Skip to main content

Mwaura and Ichiyama Break Okukuma Half Marathon Course Records

click photo for complete video of race

3rd two years ago and runner-up last year, Joel Mwaura (Kurosaki Harima) finally got the better of two-time champ Jeremiah Thuku Karemi (Toyota Kyushu), breaking away inside the first 5 km to solo a 1:00:44 for the win and taking more than 30 seconds off Karemi's course record at the Okukuma Road Race half marathon. Hiroshi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) led a small group of Japanese men who tried to follow Mwaura's move, while Karemi initially hung back. Once Karemi caught back up, he and Ichida ran past halfway together before he put on a surge at a water station to drop Ichida and try to close the gap to Mwaura. But a third-straight title in his last race in Japan wasn't to be, as Karemi finished just over a minute behind Mwaura in 1:01:49. Ichida held on to the top Japanese spot at 3rd in a 3-second PB of 1:02:21.

The women's race initially played out as a head-to-head between duos from the Wacoal and Kyocera corporate teams, with Wacoal's Mao Ichiyama and Yuka Ando taking on Kyocera's Anna Matsuda and Yuma Adachi in a lead quartet. Like Mwaura, Ichiyama made the race-breaking move to solo a new 1:10:25 course record for the win, bettering Matsuda's course record from her win last year by over two and a half minutes. Ando, Matsuda and Adachi were also all under Matsuda's old record, with Ando scoring 2nd in 1:11:09, Matsuda 3rd in 1:11:24 and Adachi 4th in 1:11:43.

8th Okukuma Half Marathon

Kumamoto, 1/19/20

Men's Half Marathon
1. Joel Mwaura (Kurosaki Harima) - 1:00:44 - CR
2. Jeremiah Thuku Karemi (Toyota Kyushu) - 1:01:49
3. Hiroshi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 1:02:21
4. Takato Suzuki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:49
5. Ryunosuke Hayashi (SGH Group) - 1:02:54
6. Suguru Otagura (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 1:03:01
7. Tomoya Nakamura (Aoyama Gakuin University) - 1:03:08
8. Tatsuya Yamamoto (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 1:03:13
9. Yuma Shimizu (Toyota Kyushu) - 1:03:24
10. Daiki Ando (Asahi Kasei) - 1:03:24

Women's Half Marathon
1. Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) - 1:10:25 - CR
2. Yuka Ando (Wacoal) - 1:11:09
3. Anna Matsuda (Kyocera) - 1:11:24
4. Yuma Adachi (Kyocera) - 1:11:43
5. Mana Taniguchi (Wacoal) - 1:13:18
6. Erika Honda (Higo Ginko) - 1:13:57
7. Chika Ihara (Higo Ginko) - 1:13:45
8. Aika Murakami (Nittai University) - 1:14:26
9. Mio Kuroda (Nittai University) - 1:15:35
10. Hiroko Tsuruta (Nittai University) - 1:15:55

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more

Route Inn Hotels Win National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier for First Time

After Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race in Tokyo, 2nd-tier corporate women's teams were in Fukuoka for their own national championships qualifying race, the Princess Ekiden . With Queens Ekiden 19-placer Otsuka Seiyaku a DNS, 30 teams lined up for the 6-stage, 42.195 km race where the top 16 would go on to join the top 8 from last year's Queens Ekiden at next month's national race. Coming right in the middle of the international fall marathon season several teams had people still tired from Berlin and Chicago, with Daihatsu fielding Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori from Berlin, Tokyo Metro sending out its own Berlin duo of Mao Uesugi and Ayumi Morita , and Kraftia not playing its top member Yuka Akasaki after her solid run in Chicago last week. After a fast start from eventual 9th-placer Denso 's Rio Matsutani , Daihatsu took over on the Second Stage and held it until the Fifth, where a tired Omori dropped to 3rd. Mayuka Fujita from Route Inn H...
2 comments
Read more