Skip to main content

Sadakata and Ichiyama Win Hakodate Half, NR Holder Suzuki Back in First Race Since Tokyo '22


Sunday's other big race in Hokkaido was the Hakodate Half Marathon and Marathon, where members of Japan's marathon squad for August's Budapest World Championships and qualifiers for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials tune up for their races. In the men's half marathon, Shun Sadakata held off Evans Kipkemei to take the win by 2 seconds in a PB and CR 1:01:37. Hideyuki Tanaka took 3rd in 1:01:40, with Dan Kiplangat the only other runner under 62 in 1:01:54 for 4th.

Half marathon NR holder Yusuke Ogura was 6th in 1:02:38, and close behind him was marathon NR holder Kengo Suzuki, 7th in 1:02:46. For Suzuki it was the first time he'd made it to the starting line of a race since the March, 2022 Tokyo Marathon, and as the first MGC qualifier to finish in Hakodate his performance there was good enough to generate a collective sigh of relief. Budapest marathon team member Kazuya Nishiyama didn't have the same kind of day, only 15th in 1:03:58.

Women-only marathon NR holder Mao Ichiyama took the top spot in the women's half marathon, running 1:10:23. MGC qualifier Mizuki Tanimoto and track runner Yuka Takashima were 2nd and 3rd in 1:10:58 and 1:11:58, with 30 km NR holder Honami Maeda 6th in 1:12:32.

In the marathon, MGC qualifier Naoki Okamoto won by over two minutes in a training run effort 2:15:56, a CR by over 2 minutes. Club runner Yukie Matsumura won the women's marathon in 2:45:46.

Hakodate Half Marathon

Hakodate, Hokkaido, 25 June 2023

Women's Half Marathon
1. Mao Ichiyama (Shiseido) - 1:10:23
2. Mizuki Tanimoto (Tenmaya) - 1:10:58
3. Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) - 1:11:58
4. Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) - 1:12:01
5. Saki Tokoro (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:12:18
6. Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) - 1:12:32
7. Momoko Watanabe (Tenmaya) - 1:13:15
8. Hikaru Kitagawa (Osaka Geijutsu Univ.) - 1:13:37
9. Natsumi Matsushita (Tenmaya) - 1:15:12
10. Arisa Nakao (Universal Entertainment) - 1:15:54

Men's Half Marathon
1. Shun Sadakata (Mazda) - 1:01:37 - CR
2. Evans Kipkemei (JFE Steel) - 1:01:39
3. Hideyuki Tanaka (Toyota) - 1:01:40
4. Dan Kiplangat (JFE Steel) - 1:01:54
5. Ryuichi Hashimoto (Press Kogyo) - 1:02:31
6. Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) - 1:02:38
7. Kengo Suzuki (Fujitsu) - 1:02:46
8. Paul Onyiego (Fujisan no Meisui) - 1:02:54
9. Yudai Shimazu (GMO) - 1:03:02
10. Masaru Aoki (Kao) - 1:03:11

Women's Marathon
1. Sachie Matsumura (Nike) - 2:45:46
2. Kasumi Takahama (unattached) - 2:56:54
3. Emi Saito (unattached) - 2:58:26

Men's Marathon
1. Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:15:56 - CR
2. Takuma Shibata (Komori Corp.) - 2:18:08
3. Takuma Kumagai (Sumitomo Denko) - 2:22:39

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee


Labels:

Comments

Stefan said…
Mao Ichiyama is building very nicely for the MGC race in October. She continues to put in solid results and returning slowly but surely to her peak fitness and most importantly appears in excellent health.

Regarding Honami Maeda's 1:12:32 I do wonder if she suffered an injury after her Nagoya marathon run and has been unable to train because this time is 4 minutes slower than her outstanding 2022 time, 1:08:28. Or perhaps, she just took a short break (which is wise given her recent injuries) and treated this race as an early benchmark training run. Her twitter post doesn't indicate any injuries so I'm hopeful its the latter.

https://twitter.com/07honami17/status/1672883498141769728
June 26, 2023 at 11:42 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...
3 comments
Read more

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...
1 comment
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...
Post a Comment
Read more