The Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon and Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon both happen Feb. 1, and in the last couple of days each has announced its elite field for this year's race.
Primarily a men's race, Beppu-Oita has a small international field of five at the 2:08 to 2:10 level, fronted by last year's runner-up Abdela Godana (Ethiopia), with Mongolian duo Byambajav Tseverrnravdan and Munkhbayar Narandulam and a trio of Japan-based Kenyans and Ethiopians, Alex Mwangi (YKK), Abayneh Degu (Yasukawa Denki) and Joel Mwaura (Kurosaki Harima) bumping up the international numbers.
Three sub-2:10 Japanese men, all at the 2:10 to 2:11 level in 2019, lead the home crowd. Rio Olympian Satoru Sasaki (Asahi Kasei) leads the way off an excellent 3rd-place finish at September's Sydney Marathon, with teammate Takuya Fukatsu (Asahi Kasei) and Jo Fukuda (Nishitetsu) also on board. Former Hakone Ekiden Seventh Stage course record holder Keisuke Hayashi (GMO) will be making his debut off a 1:29:47 win at the 2018 Kumanichi 30 km, with this year's Fourth Stage CR breaker Yuya Yoshida (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and rival Junnosuke Matsuo (Tokai Univ.) among the other first-timers in the deep general division.
The women's elite has only four entrants, with the top spot going to last year's Shizuoka Marathon winner Rochelle Rodgers (Australia). Beppu-Oita is also an important race for Paralympians in the blind category, with Tadashi Horikoshi (NTT Nishi Nihon) leading the men's field of fourteen and Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) the fastest in the women's field of eight.
In Marugame, Charlotte Purdue (Great Britain), winner of last month's Sanyo Ladies' Half, leads the field on time with a 1:08:45 best. She has close competition from last year's Hakodate Half winner Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) in 1:08:49 and last year's Marugame 3rd-placer Sinead Diver (Australia) with a 1:08:55. The other sub-1:10 women in the field are Ellie Pashley (Australia) and Reia Iwade (Under Armour).
On the men's side the fastest guys in the field are Zane Robertson (New Zealand) in his debut for the Suzuki Hamamatsu AC team at 59:47, and Kelvin Kiptum Cheruiyot (Kenya) at 59:53. But there's no shortage of people at and just over the hour mark, including 2017 winner Callum Hawkins (Great Britain), national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda), Masato Kikuchi (Konica Minolta) and Ezra Kipketer Tanui (Kenya), and a million more in the 61-minute range. The biggest name is that group is Olympic marathon trials runner-up Yuma Hattori (Toyota), assuming he makes it to the starting line after some injury worries at the New Year Ekiden.
© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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