O'Keeffe, Hattori, Nakamura and Others DNS for Sunday's Tokyo Legacy Half

At a pre-race press conference at Tokyo's New National Stadium on Oct. 14, the Tokyo Marathon Foundation announced the list of withdrawals from Sunday's inaugural Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon. On the women's side, #1-ranked Fiona O'Keeffe (U.S.A.) and collegiate marathon NR holder Sairi Maeda (Daihatsu) were the two biggest names to pull out, O'Keeffe listed as sick and Maeda with injury.

On the men's side, Tokyo Olympic marathoners Yuma Hattori (Toyota) and Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) were the biggest losses given the event's intent of commemorating the Olympic and Paralympic races, both athletes listed as injured. Other prominent withdrawals include former NR holder Yuta Shitara (Honda), 2022 National Corporate 10000 m champion Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku), 2021 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Michael Githae (Suzuki), 2022 Twin Cities Marathon winner Yuya Yoshida (GMO) and Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Shin Nihon Jusetsu).

Para athlete withdrawals include Tadashi Horikoshi (NTT Nishi Nihon), Kota Hokinoue (Yahoo) and Hiroki Nishida (Baccarat Pacific).

Top athletes remaining for Sunday's race:

Women

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)

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)

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)

Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) - 1:00:55 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2020)

Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) - 1:01:26 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2020)

10000 m National Championships Preview

Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a

Golden Games in Nobeoka Top Results

For everyone not running yesterday's 10000 m National Championships , where the Asahi Kasei corporate team dominated the men's race with four out of four men sub-28 including winner Jun Kasai , 27:17.46, the grand dame of Japan's long distance time trial circuit was happening on AK's home ground in Miyazaki at the Golden Games in Nobeoka . Not including kids' races, a total of 74 women and 227 men ran in 14 heats of 5000 m, with a packed-in crowd of fans lining the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons. It's a pretty awesome meet, and memorable performances included: National champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. standout Caroline Kariba continued to kill it in the second month of her corporate league career, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 15:00.95 in a race where 3 out of the top 4 including her ran PBs. National champion Meijo University seemed flat at this point in the season, with none of its people under 16 minutes and star Nanase Tanimoto leading

japan running news

Search This Blog