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First Japan Marathon Championship Series Winners Awarded $165,000


On Mar. 31 the JAAF recognized the winners of the new Japan Marathon Championship Series I at an award ceremony in Tokyo. Marathoners were scored on their best two performances from December, 2020 through March, 2022, with preference given to results from domestic races. The overall #1-ranked woman and man were named to Japan's team for this summer's Oregon World Championships, with anyone in the top 8 who hadn't otherwise already qualified for next year's MGC Paris Olympic marathon trials given a place on the trials starting line.

A total prize pool of ¥20,000,000, roughly $165,000 USD at the current dismal exchange rate, was divided between the top three women and men, with the top-ranked athletes receiving ¥6,000,000, about $50,000, 2nd-place receiving ¥3,000,000, around $25,000, and 3rd-place ¥1,000,000, or $8,000.


Women-only NR holder and Tokyo Olympics 8th-placer Mao Ichiyama took 1st in the women's standings, Mizuki Matsuda 2nd and Mao Uesugi 3rd. Both Ichiyama and Matsuda were named to the Oregon team, with Uesugi picking up a place on September's Hangzhou Asian Games team. NR holder Kengo Suzuki was the men's winner, Kyohei Hosoya taking 2nd and 2020 Olympic alternate Shohei Otsuka 3rd. Suzuki joins his partner Ichiyama and Matsuda on the Oregon team, Hosoya headed instead for Hangzhou alongside Uesugi.

"I'm really happy to be the first winner," said Ichiyama. "I'm doing more strength training than I have in the past in order to improve my form, and in Oregon I'll be aiming to place better than at the Olympics." "Together we want to get even better and deliver an incredible run as a couple," added Suzuki. "To be honest I don't really think in terms of time goals and think it's more important to try to compete, but as a whole I think Japanese men should be targeting 2:03. I get injured a lot, and that's something I need to work on, but I won't be changing my approach for Worlds except to deal with heat."

Despite losing to Ichiyama by only 6 points Matsuda was all smiles, saying, "My goal was to make the World Championships team to get a chance to race against the best, and that's what I've done." Hosoya commented, "I'm disappointed that I wasn't picked for the Worlds team, but my road to the Olympics runs through the Asian Games and I'll be going for the win there." Otsuka, the only JMC podium placer not named to a national team, said, "I need to improve both my speed and stamina."

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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