Skip to main content

Over 40 Elite Japanese Athletes Racing This Weekend's Brooklyn Mile

This weekend's Brooklyn Mile is being held as a virtual race from Friday through Sunday instead of its usual road mile format. There's no shortage of other races doing the same right now, but Brooklyn has done something unique by setting itself up with a prize money pool pulled from entry fees, with the remaining 80% going to COVID-19 relief charities. It's an innovative idea in which anyone can take part and that gives the faster end of each age group something to shoot for with funding from the mass participants.

The current instability in the area leaves a question mark as to how many of those there will be. But on paper at least the potential is there for a very competitive three days, and with everyone around the world looking for ways to adapt racing to the current situation this looks like an approach worth supporting. Over forty elite-level Japanese middle and long-distance athletes, university, corporate league and pro, female and male, will be taking part with support from JRN. Some of the main names on the Japanese list:

Women
Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) - 2019 national champ, 800 m and 1500 m
Erina Hosoi (Keio University) - 2017 national champ, U18 800 m
Yoshiko Sakamoto (Team F.O.R.) - 40+ NR holder, 3000 m and 5000 m
Miharu Shimokado (Brooks) - 2020 Ehime Marathon winner

Men
Ryoji Tatezawa (DeNA Yokohama) - 2017-18 national champ, 1500 m; former indoor mile NR holder; CR setter, 2020 Hakone Ekiden Sixth Stage
Yasutomo Takenaka (Iga T&F Assoc.) - 40+ NR holder, 1500 m
Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) - 2019 world leader, 2000 m steeplechase
Joel Mwaura (Kurosaki Harima) - 2020 Okukuma Half winner, 2018 national corporate champ, 10000 m
Rikuto Iijima (Ami AC) - 2014 national champ, U18 800 m, 2015 national H.S. champ, 800 m
Kazuyoshi Tamogami (Ami AC) - 2015 national H.S. champ, 1500 m
Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) - 2019 World XC Championships national team
Asuka Tanaka (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 2:10:13 at 2018 Tokyo Marathon
Masato Yokota (Two Laps TC) - former 800 m NR holder, 2012 London Olympics national team

Leaderboard results will be posted on the Brooklyn Mile site throughout the weekend. We'll be linking any videos that Japanese athletes post of their runs and posting their results after the three-day race window is closed. Register here to take part yourself.

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more