Skip to main content

Nittai Univ. First-Year Hattori Wins Moriya Half in Debut

by Brett Larner

Nittai University's star first-year Shota Hattori, 2nd on the Third Stage of last month's Hakone Ekiden behind Kenyan Cosmas Ondiba (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.), won the 27th Moriya Half Marathon on Feb. 6 in his debut over the half marathon distance. In a last kick sprint finish Hattori prevailed over Chuo Gakuin University captain Koji Kobayashi and Hattori's teammate Takumi Honda by one second to win in 1:03:54. With mostly university runners in the front end of the field, the top corporate runner was 2:08:56 marathoner Kazutoshi Takatsuka (Team Komori Corp.), 6th in 1:05:09. Nittai runners Hidemi Sakurai and Yasuha Kurita went 1-2 in the women's race.

2011 Moriya Half Marathon
click here for complete results
Men
1. Shota Hattori (Nittai Univ.) - 1:03:54 - debut
2. Koji Kobayashi (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:55
3. Takumi Honda (Nittai Univ.) - 1:03:56
4. Tomohiro Hayakawa (Nittai Univ.) - 1:04:02 - PB
5. Ataru Otani (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:02 - PB
6. Kazutoshi Takatsuka (Team Komori Corp.) - 1:05:09
7. Yukihito Tsukamoto (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:25
8. Tomoya Suzuki (Nittai Univ.) - 1:05:46
9. Yuya Takayanagi (Nittai Univ.) - 1:05:51
10. Shigetoshi Ota (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:53

Women
1. Hidemi Sakurai (Nittai Univ.) - 1:15:48
2. Yasuha Kurita (Nittai Univ.) - 1:16:48
3. Honami Shinozuka (Nagareyama Minami H.S.) - 1:19:22

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

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

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