Skip to main content

1301 People Scratch From Kaga Onsenkyo Marathon After PCR Testing Requirement Added

More than 1300 entrants have withdrawn from the Apr. 17 Kaga Onsenkyo Marathon in Ishikawa since organizers announced that a negative PCR test would be required from all participants as part of the event's measures against the coronavirus pandemic. People who had planned to run the race have complained about the new policy, which was enacted by the local city government.

At the city council's Education and Civil Welfare Committee meeting on Apr. 8, the city reported on the event's status with regard to cancelations as of that morning. Out of 3,178 entrants in the full marathon division, almost a quarter, 810 people, had canceled. In the 10 km, nearly a third, 491 out of 1415 people, had withdrawn.

The Kaga city government, which organizes the race, changed the policy to require PCR tests following the cancelation of a partial state of emergency and the resulting countermeasures in Ishikawa prefecture on Mar. 21. The race's guidelines had already required that participants show proof of "two vaccination shots, or a negative PCR or antigen test result," but to enhance the safety of both the runners and race officials this was upgraded to require "a negative PCR test result within the 3 days before the race."

However, there is a nationwide shortage of PCR testing kits, and there is no guarantee that results will be returned in time even if tests are taken at pharmacies. The race organizers were flooded by calls from angry and frustrated runners after the announcement. In response they made arrangements for a private PCR testing center to handle entrants' testing, but due to the planning necessary the application period was very short, lasting only from Apr. 1 to Apr. 5. The organizers also made the decision to offer partial refunds, and to extend the cancelation deadline from the original date of Mar. 28 right up to race day.

One entrant, a 59-year-old office worker from Kanazawa who canceled his plans to run what would have been his fourth time at the race, was very disappointed, saying, "When the requirements for taking part in the race were changed no guidance was given on PCR testing, which meant it was up to each of us to wade through the bureaucracy on our own to figure it out. That kind of killed my motivation to run. It's too bad, as I'd really been looking forward to this race happening again after being canceled the last two years."

A spokesperson for the city's Sports Department commented, "There are residents of the city who are worried about the event taking place at all, so we had to err on the side of safety and security. We're very sorry that the outcome for runners wasn't everything that they might have hoped for."

source article:
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that  Sis
Post a Comment
Read more

The Ivy League at the Izumo Ekiden in Review

Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43
Post a Comment
Read more

Hirabayashi Runs PB at Shanghai Half, WR Holder Nakata Dominates Fuji Five Lakes - Weekend Road Roundup

Returning to the roads after his 2:06:18 win at February's Osaka Marathon, Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin University) took 5th at Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon in a PB 1:01:23, just under a minute behind winner Roncer Kipkorir Konga (Kenya) who clocked a CR 1:00:29. After inexplicably running the equivalent of a sub-59 half marathon to win the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage, Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was back to running performances consistent with his other PBs with a 1:02:30 for 8th. His AGU teammate Kyosuke Hiramatsu was 10th in 1:04:00. Women's winner Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) also set a new CR in 1:09:57. Aoyama Gakuin runners took the top four spots in the men's half marathon at the Aomori Sakura Marathon , with Hakone alternate Kosei Shiraishi getting the win in 1:04:32 and B-team members Shunto Hamakawa and Kei Kitamura 2nd and 3rd in 1:04:45 and 1:04:48. Club runners took the other division titles, Hina Shinozaki winning the women's half
Post a Comment
Read more