Skip to main content

Sahli Breaks Beppu-Oita Course Record as Yoshida Brings His Hakone Best



Good weather and a good field meant great racing at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. Shuji Yamamoto (Asahi Kasei) did a stellar job of ushering the pacing crew and lead pack of around 30 through 25 km, clocking 15:05, 15:10, 15:15, 15:15 and 15:10 for each 5 km before he stepped off. The remaining two pacers Matthew Sang and Alex Kipkorir held steady with a 15:10 through 30 km to deliver up the lead group on 2:08:07 pace, just under the Beppu-Oita course record of 2:08:15.

Mirroring last year's Beppu-Oita winner Hicahm Laqouahi and since-disgraced Fukuoka winner El Mahjoub Dazza, Moroccan Hamza Sahli was quick to make a move to the front right after the pacers stepped off. But where his countrymen made off with their races, Sahli's move served more to shake off some of the pack, leaving a group of about a dozen stretched out behind him that regrouped with a few minutes.

The debuting Kento Kikutani (Toyota Boshoku) was the next to go to the front just in time for the 35 km turnaround, the buzz starting to build as he and others in the lead pack floated around Masakazu Fujiwara's 2:08:12 debut marathon national record pace. After the turnaround Byambajav Tseverrnravdan (Mongolia) made the move that broke the race open, surging to cut the lead group down to five with Sahli, last year's runner-up Abdela Godana (Ethiopia), Ogbe Kibrom Ruesom (Eritrea) and one Japanese man, Yuya Yoshida (Aoyama Gakuin University).

This was something special. Yoshida, a fourth-year at Hakone Ekiden powerhouse AGU, had never been good enough to make its starting roster for Japan's biggest race. This year in his last chance he finally made the cut, and in what he said would be his last race before quitting running when he graduates next month he crushed the course record on Hakone's Fourth Stage to give AGU the margin it needed for the overall win. And here he was, a month to the day later, mixing it up with an all-African lead group on debut and collegiate record pace with 5 km to go in his first, maybe only, stab at the marathon.

Yoshida stayed locked to Sahli and Godana looking relaxed, while the pressure got to Ruesom who quickly fell away. Over the next 2 km he bided his time until he made a surge into the lead with exactly 3 km to go. You had to love it. Sahli quickly picked it up to regain contact while Godana took his time, but when they did they hammered back, and just past 40 km Yoshida lost it.

Godana and Sahli pushed each other right to the track before Sahli kicked away, both going under the course record with Sahli getting the win in 2:08:01 and Godana 2nd again in 2:08:06. Yoshida faded off the leader's pace over the last 2 km but held on for 3rd in 2:08:30, the 2nd-fastest Japanese debut and Japanese collegiate time ever. In his post-race interview he sounded a lot settled about his post-graduation retirement plans next month.

Behind him, Tsukasa Koyama (Subaru) came up from the chasers dropped by Tseverrnravdan's move to take 4th in a PB 2:08:53, something that earned him a special place in Japanese history as the 100th Japanese man ever to go sub-2:10. And more were to come. Tseverrnravdan was 5th in 2:09:03 just off the Mongolian national record, and Takuya Fukatsu (Asahi Kasei) 6th in a PB of 2:09:06 in his final race, with first-timers Kikutani and Haruki Minatoya (DeNA) 7th and 8th in 2:09:07 and 2:09:19, Ruesom 9th in 2:09:45, and 2:08 man Koji Kobayashi (Subaru) making a comeback from years of injury in 2:09:55 for 10th. All told it was one of the deepest years in Beppu-Oita history, one that reinforced its place as the first step for Japan's next generation.

The women's race in Beppu-Oita is still a relatively recent addition, with just 147 finishers this year. 2019 Shizuoka Marathon winner Rochelle Rodgers (Australia) became the first non-Japanese woman to take the spot, running 2:40:02 to outrun top Japanese woman Eriko Yamazaki (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) for the win. The race is also a key one for Japan's IPC runners. 2020 Paralympics marathon team members Tadashi Horikoshi (NTT Nishi Nihon) and Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) took the top spots, Horikoshi in 2:31:53 in the men's race and Michishita setting a world record 2:54:22.

69th Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon

Beppu, Oita, 2/2/20
complete results

Men
1. Hamza Sahli (Morocco) - 2:08:01 - CR
2. Abdela Godana (Ethiopia) - 2:08:06 (CR)
3. Yuya Yoshida (Japan/Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 2:08:30 - debut
4. Tsukasa Koyama (Japan/Subaru) - 2:08:53 - PB
5. Byambajav Tseverrnravdan (Mongolia) - 2:09:03 - PB
6. Takuya Fukatsu (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 2:09:06 - PB
7. Kento Kikutani (Japan/Toyota Boshoku) - 2:09:07 - debut
8. Haruki Minatoya (Japan/DeNA) - 2:09:19 - debut
9. Ogbe Kibrom Ruesom (Eritrea) - 2:09:43 - PB
10. Koji Kobayashi (Japan/Subaru) - 2:09:55
11. Kento Otsu (Japan/Toyota Kyushu) - 2:10:01 - PB
12. Yuichi Yasui (Japan/Toyota) - 2:10:19 - PB
13. Junichi Tsubouchi (Japan/Kurosaki Harima) - 2:10:19 - PB
14. Satoru Sasaki (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 2:10:25
15. Jo Fukuda (Japan/Nishitetsu) - 2:10:32
16. Shota Saito (Japan/JFE Steel) - 2:10:50 - PB
17. Junnosuke Matsuo (Japan/Tokai Univ.) - 2:11:00 - debut
18. Yuichi Okutani (Japan/Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:11:16 - PB
19. Yuki Nakamura (Japan/Sumitomo Denko) - 2:11:58 - PB
20. Keisuke Hayashi (Japan/GMO) - 2:12:31 - debut
21. Joel Mwaura (Kenya/Kurosaki Harima) - 2:13:05
22. Kentaro Masuda (Japan/NTT Nishi Nihon) - 2:15:21
23. Kazuki Noda (Japan/Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:16:00
24. Matthew Kipsaat (Kenya) - 2:16:11
25. Munkhbayar Narandulum (Mongolia) - 2:16:18

Women
1. Rochelle Rodgers (Australia) - 2:40:02
2. Eriko Yamazaki (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 2:48:22
3. Sonoka Nakayama (Uchida AC) - 2:51:13

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...
Post a Comment
Read more

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."...
82 comments
Read more

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer.  These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly.  I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes.  As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway.  That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...
18 comments
Read more