Skip to main content

Kawauchi Wins First Running of Nerima Kobushi Half Marathon

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20150329-00000002-minkei-l13
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20150329-00000091-spnannex-spo
http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20150329-OHT1T50062.html
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2015/03/30/kiji/K20150330010080090.html



translated and edited by Brett Larner

The first half marathon to be held in Tokyo's Nerima ward, the Nerima Kobushi Half Marathon went off at 8:00 a.m. on Mar. 29.  Starting at Hikarigaoka Municipal Park, the course offered a tour of the area's major roads before returning to finish at the park.  With more than 90% of the course run on public roads including a section of highway passing through Nerima, the route gave runners the chance to run on roads normally closed to them.

At the opening ceremony Nerima mayor Akio Maekawa gave his support to participants, telling them, "I want to see the results of all the work you put into your running every day and hope that you have fun running this course."  Around 5000 people were entered in the race, with special guests including #1 amateur runner Yuki Kawauchi, former marathon great Mari Tanigawa and comedians Tetsu and Tomo.  Turning in a masterful solo performance, Kawauchi was first across the finish line in 1:05:39.  Still recovering fitness after a long-lasting sprain to his left ankle, Kawauchi said, "Compared to a month ago I'm able to run more now.  I'm back to about 75% of normal."  Even at that level he dropped his nearest competition in Nerima by the 2 km point.  "My result today wasn't bad," he smiled.  "One day at a time."  Kaori Yoshida, 33, won the women's race in 1:16:12.

Earlier in the morning at the U.S.A. at the Texas Relays track meet in Austin, Texas, Kawauchi's fellow Saitama prefecture resident Yoshihide Kiryu (19, Toyo University) ran a wind-assisted time of 9.87 in the men's 100 m.  Kawauchi didn't hear about Kiryu's run until after his own race but was very excited when he heard the time, saying, "He finally did it!  I had no idea."  When told that the wind reading was 3.3 m/s Kawauchi sighed, "Gah!" but sent Kiryu his encouragement, saying, "This will serve as a major stimulus for him.  Even if his time wasn't legal because of the wind, it's really important that he got the experience of running that kind of speed once.  The Asian Games [where Kiryu was a DNS due to injury] are probably an unhappy memory, but I hope that he shines at the Beijing World Championships."
Labels:

Comments

Sylvain Bauge said…
Funny that Kawauchi is called a amateur runner and he's a 2:08 marathoner when some call themselves pro and can't even break 2:20 :)
April 2, 2015 at 11:20 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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 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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more