Skip to main content

Sakai Over Tanigawa in 1:02:54 for Tamana Half Win

http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20150309k0000m050030000c.html

translated by Brett Larner

At the 66th Kanaguri Hai Tamana Half Marathon on Mar. 8 starting and finishing in front of Tamana City Hall in Kumamoto, invited athlete Koichi Sakai (Team Fujitsu) scored his first win in 1:02:54.  Just 4 seconds back in 2nd was Tomohiro Tanigawa (Team Konica Minolta), with Keijiro Mogi (Team Asahi Kasei) 3rd.  Still recovering from an injury to his left calf two weeks ago, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) was 24th in 1:06:37.

Sakai won the race with an early move.  "I don't have much speed, so if it comes down to a last kick I can't win," he said of the surge he threw in at 17 km to pull away from the seven-man lead pack and open a 4-second lead over Tanigawa.  With a thick and chunky build unusual for a distance runner, the 28-year-old Sakai has had success as a road racer ever since his days at Komazawa University.  Sakai was not one of Fujitsu's starting members for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national championships, but in today's race, he said, "I was in good shape."  Sakai's next race is April's Nagano Marathon where he is targeting his PB of 2:14:29.

Kawauchi commented, "I lost touch with the lead group in the first half.  The last part was decent, but my overall time wasn't as good as I expected so I need to rethink my goals for next week's Seoul International Marathon."

66th Kanaguri Hai Tamana Half Marathon
Tamana, Kumamoto, 3/8/15
click here for complete results

Men's Half Marathon
1. Koichi Sakai (Team Fujitsu) - 1:02:54
2. Tomohiro Tanigawa (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:02:58
3. Keijiro Mogi (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:03:11
4. Kazuki Iwanaga (Team Kyudenko) - 1:03:22
5. Kento Otsu (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 1:03:29
-----
24. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:06:37

Women's Half Marathon
1. Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) - 1:17:01

Women's 10 km
1. Erika Ikeda (Team Higo Ginko) - 33:20
2. Kyoka Nakagawa (Kumamoto Shinai Joshi Gakuin H.S.) - 33:25
3. Rina Yamashita (Oita Tomei H.S.) - 33:44
4. Yuka Koga (Juhachi Ginko) - 34:04
5. Haruna Maekawa (Juhachi Ginko) - 34:11

High School Boys' 10 km
1. Yuma Eda (Kokura H.S.) - 30:17
2. Yusuke Baba (Kuma Kogyo H.S.) - 30:17
3. Takeshi Nishida (Fukuoka Kogyo H.S.) - 30:18
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Fujitsu and Toyoda Issue Statement on Circumstances of His Two-Year Suspension for Trenbolone

  Following 400 m hurdler Masaki Toyoda 's suspension for a violation of anti-doping regulations , the Fujitsu corporate team published a statement on its website, including comments from Toyoda's legal team , explaining the ruling and the circumstances surrounding the case. Toyoda was a member of the 2019 Doha World Championships team and holds a best of 48.87. Early in the morning of May 19, 2022, the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) conducted a doping test of Toyoda. The prohibited substance trenbolone was detected in urine taken during the test, resulting in a two-year suspension that began May 21, 2022. He did not compete at the National Track and Field Championships the next month. The amount of trenbolone detected in Toyoda's urine sample was 1.4 ng/ml, well below the minimum analytical precision of 2.5 ng/ml required by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for analytical equipment. As a general rule, if a non-specified prohibited substance such as trenbolone is dete
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more

“The Miracle in Fukuoka” - Real Talk From Yuki Kawauchi on “Taking on the World” (part 1)

http://sports.yahoo.co.jp/column/detail/201701120002-spnavi translated by Brett Larner Ahead of his nomination to the London World Championships Marathon team, Sportsnavi published a three-part series of writings by Yuki Kawauchi on what it took for him to make the team, his hopes for London, and his views on the future of Japanese marathoning.  With his place on the London team announced on Mar. 17 , JRN will publish an English translation of the complete series over the next three days. See Sportsnavi's original version linked above for more photos. Click here for part two, " Bringing All My Experience Into Play in London ," or here for part three, " The Lessons of the Past Are Not 'Outdated.' " The Fukuoka International Marathon was held on Dec. 4 last year. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov’t) took part despite nursing injuries he had sustained in training. Falling rain contributed to less than ideal conditions during the race, but from th
6 comments
Read more