Skip to main content

JAAF Says Large Portion of Hokkaido Marathon Course Unusable for Olympics for Security Reasons

Speaking on the subject of the course to be used for the 2020 Olympic marathon now that the IOC has decreed it be relocated to Sapporo, JAAF long distance and marathon director Tadasu Kawano gave his honest opinion at a JAAF press conference on Nov. 5. "I don't see any issue with using the Hokkaido Marathon course as a base, but I don't think we can use the Shinkawa-dori section due to security and other issues," he said. He went on to say that that portion of the course would likely be made up using a loop segment.

"I'm not in a position to say what might be good or bad about the course," Kawano said, but with regard to the 13 km straight out-and-back section of the Hokkaido Marathon course along Shingawa-dori he said, "The security and medical access issues are difficult problems. Preventing spectators from accessing the course would be difficult. The IAAF will probably find it unacceptable."

The organizing committee is examining changing the Shinkawa-dori section of the course to another location. At both the 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics the  marathon courses featured looped circuit courses.

source article:
https://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/article/361929
translated and edited by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Franck Pichon said…
Tokyo olympic games, Tokyo marathon olympic games
temperature juy Beijing 31°/23°
temperaure july Tokyo 30°/23°

Most-Read This Week

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...