Skip to main content

Weekend Overseas Road Results

by Brett Larner
photo by Dr. Helmut Winter

Japanese athletes turned up in three large road races in Europe this weekend. Moscow World Championships marathon team hopeful Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) led the way, finishing 3rd at the Berlin Half Marathon in 1:10:00 in a tuneup for the London Marathon in two weeks. Yamanashi Gakuin H.S. graduate and former Team Hokuren runner Philes Ongori (Kenya) was 2nd in 1:08:01.

At the Paris Marathon, a group of third-tier athletes doing Paris after taking top placings at November's Ohtawara Marathon ran well.  2009 World University Games half marathon silver medalist Kikuyo Tsuzaki (Team Noritz) ran a PB 2:36:57 for 12th, while in the men's race both Atsushi Hasegawa (Team Subaru) and Ryoichi Matsuo (Team Asahi Kasei) both broke their PBs with marks of 2:15:25 and 2:16:28.

At Saturday's Prague Half Marathon, Kenta Iinuma (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease) failed to make much of an impression as both finished far off their bests.  Iinuma, a teammate of London Olympics men's marathon 6th-placer Kentaro Nakamoto, was more than three minutes off his best and less than one minute ahead of women's winner Gladys Cherono (Kenya) in 1:05:51.  Nojiri, a former Team Daiichi Seimei athlete trying to make a go of it as an independent, was almost five minutes off her best in 1:15:15 for 10th.

As in Paris, several developing Japanese athletes will run next weekend's Boston Marathon off strong showings at domestic Japanese races.  Manami Kamitanida (Team Hitachi) will be in the women's field after winning January's Katsuta Marathon, while Takushoku University graduate Tomohiro Tanigawa (Team Konica Minolta) will make his marathon debut as the top Japanese man in Boston after placing 2nd in February's Ome 30 km in his debut at that distance.

Berlin Half Marathon
Berlin, 4/7/13
click here for complete results

Women
1. Helah Kiprop (Kenya) - 1:07:54
2. Philes Ongori (Kenya) - 1:08:01
3. Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:10:00 - PB

Men
1. Jacob Kendagor (Kenya) - 59:36
2. Silas Kipruto (Kenya) - 1:00:12
3. Victor Kipchirchir (Kenya) - 1:00:27

Paris Marathon
Paris, 4/7/13
click here for complete results

Women
1. Boru Tadese (Ethiopia) - 2:21:06
2. Merima Mohammed (Ethiopia) - 2:23:14
3. Eunice Kirwa (Kenya) - 2:23:34
-----
12. Kikuyo Tsuzaki (Team Noritz) - 2:36:57 - PB

Men
1. Peter Some (Kenya) - 2:05:38
2. Tadese Tola (Ethiopia) - 2:06:33
3. Eric Ndiema (Kenya) - 2:06:34
-----
19. Atsushi Hasegawa (Team Subaru) - 2:15:25 - PB
21. Ryoichi Matsuo (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:16:28 - PB
25. Naoki Yamashita (Team NTN) - 2:21:02

Prague Half Marathon
Prague, 4/6/13
click here for complete results

Women
1. Gladys Cherono (Kenya) - 1:06:48
2. Worknesh Degefa (Ethiopia) - 1:08:12
3. Isabella Ochichi (Kenya) - 1:09:21
-----
10. Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease) - 1:15:15

Men
1. Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea) - 1:00:10
2. Amanuel Mesel (Eritrea) - 1:00:10
3. John Kipsang (Kenya) - 1:00:16
-----
19. Kenta Iinuma (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 1:05:51

(c) 2013 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

photo (c) 2013 Dr. Helmut Winter
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters