Skip to main content

Kobe and Osaka Marathon Elite Fields

Two of Japan's main fall amateur marathons are stepping up their game this year with their best-ever elite fields. Looking to upgrade its IAAF label from bronze to silver, the Nov. 17 Kobe Marathon has an elite field with three women under 2:30 and three men under 2:11 in the last three years. Kaori Yoshida (Team RxL) and Betty Jepleting (Kenya) lead the women, with Eliud Barngetuny (Kenya) and Weldu Negash Gebretsadik (Norway) fronting the men.

The men's race will almost definitely see an international winner, with veteran Chiharu Takada (JR Higashi Nihon) the top Japanese man at 2:11:25 on the Gold Coast two years ago, but the women's race has a good chance of seeing a Japanese winner. Along with Yoshida, it has sub-2:30 woman Yurie Doi (Tos Planning) and amateur duo Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) and Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto), both with low-2:33 PBs earlier this fall and keen to join the sub-2:30 club.

With a field of 30,000 the Osaka Marathon is one of the world's ten biggest, but it's never had a proper elite field before. This year it's angling for an IAAF bronze label, and despite a new date that puts it up against the Fukuoka International Marathon it's managed to put together a field that ranks it 2nd in Japan behind Tokyo on combined men's and women's field strength.

Six men have current sub-2:10 marks to their names, led by Birhan Nebebew (Ethiopia) with a 2:06:52 in Lisbon earlier this season and Asefa Tefera (Ethiopia), 2:07:54 at last spring's Lake Biwa Marathon. Former world record holder Dennis Kimetto (Kenya) is also in the mix. Japanese hopes are with the great Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki), doubling after missing out on the 2020 Olympic team at September's MGC Race, and Asuka Tanaka (Hiramatsu Byoin).

The front end of the women's field has six athletes with recent times under 2:30. Aberu Mekuria Zennebe (Ethiopia) is the strongest with a 2:24:30 in Chongqing this year, followed by Monica Jepkoech (Kenya) and Maryna Damantsevich (Belarus). Marie Imada (Iwatani Sangyo) is the only Japanese woman under 2:30 with a 2:29:35 last year in Saitama, but past Osaka winners Yumiko Kinoshita (Ichikiro) and Yoshiko Sakamoto (F.O.R.) also return.

9th Kobe Marathon

Elite Field Highlights
Kobe, Hyogo, 11/17/19
complete field listing
times listed are best within last 3 years except where noted

Women
Kaori Yoshida (Japan) - 2:28:24 (Nagoya 2017)
Betty Jepleting (Kenya) - 2:28:43 (Eindhoven 2019)
Yurie Doi (Japan) - 2:29:49 (Nagoya 2018)
Mirriam Wangari (Kenya) - 2:31:36 (Hengshui 2019)
Susan Jerotich (Kenya) - 2:31:38 (Kobe 2018)
Tesfanesh Merga (Ethiopia) - 2:32:31 (Poznan 2018)
Haruka Yamaguchi (Japan) - 2:33:09 (Sydney 2019)
Shiho Kaneshige (Japan) - 2:33:16 (Chicago 2019)
Sisay Meseret Gola (Ethiopia) - 2:34:15 (Amsterdam 2018)

Men
Eliud Barngetuny (Kenya) - 2:10:15 (Madrid 2018)
Weldu Negash Gebretsadik (Norway) - 2:10:39 (Daegu 2018)
Geoffrey Kusuro (Uganda) - 2:10:53 (Ljubljana 2018)
Chiharu Takada (Japan) - 2:11:25 (Gold Coast 2017)
Igor Olefirenko (Ukraine) - 2:11:55 (London 2019)
Kalipus Lomwai (Kenya) - 2:13:12 (Beirut 2018)
Junichi Tsubouchi (Japan) - 2:13:51 (Beppu-Oita 2017)
John Lotiang (Kenya) - 2:14:12 (Nairobi 2017)
Shuichi Kondo (Japan) - 2:14:13 (Tokyo 2017)
Tomonori Sakamoto (Japan) - 2:14:21 (Shizuoka 2018)

9th Osaka Marathon

Elite Field Highlights
Osaka, 12/1/19
complete field listing
times listed are best within last 3 years except where noted

Women
Aberu Mekuria Zennebe (Ethiopia) - 2:24:30 (Chongqing 2019)
Monica Jepkoech (Kenya) - 2:26:58 (Porto 2017)
Maryna Damantsevich (Belarus) - 2:27:44 (European Championships 2018)
Veronicah Nyaruai (Kenya) - 2:29:14 (Hamburg 2019)
Marie Imada (Japan) - 2:29:35 (Saitama 2018)
Souad Kanbouchia (Morocco) - 2:29:48 (Wuhan 2019)
Olha Kotovska (Ukraine) - 2:30:18 (Daegu 2018)
Joan Jepchirchir (Kenya) - 2:30:33 (Rotterdam 2018)
Clementine Mukandanga (Rwanda) - 2:30:59 (Firenze 2018)
Yumiko Kinoshita (Japan) - 2:34:19 (Osaka Women's 2019)
Mitsuko Ino (Japan) - 2:34:39 (Osaka 2017)
Yoshiko Sakamoto (Japan) - 2:35:40 (Tokyo 2018)

Men
Birhan Nebebew (Ethiopia) - 2:06:52 (Lisbon 2019)
Asefa Tefera (Ethiopia) - 2:07:54 (Lake Biwa 2019)
Mohamed Reda El Aaraby (Morocco) - 2:09:16 (Chicago 2018)
Gizachew Hailu (Ethiopia) - 2:09:26 (Barcelona 2019)
Mohamed Ziani (Morocco) - 2:09:29 (Cape Town 2019)
Kentaro Nakamoto (Japan) - 2:09:32 (Beppu-Oita 2017)
Asuka Tanaka (Japan) - 2:10:13 (Tokyo 2018)
Ketema Bekele Negasa (Ethiopia) - 2:11:06 (Cape Town 2017)
Duncan Maiyo (Kenya) - 2:11:26 (Cape Town 2017)
Berhane Tsegay Tekle (Ethiopia) - 2:12:25 (Nice-Cannes 2018)
Hideyuki Ikegami (Japan) - 2:13:41 (Osaka 2017)
Dennis Kimetto (Kenya) - 2:14:54 (Shanghai 2018)

photo © 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
1 comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more