Skip to main content

Flanagan, Kamino, Koech, Makikawa and Mathathi Headline Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon

http://www.shikoku-np.co.jp/sports/local/20150114000155

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Jan. 13 the organizers of the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon released the elite field for the 69th running of the race on Feb. 1.  48 elite men and women including 9 from overseas will make up the front end of what promises to be an exciting race this year.  Former Toyo University Hakone Ekiden star twins Keita Shitara (Team Konica Minolta) and Yuta Shitara (Team Honda) feature in the domestic men's field after making big impacts in their corporate league debuts at this year's New Year Ekiden.  Several members of New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Nissin Shokuhin also lead the large corporate contingent in the general division.

London Olympics marathoner Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) will return again this year.  Top collegiate names scheduled to run include Daichi Kamino, whose course record run on the 2015 Hakone Ekiden's uphill Fifth Stage set the stage for Aoyama Gakuin University's first-ever Hakone win, Hakone First Stage winner Shogo Nakamura (Komazawa Univ.) and 2013 Marugame Half runner-up Enock Omwamba (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.).

The domestic women's field includes 2013 National Corporate Half Marathon 2nd-placer Hanae Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei), 2014 Asian Games marathon 4th-placer Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto), 2013 Yokohama International Women's Marathon runner-up Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease), and, going for a second-straight win, Eri Makikawa (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC).

The overseas men's field is strong.  2014 Copenhagen World Half Marathon silver medalist Samuel Tsegaye (Eritrea), 2013 Lisbon Half winner Bernard Koech (Kenya) and last year's winner Martin Mathathi (Suzuki Hamamatsu) feature among 4 men with bests under 60 minutes.  With a best of 1:08, Shalane Flanagan (U.S.A.) tops the women's list alongside 2013 Honolulu Marathon winner Ehitu Kiros (Ethiopia).

Kagawa natives on the list include 2015 Hakone Ekiden First Stage runner Shinichiro Nakamura (Waseda Univ.) and Yuki Kiyama (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) along with Akane Sekino (Imabari Zosen) who represented Kagawa at the Jan. 11 National Women's Ekiden.

This year's race will also features an elementary school ekiden the day before the half marathon.  As usual, last-minute entries for all divisions except the elementary school ekiden will be accepted from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the race stage grounds.  For more information contact the Marugame Civic Sports Center office at 0877-24-6274.

69th Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon 
Elite Field Highlights
Marugame, Kagawa, 2/1/15
click here for complete field listing

Women
Shalane Flanagan (U.S.A.) - 1:08:31
Hanae Tanaka (Japan/Daiichi Seimei) - 1:09:18
Ehitu Kiros (Ethiopia) - 1:09:38
Sayo Nomura (Japan/Daiichi Seimei) - 1:10:03
Madoka Ogi (Japan/Juhachi Ginko) - 1:10:11
Eri Hayakawa (Japan/Toto) - 1:10:13
Zivile Balciunaite (Lithuania) - 1:10:23
Misato Horie (Japan/Noritz) - 1:10:26
Eri Makikawa (Japan/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:10:27
Rui Aoyama (Japan/Univ. Ent.) - 1:10:28
Hiroko Shoi (Japan/Denso) - 1:10:48
Azusa Nojiri (Japan/Hiratsuka Lease) - 1:10:53
Aki Odagiri (Japan/Tenmaya) - 1:11:43
Mao Kiyota (Japan/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:11:50
Asami Furuse (Japan/Kyocera) - 1:12:01
Yoko Aizu (Japan/Shiseido) - 1:12:18
Seika Iwamura (Japan/Higo Ginko) - 1:12:30
Yuko Mizuguchi (Japan/Denso) - 1:13:27
Hitomi Nakamura (Japan/Panasonic) - 1:13:50
Yuki Suganuma (Japan/Smiley Angel AC) - 1:13:56
Eloise Wellings (Australia) - debut - 31:41.31 for 10000 m
Yuka Ando (Japan/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - debut - 32:24.00 for 10000 m
Kaho Tanaka (Japan/Daiichi Seimei) - debut - 32:24.73 for 10000 m
Kanayo Miyata (Japan/Yutaka Giken) - debut - 32:51.00 for 10000 m
Akane Sekino (Japan/Imabari Zosen) - debut - 32:53.44 for 10000 m

