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Mar. 12 Koga Hanamomo Marathon Canceled Due to Coronavirus Pandemic




On Sept. 1 the Koga Hanamomo Marathon in Koga, Ibaraki announced that its 10th running, scheduled for Mar. 12, 2023, has been postponed one year due to the coronavirus pandemic. In its last running in 2019, Koga Hanamomo had 8,766 finishers in its marathon, with additional numbers in its accompanying shorter races bringing its finisher total to more than 10,000.

In a Facebook post race organizers wrote, "With the arrival of the novel coronavirus pandemic's 7th wave we have made the determination that it would not be possible to guarantee the kind of medical support system necessary for the race to go ahead. We thank you for your understanding. Details on an alternative event and other new information will be posted on the race website."

A longer official announcement of the race's "one-year postponement" in Japanese can be found here. This news comes shortly after the organizers of the similar-sized Shizuoka Marathon announced their event was being discontinued after three straight years of cancelation. With no race scheduled for 2023 Koga Hanamomo will now go four years without an in-person edition. Its future has to be a big question mark.

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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