16 Women and 26 Men on the Current Olympic Trials Qualifier List

Last weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon and the Tokyo Marathon the weekend before brought the main part of the first year of qualification for the Marathon Grand Championship Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials to be held in Nagoya in October, 2027, to an end. There are still a few races like the Nagano Marathon and overseas World Athletics platinum label races this season where people might qualify, but for the most part we're not likely to see many new additions until August's Hokkaido Marathon, where the qualifying period opened last year. As of right now 16 women and 26 men have qualified, although the first woman to make the cut, Ai Hosoda, announced that she was retiring after Tokyo earlier this month.

Out of the 16 women to have qualified so far, Mikuni Yada is the fastest with her 2:19:57 debut at Osaka Women's in January. Including Hosoda that makes 2 qualifiers for the Edion corporate team, but Daihatsu has the biggest share of the field so far at 3 qualifiers, Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori in Nagoya and Mizuki Matsuda at Osaka Women's. It's a great achievement for head coach Miwako Yamanaka, one of the few female head coaches in the industry in Japan.

Mitsubishi Juko also has 3 qualifiers on the men's list, Ichitaka Yamashita getting there in Osaka, Ryota Kondo in Tokyo, and Hiroto Inoue at Beppu-Oita. But 3 independent runners not belonging to corporate teams are on the list too, the 2 fastest Suguru Osako and Kengo Suzuki and the slowest, Yudai Fukuda. Sora Shinozakura on the women's list is also an independent athlete, bringing the total to 4 out of 42 overall.

The Otsuka Seiyaku team has 3 qualifiers total so far, Rie Kawauchi and Kana Kobayashi on the women's list and Daisuke Uekado on the men's, and there are also 3 collegiate runners on the men's list, Asahi Kuroda of Aoyama Gakuin University, Shinsaku Kudo of Waseda University, and Itta Tameike of Chuo University. Other teams with 2 qualifiers so far include Tokyo Metro, Kurosaki Harima, and Toyota.

Interestingly, and a bit entertainingly, former Takushoku University roommates and multiple Olympic and world championships teammates Kentaro Nakamoto and Arata Fujiwara, both have 2 people on the corporate teams they now coach, in the field, Nakamoto's Yasukawa Denki having the edge with Ryo Goda running 2:06:51 in Osaka and Kiyoshi Koga 2:07:46 in Beppu-Oita, and Fujiwara's Suzuki having Tomohiro Fujimura, 2:08:49 in Tokyo, and Takumi Oishi, 2:08:51 in Fukuoka.

We'll follow up with an updated list as things evolve.

Hassan Runs NR/CR for Osaka Win, Dibaba Hits Women's CR, Yoshida and Shuley Earn Legends

This was maybe the most entertaining marathon in years. After rocking the 2nd leg at last year's Hakone Ekiden Hibiki Yoshida (Sunbelx) ran an incredible 1:01:01 CR for the 21.9 km New Year Ekiden 2nd leg last month, equivalent to a 58:47 half marathon. That predicted a 2:03:27 marathon if he ever ran one, and when Yoshida announced he was debuting at this year's Osaka Marathon he wasted no time in saying it'd be a shot at the 2:04:55 NR. Things went out fast enough with a 14:50 split through 5 km, 2:05:11 pace, but Yoshida just couldn't hold back and took off at 8 km. He clearly DGAF about what was probably going to happen as his projected finish kept getting faster, 2:04:41, 2:04:15, 2:03:51, 2:03:40, edging closer and closer to what his New Year time predicted, but not helped along by the fact that he missed 4 out of his first 5 drink bottles. People laughed, and then cheered him on. 30 km was the first time he slowed, his finish projection dropping to 2:03:53, an...

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

M.I.A.

Sorry to have been silent for a while. JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin was in Taiwan for Ironman Penghu, where she won her age group to qualify for Kona for the first time. Right after that we moved for the first time in 14 years, and immediately after that I headed to the U.S. to help Keita Sato get settled in his new training base in Flagstaff. We'll be resuming normal operations shortly with a big roundup of results over the last 2 weeks. Brett Larner

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