kenyan John Loitang, hitting halfway in 1:03:35 side-by-side, and then alone before 25 km. He too struggled on the bridge out to the bay just before the finish, a feature set to disappear with Kobe's planned course change to a downtown finish, but with a gap over Barngetuny and the rest of the field that only grew over the second half of the race he had no trouble hanging on to win in 2:08:46. Barngetuny was next in 2:12:23, over a minute and a half ahead of Japanese 3rd-placer Junichi Tsubouchi (Kurosaki Harima).

9th Kobe Marathon

Kobe, Hyogo, 11/17/19

Women
1. Haruka Yamaguchi (Japan/AC Kita) - 2:27:39 - CR, PB
2. Sisay Meseret Gola (Ethiopia) - 2:31:30
3. Tesfanesh Merga (Ethiopia) - 2:31:43
4. Mirriam Wangari (Kenya) - 2:31:48
5. Shiho Kaneshige (Japan/GRlab Kanto) - 2:31:56 - PB

Men
1. Geoffrey Kusuro (Uganda) - 2:08:46 - CR, PB
2. Eliud Barngetuny (Kenya) - 2:12:23
3. Junichi Tsubouchi (Japan/Kurosaki Harima) - 2:14:05
4. Kalipus Lomwai (Kenya) - 2:14:09
5. Weldu Negash (Ethiopia) - 2:14:30

photos © 2019 Ryan McDonald, all rights reserved
© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Metts said…
Looking at a more clear picture on Yahoo Japan, it looks like she wasn't wearing the so-called magic shoes. And looking at the AC Kita website and records, the next best time after her previous PB is a 2:37, for AC K. if correct.
November 17, 2019 at 7:03 PM
Brett Larner said…
Yamaguchi ran in Asics as always. AC Kita site is out of date as she ran 2:33:09 in Sydney in September and has run under 2:37 at least 3 other times this year alone.
November 17, 2019 at 7:21 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer.  These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly.  I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes.  As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway.  That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...
18 comments
Read more