by Brett Larner This Sunday the Fukuoka International Marathon celebrates its 70th running. Once upon a time playing the role of the men's marathon world championships in a day before there were World Championships, Fukuoka has seen its importance worldwide dwindle in the face of modernity and the changes it has brought in the sport. It still manages to put together good-quality, interesting fields from a spectrum of nationalities, but it has been a while since Fukuoka could really pull in the type of talent who now head to the World Marathon Majors. On the home front too, despite serving as the first of three main selection races for Japanese national teams at the major international championships, its timing a bit less than four weeks before the increasingly important New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships means that more and more top level Japanese man now pass it over in favor of February's Tokyo Marathon or March's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marat...
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