Men
Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 58:56a
Bernard Koech (Kenya) - 59:10
Samuel Tsegaye (Eritrea) - 59:21
Fabiano Joseph (Tanzania) - 59:56
Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Aichi Seiko) - 1:00:32
Benjamin Ngandu (Kenya/Monteroza) - 1:01:06
Enock Omwamba (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:15
Masato Kikuchi (Japan/Konica Minolta) - 1:01:17
Juan Luis Barrios (Mexico) - 1:01:21
Arata Fujiwara (Japan/Miki House) - 1:01:34
Hiroto Inoue (Japan/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:39
Keita Shitara (Japan/Konica Minolta) - 1:01:45
Yuta Igarashi (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:01:46
Yuta Shitara (Japan/Honda) - 1:01:48
Yuichiro Ogawa (Japan/NTN) - 1:01:53
Shogo Nakamura (Japan/Komazawa Univ.) - 1:01:57
Kazuyoshi Shimozato (Japan/Komori Corp.) - 1:02:00
Yoshihiro Yamamoto (Japan/NTN) - 1:02:03
Edward Waweru (Japan/NTN) - 1:02:08
Kenta Iinuma (Japan/SGH Group) - 1:02:09
Masamichi Yasuda (Japan/Aichi Seiko) - 1:02:10
Tomohiro Shiiya (Japan/Toyota Boshoku) - 1:02:15
Yukihiro Kitaoka (Japan/NTN) - 1:02:17
Yoshihiro Wakamatsu (Japan/Nissin Shokuhin) - 1:02:17
Shuho Dairokuno (Japan/Meiji Univ.) - 1:02:19
Chiharu Takada (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:22
Toshikatsu Ebina (Japan/Komori Corp.) - 1:02:23
Takeshi Kumamoto (Japan/Toyota) - 1:02:27
Soichiro Nakamura (Japan/Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:30
Keita Baba (Japan/Honda) - 1:02:34
Charles Wanjohi (Kenya) - 1:02:34
Takahiro Aso (Japan/Aisan Kogyo) - 1:02:36
Hideaki Tamura (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:37
Natsuki Terada (Japan/JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:37
Kazuaki Iwami (Japan/Kyudenko) - 1:02:38
Yohei Nishiyama (Japan/Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:02:38
Keisuke Tanaka (Japan/Fujitsu) - 1:02:38
Yoshitaka Iwamizu (Japan/Shiseido) - 1:02:39
Wataru Ueno (Japan/Honda) - 1:02:39
Kenta Kitazawa (Japan/Yachiyo Kogyo) - 1:02:40
Naohiro Yamada (Japan/YKK) - 1:02:40
Hikaru Fujii (Japan/Aisan Kogyo) - 1:02:41
Daichi Kamino (Japan/Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:42
Kosuke Murasashi (Japan/YKK) - 1:02:46
Melaku Abera (Ethiopia/Kurosaki Harima) - 1:02:47
Ryosuke Fukuyama (Japan/Honda) - 1:02:49
Takuya Noguchi (Japan/Konica Minolta) - 1:02:50
Shota Inoue (Japan/Toyota) - 1:02:51
Ryotaro Otani (Japan/Toyota Boshoku) - 1:02:51
Masahiro Miura (Japan/Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:52
Shinichiro Tai (Japan/Fujitsu) - 1:02:54
Shoya Okuno (Japan/Nittai Univ.) - 1:02:56
Takeshi Makabe (Japan/Kurosaki Harima) - 1:02:58
Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/NTN) - 1:03:32
Akinobu Murasawa (Japan/Nissin Shokuhin) - debut - 59:08 for 20 km
Paul Kuira (Kenya/Konica Minolta) - debut - 27:40.43 for 10000 m
Ken Yokote (Japan/Meiji Univ.) - debut - 28:38.73 for 10000 m
Zane Robertson (New Zealand) - debut - 13:13.83 for 5000 m

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive