Skip to main content

O'Keeffe and Mutiso Lead Tokyo Legacy Half Elite Field



Japan's newest top-level half marathon happens Oct. 16 in Tokyo with the Tokyo Legacy Half bringing together 70 elite men, 23 elite women and 15,000 mass-participation runners to cover a course unused for the Tokyo Olympics but which did see action, including three home team medals, at the Tokyo Paralympics.

The women's race has American Fiona O'Keeffe in a duel with this year's National Corporate Half winner Dolphine Omare, both of them having cleared 68 minutes this year. American Betsy Saina went sub-68 at Marugame in 2019 but hasn't finished a race since the 2019 Honolulu Marathon, her only starts since then being a DNF in Nagoya 2020 and a DNF at last year's Olympic test half in Sendai. Fresh off a win at the Hokkaido Marathon at the end of August, Haruka Yamaguchi is next in line with a 1:09:50 PB in Gifu this spring. Ikumi Fukura is the only other Japanese woman to have gone sub-70 in the field with a 1:09:58 PB from the 2020 National Corporate Half. It looks like a duel between O'Keeffe and Omare for the win, between Yamaguchi and Fukura for 3rd, with Saina and maybe Kenyan Caroline Naga fitting in there somewhere.

As usual, Japan-based sub-58 man Alexander Mutiso leads the men's field, with sub-60 Kenyans Benard Kimeli, Joseph Karanja, Vincent Raimoi and Emmanuel Maru there to give chase. Takashi Ichida is the top Japanese man by recent time with a 1:00:19 at last year's National Corporate Half. Four other sub-61 Japanese men including former NR holder Yuta Shitara and four more sub-61 Kenyans pad the front of the field, and Olympic marathoners Yuma Hattori and Shogo Nakamura are both entered to run. Hattori has gotten solidly back on his feet since suffering heat stroke at the Olympics, but in Nakamura's case it'll be his first start since the Olympics if he makes it to the starting line.

BS-TBS will broadcast the race live.

Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Tokyo, 16 Oct. 2022
times listed are best in last three years except where noted

Women
Fiona O'Keeffe (U.S.A.) - 1:07:42 (Houston 2022)
Betsy Saina (U.S.A.) - 1:07:49 (Marugame 2019)
Dolphine Omare (Kenya/U.S.E.) - 1:07:56 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2022)
Haruka Yamaguchi (A.C. Kita) - 1:09:50 (Gifu Seiyu 2022)
Ikumi Fukura (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:09:58 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2020)
Caroline Nyaga (Kenya) - 1:10:00 (Trento 2019)
Natsuki Omori (Daihatsu) - 1:10:18 (Sanyo Ladies 2021)
Kotomi Tsubokura (Wacoal) - 1:11:02 (Sanyo Ladies 2021)
Mayu Hirata (Wacoal) - 1:11:15 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2021)
Kotona Ota (Japan Post) - 1:11:48 (Nagoya Women's 2022)
Rie Kawauchi (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:11:49 (Nagoya Women's 2022) 

Men
Alexander Mutiso (Kenya/ND Software) - 57:59 (Valencia 2020)
Benard Kimeli (Kenya/Fujitsu) - 59:32 (Herzogenaurach 2022)
Joseph Karanja (Kenya/Aichi Seiko) - 59:48 (Madrid 2021)
Vincent Raimoi (Kenya/Suzuki) - 59:51 (Ras al Khaimah 2020)
Emmanuel Maru (Kenya/Toyota Boshoku) - 59:58 (Gifu Seiyu 2022) 
Vincent Kipkemoi (Kenya) - 1:00:00 (Malaga 2022)
Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 1:00:19 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2021)
Joseph Macharia Ndirangu (Kenya/Aichi Seiko) - 1:00:30 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2015)
Nicholas Kosimbei (Kenya/YKK) - 1:00:36 (Atlanta 2022)
Masato Kikuchi (Makes) - 1:00:43 (Marugame 2020)
Joel Mwaura (Kenya/Kurosaki Harima) - 1:00:44 (Okukuma 2020)
Yuta Shitara (Honda) - 1:00:49 (Marugame 2020)
Shin Kimura (Honda) - 1:00:54 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2020)
Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) - 1:00:55 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2020)
Yuma Hattori (Toyota) - 1:01:24 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2022)
Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) - 1:01:26 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2020)
Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) - 1:01:40 (Takanezawa Half 2020)

text and photo © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

World Championships Medalist Racewalking Coach Mizuho Sakai Recognized With Highest Coaching Honor

The 2023 Mizuno Sports Mentor Awards recognizing excellence in coaching were held Apr. 23 in Tokyo. Toyo University assistant coach and race walking coach Mizuho Sakai was given a gold award, the program's highest honor, and expressed her thanks and joy in a speech at the award ceremony. The coach of 2023 Budapest World Championships men's 35 km race walk bronze medalist Masatora Kawano , Sakai said, "This is an incredible honor and I'm truly grateful. As a child I wanted to be in the sporting world and I've spent my life in that world. My end goal was always to play a supporting role for other athletes, so I'm honored to be recognized in this way." Sakai's husband Toshiyuki Sakai , head coach of Toyo's three-time Hakone Ekiden champion team, attended the awards gala with her and was also introduced to the audience. After bowing he took a seat in front of her and watched with warmth as she received recognition for her outstanding work. The Mizun
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

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