Skip to main content

Rikuren Announces Nagoya International Women's Marathon Elite Field (updated)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20090226-OYT1T00793.htm
http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20090227k0000m050029000c.html
http://www.chunichi.co.jp/article/sports/news/CK2009022702000155.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Feb. 26 Rikuren released the names of the elite field for the Mar. 8 Nagoya International Women's Marathon, a selection race for the Berlin World Championships women's marathon team. Eleven women make up the domestic elite field, among them 2007 Tokyo Marathon winner Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) and 2003 Nagoya winner Takami Ominami (Team Toyota Shatai). The five elite foreign women include 2000 Sydney Olympics silver medalist Lidia Simon (Romania) and 2008 Beijing International Marathon winner Xue Bai (China). 303 runners make up the general division.

In addition to Niiya and Ominami, the domestic elite field includes last year's 5th place finisher Chika Horie (Team Aruze) and 7th place finisher Yumi Hirata (Team Shiseido). Making her marathon debut is Hirata's teammate Yoshiko Fujinaga, who came 3rd at this year's Marugame International Half Marathon. Sydney Olympics gold medalist Naoko Takahashi is running in the general division after having retired from professional running last October.

Nagoya is the final race in which domestic runners can earn a guaranteed spot on the five-member Berlin team. Already secure on the team are Tokyo International Women's Marathon winner Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) and Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo). The top Japanese finisher in Nagoya will pick up the third guaranteed spot, while the second Japanese finisher will have a chance of being selected off a fast time.*

A complete listing of the Nagoya International Women's Marathon field is available here.

*Translator's note: The second Japanese in Nagoya will have to beat Osaka runner-up Yukiko Akaba's 2:25:40 to have a chance of being selected for the Berlin team and Tokyo runner-up Yuri Kano's 2:24:27 to be relatively secure.

2009 Nagoya International Women's Marathon Elite Field
Lidia Simon (Romania) - 2:22:54 (Osaka '00)
Xue Bai (China) - 2:23:27 (Xiamen '08)
Takami Ominami (Team Toyota Shatai) - 2:23:43 (Rotterdam '02)
Kiyomi Ogawa (Team Kyocera) - 2:26:02 (Nagoya '05)
Chika Horie (Team Aruze) - 2:26:11 (Hokkaido '02)
Haruko Okamoto (Hyogo T&F Assoc.) - 2:27:01 (Osaka '02)
Ayumi Nakayama (Team Yamada Denki) - 2:28:50 (Osaka '08)
Tabitha Tsatsa (Zimbabwe) - 2:29:20 (Seoul '08)
Yumi Hirata (Team Shiseido) - 2:29:23 (Nagoya '08)
Chihiro Tanaka (Team Daitsu) - 2:29:30 (Nagoya '02)
Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 2:29:48 (Nagoya '06)
Caroline Cheptonui Kilel (Kenya) - 2:30:22 (Venice '03)
Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 2:31:01 (Tokyo '07)
Mika Hikichi (Team Tenmaya) - 2:31:03 (Nagoya '06)
Yuka Ezaki (Team Kyudenko) - 2:31:35 (Osaka '07)
Mika Hikita (Team Aruze) - 2:34:22 (Nagoya '02)
Sally Meyerhoff (U.S.A.) - 2:35:52 (Tempe '09)

Debut Marathoners With Half Marathon PB
Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) - 1:09:29
Kei Terada (Team Tenmaya) - 1:10:53
Aya Manome (Team Shimamura) - 1:10:59
Mayumi Fujita (Team Juhachi Ginko) - 1:11:02
Yoshie Kitomi (Team Hokuren) - 1:13:55
Miki Oka (Team Daihatsu) - 1:14:00
Mizuho Kishi (Team Yamada Denki) - 1:15:02
Sumiko Suzuki (Team Hokuren) - 1:15:02

Comments

Brett Larner said…
Now that the complete field is up I've updated the listings to include PBs.
Anonymous said…
How come Mari Ozaki is not running? I thought she's trying to make the world championship team. And Megumi Seike should run. She learn a lot from mizuki noguchi. She's not gonna be competitive in track races. I think she should run a marathon.
Anonymous said…
This years field sucks!!! I've never heard of these runners. And the past champion like Harumi Hiroyama, Yasuko Hashimoto, and Yurika Nakamura won't return!!! None of these runners deserve to run on the world championship team. Hara has way better form and experience than these runners. None of these runners ran 2:23:48. They'll run 2:29:00 pace.
Anonymous said…
And Kiyoko Shimahara should run Nagoya. There's no point running tokyo if she won't get selected.

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

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters