2020 Olympic Marathon Trials Winner Shogo Nakamura Wins First Race of Year in PB Time

2020 Olympic marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura (27, Fujitsu) ran a course record 1:01:40 to win the Jan. 12 Takanezawa Genki Up Half Marathon in Tochigi. His time bettered his 2016 PB of 1:01:53 by 13 seconds. "I ran pretty much according to plan," he commented afterward.

Nakamura's sponsor team Fujitsu finished 17th at November's East Japan Corporate Ekiden, failing to qualify for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national championships. As a result, Takanezawa was his first race of the Olympic year. Alongside him were members of 2020 Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University, runner-up Tokai University and other top collegiate programs. Most fielded 3rd-year and younger team members who didn't make this year's Hakone lineups, giving them valuable experience for the buildup to next year's 97th running.

Next up Nakamura plans to run in the Mar. 29 World Half Marathon Championships. His coach Hiroaki Oyagi, 61, commented, "At the World Half we will be targeting a time under 1:01." Honing his speed, Nakamura continues to prepare for the Aug. 9 Sapporo Olympic marathon.

In the 10 km race, Tokai head coach Hayashi Morozumi, 53, ran 35:40, breaking the 50+ course record but finishing 2nd in his division. "The last 3 km were hard," he said. "I felt like this summed up this season. A course record but 2nd, just like at Hakone." Morozumi plans to run March's Tokyo Marathon, his first time running one since the 1995 Fukuoka International Marathon. "I aim not to get hurt," he said. With a PB of 2:18:37, his goal this time is to go sub-3.

47th Takanezawa Genki Up Half Marathon

Takanezawa, Tochigi, 1/12/20

1. Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) - 1:01:40 -CR, PB
2. Daisuke Momozawa (San Kogyo) - 1:01:58 - PB
3. Hironobu Nakakura (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:26 - PB
4. Taiki Miyasaka (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:26 - PB
5. Ryo Nishikubo (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:26 - PB
6. Takeshi Shingo (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:30 - PB
7. Yuito Nakamura (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:43 - PB
8. Keita Honma (Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:59 - PB
9. Shoya Hayata (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:00 - PB
10. Torazo Kai (Chuo Univ.) - 1:03:07 - PB

source articles:
https://hochi.news/articles/20200112-OHT1T50040.html
https://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/202001120000308.html
translated and edited by Brett Larner

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."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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