Skip to main content

Nagoya to Become World's Largest Women-Only Marathon in 2012

http://www.chunichi.co.jp/s/article/2010083190225214.html
http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2010083100992

translated and edited by Brett Larner

A key selection race for Olympic and World Championships teams held each March, the Nagoya International Women's Marathon will from 2012 abandon its traditional elite-only format in favor of a mass-participation format. The new race, tentatively titled the Nagoya Women's Marathon, will be open to women only and, with a field limit of 10,000, is expected to become the world's largest women-only full marathon. Designed for both elites and amateurs, the new race will have a cutoff time of 7 hours.

Along with the change in format, November's Nagoya City Half Marathon will change dates following this year's running to become incorporated into the new event along with 10 km and 4 km races to allow both men and women, adults and children to take part. The total number of runners in the race weekend is expected to exceed 30,000. The first edition of the new event will take place on Mar. 11, 2012.

The course for the new event is still in planning but will include many of the major roads through Nagoya. Sponsors will include many large, locally-based corporations. At a press conference on Aug. 31 Aichi Athletics Association director Yukio Toyama commented, "We are expanding our base to include amateur runners in order to become a race which makes a contribution to running as a lifelong pursuit for everyone." Organizers hope to make the Nagoya Women's Marathon into an event with the highest international standards.

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

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr