Noguchi, Takaoka, Fujiwara and Njoroge to Compete in Sendai International Half Marathon (updated)

by Brett Larner

On May 8, the Sendai International Half Marathon released the names of the invited runners for this year`s 18th edition, to be held May 11 in Sendai. Headlining the field are Japanese national marathon record holders Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) and Toshinari Takaoka (Team Kanebo).

Noguchi will be using Sendai as a tune-up for the Beijing Olympics after a spring season which saw her drop out of her other preparatory races after a series of minor setbacks. She is the defending champion, having won last year`s Sendai in a strong 1:08:54, and is also the overwhelming favorite in a somewhat limited women`s field which includes only one other Japanese runner with a PB under 1:10. Her strongest competition will likely come from Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon), a member of Japan`s team at last year`s World Road Running Championships, and Kei Terada (Team Tenmaya), 2nd place finisher at last year`s Universiad Half Marathon Championships. Machida`s teammate Hiroko Shoi also has potential for a good showing.

Takaoka comes to Sendai a month after finishing 16th in the Paris Marathon. The half marathon is the only standard distance from 3000 m to full marathon in which Takaoka has never been the national record holder, but he still holds one of the fastest PBs in the field. He will, however, face a difficult challenge in Sendai from many of the younger runners. Potential winners include defending champion Ombeche Mokamba (Team Aidem), Kenyans Harun Njoroge (Team Komori) and Joseph Mwaniki (Team Konica-Minolta), who finished 1-2 at February`s Marugame Half Marathon, Arata Fujiwara (Team JR East), a half marathon specialist who finished 2nd at February`s Tokyo Marathon, Kazuo Ietani (Team Sanyo Special Steel), the 2nd place finisher at March`s Jitsugyodan Half Marathon Championships, and Masaki Shimojo (Team Konica-Minolta), winner of February`s Kumanichi 30 km Road Race.

Top competitors in Sendai:

Women
Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex), PB: 1:07:43 (2006)
Tomoko Tamamushi (Harriers AC), PB: 1:09:50 (2000)
Nozomi Iijima (Team Sekisui Kagaku), PB: 1:10:40 (2003)
Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon), PB: 1:11:55 (2007)
Hiroko Shoi (Team Nihon ChemiCon), PB: 1:12:22 (2008)
Kei Terada (Team Tenmaya), PB: 1:12:37 (2007)
Seyo Hayakawa (Team Sekisui Kagaku), PB: 1:14:22 (2008)
Chiyuki Mochizuki (Team Yamada Denki), PB: 1:15:26 (2005)
Kozue Saito (Team Sports Yamagata 21), PB: 1:15:34 (2007)
Saori Hieda (Bukkyo University), PB: 1:16:28 (2007)
Megumi Oshima (Team Shimamura), PB (marathon): 2:24:25 (2005)
Mizuho Kishi (Team Yamada Denki), PB (5000 m): 17:42.68

Men
Masatoshi Ibata (Team Aisan Kogyo), PB: 1:00:55 (1996)
Toshinari Takaoka (Team Kanebo), PB: 1:01:07 (2003)
Kazuo Ietani (Team Sanyo Special Steel), PB: 1:01:30 (2001)
Harun Njoroge (Team Komori Corp.), PB: 1:01:35 (2008)
Toshihiro Iwasa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), PB: 1:01:36 (2005)
Joseph Mwaniki (Team Konica-Minolta), PB: 1:01:39 (2008)
Tetsuo Nishikawa (Team YKK), PB: 1:01:48 (2001)
Ombeche Mokamba (Team Aidem), PB: 1:02:29 (2007)
Arata Fujiwara (Team JR East), PB: 1:02:17 (2006)
Seiji Kobayashi (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki), PB: 1:02:44 (2007)
Masaki Shimojo (Team Konica-Minolta), PB (30 km): 1:30:33 (2008)
Hideyuki Obinata (Team Fujitsu), PB (marathon): 2:08:52 (2001)

A complete listing of the inivted athletes for this year's Sendai Half can be found at:

http://www.sendaihalf.com/jp/history/18-2008athletes/

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Morii Surprises With Second-Ever Japanese Sub-2:10 at Boston

With three sub-2:09 Japanese men in the race and good weather conditions by Boston standards the chances were decent that somebody was going to follow 1981 winner Toshihiko Seko 's 2:09:26 and score a sub-2:10 at the Boston Marathon . But nobody thought it was going to be by a 2:14 amateur. Paris Olympic team member Suguru Osako had taken 3rd in Boston in 2:10:28 in his debut seven years ago, and both he and 2:08 runners Kento Otsu and Ryoma Takeuchi were aiming for spots in the top 10, Otsu after having run a 1:01:43 half marathon PB in February and Takeuchi of a 2:08:40 marathon PB at Hofu last December. A high-level amateur with a 2:14:15 PB who scored a trip to Boston after winning a local race in Japan, Yuma Morii told JRN minutes before the start of the race, "I'm not thinking about time at all. I'm going to make top 10, whatever time it takes." Running Boston for the first time Morii took off with a 4:32 on the downhill opening mile, but after that Sis

The Ivy League at the Izumo Ekiden in Review

Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43

Hirabayashi Runs PB at Shanghai Half, WR Holder Nakata Dominates Fuji Five Lakes - Weekend Road Roundup

Returning to the roads after his 2:06:18 win at February's Osaka Marathon, Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin University) took 5th at Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon in a PB 1:01:23, just under a minute behind winner Roncer Kipkorir Konga (Kenya) who clocked a CR 1:00:29. After inexplicably running the equivalent of a sub-59 half marathon to win the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage, Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was back to running performances consistent with his other PBs with a 1:02:30 for 8th. His AGU teammate Kyosuke Hiramatsu was 10th in 1:04:00. Women's winner Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) also set a new CR in 1:09:57. Aoyama Gakuin runners took the top four spots in the men's half marathon at the Aomori Sakura Marathon , with Hakone alternate Kosei Shiraishi getting the win in 1:04:32 and B-team members Shunto Hamakawa and Kei Kitamura 2nd and 3rd in 1:04:45 and 1:04:48. Club runners took the other division titles, Hina Shinozaki winning the women's half

japan running news

Search This Blog