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Showing posts with the label Aki Odagiri

Weekend Road Race Roundup

Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Qualifier half marathon was the main event of the weekend, but between that and early ekiden season track time trials across the country there were a few other notable results at home and abroad.

In Sendai, the second running of the Tohoku Miyagi Fukko Marathon took place, an event launched last year to commemorate those lost in the 2011 tsunami and to show the area's recovery. In its first running organizers brought in then-future 2:06 man Hiroto Inoue to lead the field. This year it was 2017 Gold Coast Marathon winnerTakuya Noguchi (Konica Minolta), who took more than 5 minutes off the course record with a workout-effort 2:18:37 for the win. Aki Odagiri (Takemura Seisakusho) won the women's race in 2:46:07.

In Toyama, 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) ran the Namerikawa Hotaruika Half Marathon a week after a disappointing run at the Chicago Marathon. Running completely solo he won in 1:05:18, beating 2nd place b…
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Sakai and Yoshida Lead Hokkaido Marathon Field

by Brett Larner

The Hokkaido Marathon has released the elite field for its 30th anniversary running on Aug. 28. The men's field features Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), a 2:09:10 performer at the 2014 Tokyo Marathon but with little success since then, and Ryo Yamamoto (Team SGH Group), a member of the 2012 London Olympics marathon squad with a 2:08:37 best from 2012. An interesting dark horse is the Barcelona Olympics silver medalist Koichi Morishita-coached 2:13 man Yuki Oshikawa (Team Toyota Kyushu), winner of February's tough Ome 30 km and 2nd at last month's Shibetsu Half Marathon.  Something of an eyebrow raiser is Kenyan Cyrus Njui (SEV Sports), who underwent a six-month suspension after testing positive at last year's Hokkaido Marathon when he took cold medicine from a local pharmacists a few days before the race.  In today's environment it's hard to imagine many races inviting back someone who tested positive at the same race a year earlier, but Hokka…
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Ageo City Half Marathon Leads Weekend Action - Preview

by Brett Larner

Rainy weather lies ahead for a busy weekend of racing across the country.  Track is a part of the calender from April through December, and this weekend features several large time trial meets including the Shizuoka Long Distance Time Trials Meet and, closer to Tokyo, the Nittai University Time Trials Meet.  Men's 5000 m is the focus at Nittai with 37 separate heats in one day, the fastest heat led by 12 Japan-based Africans including Bedan Karoki (DeNA RC), Ronald Kwemoi (Team Komori Corp.) and Paul Kuira (Team Konica Minolta).

The main action this weekend, however, happens on the roads, and there's no question that the Ageo City Half Marathon is the main event.  Ageo, the race that university coaches use to thin their rosters ahead of deciding their lineups for January's Hakone Ekiden, is one of two Japanese half marathons vying for the title of world's greatest half, locked in a duel with March's National University Half Marathon to produce the d…
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Saitama International Marathon Announces First Elite Field

by Brett Larner

The new Nov. 15 Saitama International Marathon is the inheritor of the defunct Yokohama International Women's Marathon, itself the lesser offspring of the great Tokyo International Women's Marathon that folded under the pressure of the big new mass-participation Tokyo Marathon.  At the time of the event's "relocation" to Yokohama JRN published an editorial questioning whether The Yokohama International Women's Marathon was an idea whose time had passed.  History bore that out, unfortunately, as Yokohama was constantly beset with problems including its first winner Inga Abitova of Russia testing positive, a circuit course popular with spectators but unpopular with runners that underwent extensive changes, a date change into the next year in its second running, the welcoming back of Lithuanian Zivile Balciunaite within virtually days of the end of her doping suspension, and a growing sense of irrelevance highlighted by its winners and top Japane…
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Fujiwara and Okada Win Hokkaido Marathon (updated with video)

by Brett Larner



His career marked by more ups and downs than virtually any other elite marathoner, London Olympian Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) pulled yet another surprise comeback out of nowhere on a week's notice to win the hot and humid Hokkaido Marathon in Sapporo on Sunday.  One of only five Japanese men to ever win a marathon outside Japan under 2:10, after a mid-race surge Fujiwara's strategy evoked his course record-setting 2010 Ottawa Marathon win, waiting until the final km before going for a long surge over a group of five including his training partner and 2010 Hokkaido winner Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Arata Project), 2015 Nagano Marathon runner-up Tomohiro Tanigawa (Team Konica Minolta) and others.  Fujiwara crossed the finish line to claim his second career marathon victory in 2:16:49, one of the slower winning times in recent Hokkaido history but a full 11 seconds over Njui in the final kilometer.

Njui held off Tanigawa, who previously felt the sting of Fujiwara's fi…
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Hokkaido Marathon Elite Field

by Brett Larner

This year's 29th edition of the Hokkaido Marathon features an all-Japanese invited elite field led by sub-2:11 men Hideaki Tamura (Team JR Higashi Nihon) and Ryosuke Fukuyama (Team Honda) and 2011 World Championships marathoner and defending women's champion Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease).  The race will take place simultaneously with the Beijing World Championships women's marathon.

Hokkaido Marathon
Sapporo, Hokkaido, 8/30/15
click here for detailed field listing

Men
Hideaki Tamura (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:10:54 (Biwako 2013)
Ryosuke Fukuyama (Honda) - 2:10:59 (Biwako 2013)
Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta) - 2:11:39 (Nagano 2015)
Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) - 2:12:11 (Nobeoka 2014)
Tatsunari Hirayama (Yasukawa Denki) - 2:12:38 (Nobeoka 2013)
Yu Chiba (Honda) - 2:13:19 (Beppu-Oita 2013)

Women
Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease) - 2:24:57 (Osaka Women's 2012)
Chieko Kido (Canon AC Kyushu) - 2:29:08 (Osaka Women's 2015)
Aki Odagiri (Tenmaya) - 2:30:24 (Nagoya…
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Akaba, Davila and Watanabe Headline 32nd Running of Sanyo Women's Road Race

http://www.sanyo.oni.co.jp/feature/sports/other/2013/11/30/20131130225458.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The invited athlete list for Japan's last major road race of the year, the 32nd Sanyo Women's Road Race on Dec. 23 in Okayama, was released by race organisers on Nov. 30. Coinciding with main sponsor Sanyo Newspapers' 135th anniversary, the Yuko Arimori Cup half marathon division at the Sanyo Women's Road Race will for the first time be a selection race for the World Half Marathon Championships national team, with next year's World Half due to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark next March.

Targeting the first three-peat in Sanyo history, 2013 National Corporate Half Marathon champion Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) heads the invited field along with 2013 Hokkaido Marathon winner Yuko Watanabe (Team Edion) and, from overseas, London Olympian Desiree Davila (U.S.A.).  Others in the half  marathon include past World Championships marathoners Mai Ito (Team Otsu…
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Obare Wins Matsue Ladies' Half

by Brett Larner

 2010 Matsue Ladies Half Marathon winner Doricah Obare (Kenya/Team Hitachi) returned to the top Mar. 17, winning the 2013 edition of the race in 1:11:11.  Doubling as the National University Women's Half Marathon Championships and the selection race for the Japanese women's half marathon squad for this summer's World University Games, Obare was up against an almost entire collegiate field and saw tough competition from Yasuka Ueno (Tsukuba Univ.), who challenged for the win before falling back and taking 2nd in 1:11:30.  Ayako Mitsui of 2012 national champion Ritsumeikan University and Meijo University ace Aki Odagiri rounded out the collegiate top three to secure themselves places on the World University Games team, while last year's winner Ayame Takaki (Meijo Univ.) was only 26th.  Ayumi Hagiwara (Team Uniqlo) took the 10 km division in 33:19.

2013 Matsue Ladies Half Marathon
National University Women's Half Marathon Championships
Matsue, 3/17/13
click…
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Seven Hills Loop - Top Results

2012 Zevenheuvelenloop 15 km
Nijmegen, Netherlands, 11/18/12
click here for complete results

Women
1. Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) - 47:08
2. Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia) - 48:09
3. Beatrice Mutai (Kenya) - 48:52
4. Lucy Macharia (Kenya) - 49:00
5. Gelete Burka (Ethiopia) - 49:26
6. Aki Odagiri (Japan) - 50:57
7. Merel de Knegt (Netherlands) - 51:43
8. Eriko Kushima (Japan) - 51:49
9. Hikari Yasuhara (Japan) - 52:14
10. Miranda Boonstra (Netherlands) - 52:23
11. Mei Matsuyama (Japan) - 52:59
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19. Ai Furukubo (Japan) - 55:16

Men
1. Nicholas Kipkemboi (Kenya) - 42:01
2. Leonard Komon (Kenya) - 42:18
3. Nguse Amlosom (Ethiopia) - 42:28
4. Kennedy Kimutai (Kenya) - 42:29
5. Abera Kuma (Ethiopia)
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Kizaki, Ondiba, Son of Nakayama Win Big on the Roads, Noguchi Comes Up Short

by Brett Larner

Near typhoon conditions throughout Japan on Friday and Saturday brought a nationwide heat wave and strong winds on Sunday, less than ideal for a handful of major races across the country.

The biggest of them, the Olympic selection-edition Yokohama International Women's Marathon, turned into a race of attrition decided by a final kick to the new waterfront finish, Yokohama's third course in three runnings.  With all three female pacemakers running into trouble and dropping out suddenly at 8, 12 and 19 km rather than the planned 25 km, the race proceeded slower than the planned 2:22 pace, but favorites nevertheless dropped behind one by one.  After a conservative first half far behind the lead pack, 2008 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Mara Yamauchi (Great Britain) took the lead just before 25 km.  After a big move from Kaoru Nagao (Team Univ. Ent.) at 31 km the race came down to three, defending champion Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) and th…
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Double Half Marathon Bronze on Final Day of World University Games Athletics

by Brett Larner

Click photo for video highlights of men's 5000 m.

The final day of track and field competition at the 2011 World University Games brought the biggest round of distance racing, with the women's and men's half marathon and the men's 5000 m final all taking place Aug. 21.  Both half marathons were slow and tactical as the athletes dealt with the morning heat and humidity.  The women's half went out in 18:59 for the first 5 km, a pace which kept the entire field together.  A split of 18:39 for the next 5 km dropped a few of the weaker runners, but a 17:42 split from 10 to 15 km cut the field down to seven, including all four Japanese runners.  China's Xiaoli Jiang and Japan's Shiho Takechi were unable to keep this pace and fell away from the lead pack.  Of the remaining five, only North Korean Un Ok Ro could maintain pace as she ran 17:43 from 15 to 20 km to open a narrow lead she carried all the way to gold in 1:16:38.  China's Lingling Jin …
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Nomura and Odagiri Go 3-4 at Zevenheuvelenloop 15 km

2010 Zevenheuvelenloop 15 km
Nijmegen, Netherlands, 11/21/10
Women
click here for complete women's results
1. Genet Getaneh (Ethiopia) - 47:53
2. Florence Kiplagat (Kenya) - 48:07
3. Sayo Nomura (Meijo Univ.) - 49:43
4. Aki Odagiri (Meijo Univ.) - 51:37
5. Benita Willis (Australia) - 51:51

Men
click here for complete men's results
1. Leonard Patrick Komon (Kenya) - 41:13 - WR
2. Abera Kuma (Ethiopia) - 42:01
3. Ayele Abshiro (Ethiopia) - 42:01
4. Abraham Kiplimo (Uganda) - 43:03
5. Berhanu Delale (Ethiopia) - 43:08
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14. Kazuya Watanabe (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 45:31
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Iizuka, Fujimoto, Yoshimoto and More - National University Championships Preview

by Brett Larner

It's one of the peculiarities of the Japanese scene that the national university and corporate championship track and field meets come in September, sandwiched between the end of the summer gasshuku training camps and the start of the fall ekiden season three months after the regional meets and open Nationals. For once, the focus of the National University Track and Field Championships, to be held this weekend at Tokyo's National Stadium, will be on the sprints rather than the distance races. That's because scheduled to run both the 200 m and the 4 x 100 m is Chuo University frosh Shota Iizuka. Iizuka's surreal anchor leg for Chuo's relay squad at May's Kanto Regionals got attention around the world as he singlehandedly gave Chuo a one-second margin of victory and the national collegiate record of 38.54. With expectations high he followed up in the 200 m with Japan's first-ever world-level track gold medal at July's IAAF Junior World Cham…
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Obare Over Akaba at Matsue Ladies' Half Marathon

by Brett Larner

As Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) finished 2nd at the National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, the over elite Japanese woman scheduled to run next month's London Marathon, Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) lined up at the Matsue Ladies' Half Marathon in her first race since dropping out of January's Osaka International Women's Marathon. It was essentially a head-to-head race between Akaba and Kenyan Doricah Obare (Team Hitachi) in her half marathon debut. Strong winds kept the pace slow, but nevertheless the pack of chasers made no attempt to follow. Obare and Akaba ran the first km in 3:30 and gradually picked up the pace, but when Obare pushed the 4th km to 3:09 Akaba let go. The gap between the pair widened to 48 seconds at 10 km before Akaba began to accelerate, closing to within 17 seconds of Obare but unable to catch her. Obare won in 1:10:52, with Akaba 2nd in 1:11:09. Running a great race to beat away numerous challenges from the pack, Meij…
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Katsumata Wins Final Miyazaki Women's Half Marathon

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/item/144738
http://www.asahi.com/sports/spo/SEB201001070003.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The 30th and final edition of the Miyazaki Women's Road Race took place Jan. 6 in Miyazaki city. Running the event's half marathon for the first time, Misaki Katsumata (Team Daiichi Seimei) won in a time of 1:10:27. 27 seconds behind in 2nd place was Yoko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera), with Mika Okunaga (Team Kyudenko) another 30 second back in 3rd. 2009 Berlin World Championships marathoner Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) was 4th in 1:11:33. Women's 1500 m national champion Mika Yoshikawa (Team Panasonic) won the 5 km in 16:15.

The Miyazaki Road Race began in 1981 and has seen world records set on its fast course. Past winners of the race have included many famous runners such as Athens Olympics marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex), Sydney Olympics silver medalist Lidia Simon (Romania), Elana Meyer (RSA), Akemi Masuda, Masako Chiba…
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Junior Women Score Bronze Medal at World XC

by Brett Larner

Click here for a gallery of photos from the 2009 World Cross Country Championships.

Once again, Japan's junior women's squad led the way at the 2009 World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan, scoring the overall team bronze medal while the Japanese teams in the other three races came up empty-handed. Junior woman Nanaka Izawa had the strongest individual finish of the day, 17th, followed closely by scoring members Erika Ikeda, Asami Kato and Aki Otagiri, and by 5th runner Chitose Shibata.

The senior men's and women's squads had modest improvements over last year, the men finishing 11th despite missing ace Yuta Takahashi, and the women 8th, led by Yuko Shimizu's strong 18th place finish. Only the junior men showed a decline, the three members of 2008 National High School Ekiden champions Saku Chosei H.S. and aces Wataru Ueno, Kazuto Nishiike and Yutaro Fukushi coming in only 8th after last year's 4th place finish. Star runner Akinobu Murasa…
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Sato, Matsumiya, Nakamura and More to Run Fukuoka International XC

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/news/20090224k0000m050029000c.html
http://www.mit.vc/fxc/2009news01.pdf

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Rikuren has announced the elite field for the 23rd Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet, to be held Mar. 7 in Fukuoka's Uminonakamichi Park. Together with the Feb. 15 Chiba International Cross Country Meet, Fukuoka serves as a selection race for the national team which will compete in the Mar. 28 World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan. Despite the meet's name, only three non-Japanese runners are scheduled to run. Joseph Kiptoo Birech (Kenya) and Jay Twist (Australia) will run in the senior men's 10 km, while Kseniya Agafonova (Russia) will run the senior women's 6 km.

At the top of the senior men's 10 km race are Beijing Olympians Atsushi Sato (marathon, Team Chugoku Denryoku), Takayuki Matsumiya (5000 m, 10000 m, Team Konica Minolta) and Yoshitaka Iwamizu (3000 m SC, Team Fujitsu). Other competitors includ…
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Asian Cross Country Championships - Results

by Brett Larner

Japanese teams performed strongly at the 10th Asian Cross Country Championships in Bahrain on Mar. 1, bringing home three individual medals and team medals in three of the four team categories. Running against teams of African mercenaries masquerading as national teams belonging to Qatar and Bahrain, the Japanese senior women's team brought home the gold medal led by Aya Nagata's individual bronze medal performance, with Tomoka Inadomi and Risa Shigetomo rounding out the scoring positions in 4th and 5th.

The junior men's scorers placed identically, Shota Hattori earning a bronze medal and his teammates Yuki Oshikawa and Kyohei Nishi coming 4th and 5th, but the team received only the silver medal as they were beaten by one point by a Bahraini team made up of two Kenyans and one Ethiopian.

The junior women's team also won silver, again with a bronze medal run from Aki Odagiri followed by team scoring 4th and 5th placings by Rei Ohara and Sairi Maeda. Like th…
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