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2021 Lake Biwa Marathon to Go Ahead Feb. 28 With International Field


With race after race canceling or postponing, this week the organizers of the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon announced plans for next year's 76th running to go ahead on Feb. 28, 2021. A week earlier that its traditional date due to the Tokyo Marathon's move to March, the planned date comes with the caveat that, "depending on the future situation with regard to COVID-19, there may be changes to the race's operation, including the possibility of cancelation." 

But with that said, it looks like the organizers plan no additional restrictions on their event's field beyond the normal qualifying times and requirement for national federation approval. In that past that has typically meant a field of under 200 finishers from Japan and abroad. For the domestic field, with no Beppu-Oita or Tokyo Marathon there's sure to be record-setting depth. as between Beppu-Oita, Tokyo and Lake Biwa this year 29 men went sub-2:10 and 50 sub-2:12.

For international men, if it actually happens Lake Biwa will be one of the only elite spring marathons in the world. In contrast to the 2020 Fukuoka International Marathon and 2021 Nagoya Women's Marathon, both of which restricted their fields to those already in Japan, Lake Biwa appears to be open to any internationals who meet the standards, have federation approval, and are willing to make the trip. 

At the moment immigration restrictions would prevent that from being an easy option for most nationalities, but as it works on its athlete COVID protocols for the Tokyo Olympics it's quite possible that changes to Japan's policies could open the door to a legit international field at Lake Biwa. With the race's application deadline standing at Dec. 31 there's just over 2 months for those changes to happen one direction or the other. Major Japanese marathons still scheduled to happen in 2020 and 2021 marathon announcements to date:

Dec. 6: Fukuoka International Marathon (370) - scheduled with limited field size
Dec. 20: Hofu Marathon (2,724) - scheduled with limited field size

2021

Jan. 10 - Ibusuki Nanohana Marathon (10,954) - canceled
Jan. 31 - Katsuta Marathon (10,627) - canceled
Jan. 31 - Osaka International Women's Marathon (423) - TBA
Feb. 7 - Beppu-Oita Marathon (3,141) - canceled
Feb. 14 - Ehime Marathon (9,554) - canceled
Feb. 14 - Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon (536) - TBA
Feb. 21 - Kyoto Marathon (13,894) - canceled
Feb. 21 - Kochi Ryoma Marathon (10,924) - canceled
Feb. 21 - Kumamoto Castle Marathon (10,444) - canceled
Feb. 21 - Kitakyushu Marathon (9,485) - canceled
Feb. 21 - Okinawa Marathon (7,990) - canceled
Feb. 28 - Shonan International Marathon (16,821) - rescheduled from Dec. 6
Feb. 28 - Himeji Castle Marathon (6,938) - canceled
Feb. 28 - Iwaki Sunshine Marathon (5,259) - canceled
Feb. 28 - Lake Biwa Marathon (191) - scheduled
Mar. 7 - Kagoshima Marathon (9.356) - canceled
Mar. 7 - Tokyo Marathon (151) - postponed to October 17
Mar. 14 - Shizuoka Marathon (9,802) - canceled
Mar. 14 - Nagoya Women's Marathon (96) - scheduled with limited field size
Mar. 21 - Itabashi City Marathon (13,310) - canceled
Mar. 21 - Koga Hanamomo Marathon (8,766) - canceled
Mar. 21 - Saga Sakura Marathon (8.509) - canceled
Mar. 28 - Tokushima Marathon (11,010) - decision in early November
Mar. 28 - Sakura Marathon (5,614) - canceled
Apr. 18 - Kasumigaura Marathon (10,096) - decision by end of October
Apr. 18 - Nagano Marathon (8,082) - decision by end of October

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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justin said…
How stacked are Lake Biwa and the Corporate Half going to be... even if it ends up being just Japan-based athletes. Fukuoka and Hofu being the only legitimate road races in Japan since Lake Biwa 2020. Nagano, Hokkaido, Kobe, Beppu-Oita, Tokyo cancelled. Gifu, Sendai, Osaka, Marugame half cancelled. Going to stack those two races.
October 29, 2020 at 1:48 PM
Brett Larner said…
Sanyo has yet to cancel and I'd certainly consider the elite-level ekidens legit road races, but I know what you're saying. Should be entertaining if it happens as scheduled.
October 29, 2020 at 7:11 PM
Mark said…
Wondering, hoping, waiting to see if you’re going to post an all japan university ekiden preview. Without Izumo, some notable graduations, and with just a handful of 5000 and 10,000 races since the spring, I’m not sure what to expect teamwise upfront and further down the field. I don’t think Chuo is in, so we won’t get to see Yoshii at a distance he’s currently better suited for than HM. KGU? Koma Dai? Haven’t heard much about AGU recently. Tokai has some strong 4th years for sure. Juntendo is improving...
October 29, 2020 at 8:18 PM
Jreddy said…
Well this is exciting. I might as well throw my hat in the ring and see what Japan decides to do. It's not like there are any other races to plan for.
November 5, 2020 at 4:13 AM
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