Khapilina and Sbaai Win Sofia Marathon, Yamaguchi 4th

With her plans ruined when last week's Kosice Peace Marathon canceled its elite race and most of its mass-participation race in response to a change in government policies a few days before the race, the Ukraine's Viktoriya Khapilina regrouped and headed to Bulgaria's Wizz Air Sofia Marathon. Controlling the race nearly from start to finish with a few mid-race challenges from Kenyan Naom Jebet, Khapilina went through halfway in 1:14:13 before picking it up to drop Jebet. With a 1:13:44 second half she took the win in a PB of 2:27:57, almost five minutes under the old course record and the fastest women's marathon ever run on Bulgarian soil.

Jebet was 2nd in 2:28:41, with 3rd-placer Cynthia Kosgei of Kenya also under the hold course and all-comers' records in 2:32:10. The first elite Japanese woman to race a marathon outside Japan this year and running with support from JRN, Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) was 4th in 2:32:49 off a 1:16:15 first half. Yamaguchi missed joining the top three under the old record by 15 seconds, but her time was fastest performance yet outside Japan. "My time was at the faster end of what I'd hoped to do today, so I'm pretty happy with that," she said post-race. "I'm disappointed with 4th place, though." Focusing mostly on December's National Championships 10000 m, Yamaguchi's only other marathon planned this year is the Dec. 20 Hofu Marathon, where she will run as a guide runner for a blind male Paralympian.

The men's race came down to a head-to-head battle between Moroccans Raduan Nouini and Youssef Sbaai. Nouini threw in a few mid-race surges to break the mostly Kenyan pack including former 2:04 man Jonathan Maiyo, but in the end the only one he couldn't shake was 40-year-old Sbaai. Coming down the home straight side-by-side, the pair crossed the finish line at the same time in 2:13:03. On review Sbaai was given the win, with Nouini 2nd.

3rd in 2:16:21 Mohamed Ali of the Netherlands had an even harder time of it than women's winner Khapilina. Originally scheduled to run Kosice last weekend, he shifted to Romania's Bucharest Marathon, scheduled the same day as Sofia. When Bucharest canceled on Friday Ali was reported to have driven 400 km overnight to get to Sofia, where he was given a bib and a chance. Sunday's Riga Marathon was also scaled back at the last minute, making Sofia, with around 2000 participants from 37 countries across events and elites from ten countries making the top ten in the women's and men's marathons, the exception and not the rule. But for everything Khapilina and especially Ali's experiences said about what's ahead for athletes trying to return to the roads, the Sofia Marathon was a brief glimmer of hope that better days are ahead somewhere.

35th Wizz Air Sofia Marathon

Sofia, Bulgaria, 11 Oct., 2020
complete results

Women

1. Viktoriya Khapilina (Ukraine) - 2:27:57 - CR, ACR, PB
2. Naom Jebet (Kenya) - 2:28:41 (CR)
3. Cynthia Kosgei (Kenya) - 2:32:10 (CR)
4. Haruka Yamaguchi (Japan) - 2:32:49
5. Marta Akeno (Kenya) - 2:33:25
6. Clementine Mukandanga (Rwanda) - 2:38:51
7. Jane Bareikis (U.S.A.) - 2:38:53
8. Yulia Tarasova (Ukraine) - 2:55:23
9. Ilham Mouradi (Morocco) - 3:00:03
10. Dikia Drori (Israel) - 3:03:52

Men

1. Youssef Sbaai (Morocco) - 2:13:03
2. Raduan Nouini (Morocco) - 2:13:03
3. Mohamed Ali (Netherlands) - 2:16:21
4. Duncan Koech (Kenya) - 2:17:09
5. Praduau Uladzislau (Belarus) - 2:17:49
6. Jonathan Maiyo (Kenya) - 2:22:32
7. MOhammed Hajjy (Morocco) - 2:24:44
8. Gideon Tamar (Israel) - 2:26:59
9. Victor Chelokoi (Kenya) - 2:27:22
10. Craig Kynkin (South Africa) - 2:28:44

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 ...

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...

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."...

japan running news

Search This Blog