Skip to main content

37-Year-Old Mother of Three Sakamoto Becomes First-Ever Japanese Winner of Osaka Marathon

by Brett Larner

One of the ten biggest marathons in the world, the Osaka Marathon celebrated its first-ever Japanese winner this year.


The Osaka women's race was a one-woman show the whole way.  Amateur runner Yoshiko Sakamoto (Y.W.C.) a 37-year-old mother of three and former high school star who took up marathons at age 32 after not running for more than 10 years, went it alone from the gun.  35 seconds ahead of #1-ranked Nurit Yimam (Ethiopia) at 5 km, Sakamoto fearlessly pushed her pace under 2:30 by 15 km and stretched her lead to almost four minutes as Yimam and top club runner Yumiko Kinoshita (SWAC) held steady to 2:35~36 pace.  With a best of 2:36:29 Sakamoto was bound to pay for it, and after halfway she began to slow.  "After 33 km it felt like my right hamstring was going to cramp up," she told JRN after the race.  By 40 km she was barely clearing 4:00/km.

Behind her Yimam had dropped out, but Kinoshita was closing.  Kinoshita covered the 5 km from 35 to 40 km over a minute faster than Sakamoto, but with enough of a lead and the self-control to push it again after 40 km Sakamoto held on. "Right until the end I was trying to win, so I never gave up," she told JRN.   "I just kept pushing forward and forward."  Sakamoto crossed the finish line in 2:36:02, a new PB that made her the first Japanese runner male or female to win the Osaka Marathon. After a 2016 that saw her sit out January's Osaka International Women's Marathon when her children caught the flu, sit out February's Tokyo Marathon when she caught it from them,  DNF in freezing rain at April's Zurich Marathon, then rally with a 4th place finish at June's Jilin Marathon and 2nd at September's Muenster Marathon with support from JRN, her win was a perfect cap to Sakamoto's year.


2015 Osaka men's winner Daniel Kosgei (Kenya) led a sizable men7s lead pack through 5 km in a leisurely 16:03, mid-2:15 pace, before picking it up toward 2:12 territory.  Kosgei stayed in front at that pace through halfway before 2012 Osaka winner Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/Team NTN) went to the front.  Bat-Ochir kept control for over 10 km, the pack dwindling even as the pace slowed until Tokyo-based Benjamin Ngandu (Kenya/Monteroza) took over.

With a sub-2:10 best in Tokyo last year ranking him alongside Bat-Ochir as the favorite for the win Ngandu turned it on, dropping first Bat-Ochir, then last year's runner-up Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), and finally 2:12 man Hiroki Yamagishi (GMO Athletes) to score his first career marathon win in 2:12:47.  A graduate of Nihon University, Ngandu's sponsor Monteroza recently announced that it will disband its athletics team in the spring.  Breaking Osaka's 2:11:43 course record would have gone a long way to helping Ngandu stay in Japan, leading him to show obvious disappointment as he crossed the finish line.  "Next year there won't be a Monteroza," Ngandu said post-race.  "Please keep cheering for me and supporting me!"

6th Osaka Marathon
Osaka, 10/30/16
official results coming shortly

Men
1. Benjamin Ngandu (Kenya/Monteroza) - 2:12:47
2. Hiroki Yamagishi (GMO Athletes) - 2:12:59
3. Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:13:35
4. Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/NTN) - 2:13:43
5. Sora Tsukada (SGH Group) - 2:15:16 - PB
6. Yasuyuki Nakamura (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:15:32
7. Koshi Watanabe (Subaru) - 2:15:36 - PB
8. Sho Matsumoto (Nikkei Business Service) - 2:15:50
9. Yosuke Chida (Hitachi Butsuryu) - 2:17:05 - PB
10. Brandon Mull (U.S.A.) - 2:18:14
-----
18. Daniel Kosgei (Kenya) - 2:27:57

Women
1. Yoshiko Sakamoto (Yokkaichi Wellness Club) - 2:36:02 - PB
2. Yumiko Kinoshita (SWAC) - 2:37:03
3. Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) - 2:38:00
4. Mitsuko Iino (Running Team R2) - 2:44:00
5. Mayumi Uchiyama (Nitori) - 2:45:06
6. Shiho Satonaka (Running Team R2) - 2:47:22 - PB
7. Tomomi Matsuoka (Run Friends) - 2:47:29
8. Tomoko Horioka (Osaka Nittai Univ.) - 2:49:06 - PB
9. Mina Ogawa (Puma RC) - 2:49:32
10. Ai Ogo (Himeji T&F Assoc.) - 2:50:09
-----
DNF - Nurit Yimam (Ethiopia)

© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved
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