Skip to main content

Win a Japanese National Team Singlet in JRN's World Championships Marathon Prediction Contest

Japanese marathoners have won individual medals at every World Championships marathon since 1991 except for 1995. The members of this year's national team are extremely motivated to continue this legacy after the debacle at last summer's Beijing Olympics marathons, and there are realistic prospects.

To show its support JRN is holding a World Championships marathon prediction contest with the grand prize of a 2009 World Championships Japanese national team singlet. To enter, send an email with the subject line 'Marathon prediction contest' to the address in Brett Larner's user profile. Copy and paste the list of Japanese athletes below into the body of the message and fill in your prediction for each runner's overall finishing place and time including seconds. List 'DNS' for any runner you think will not start, including the alternates. List 'DNF' for any athlete you think will start but not finish. You must fill out both the men's and women's listings to be elligible for the grand prize. Entries must be received by 4:00 p.m. on Sat., Aug. 22nd Japan time to be considered. Late, incomplete or multiple entries will not be accepted.

The entry with the most accurate predictions for both the men's and women's marathons will win the grand prize. Runners-up, i.e. the entrants who give the most accurate predictions in either race, will also receive quality schwag. Winners will be notified via email.



Men's Marathon
Arata Fujiwara - place: / time:
Satoshi Irifune - place: / time:
Kazuhiro Maeda - place: / time:
Atsushi Sato - place: / time:
Masaya Shimizu - place: / time:
(alternate: Kensuke Takahashi - place: /
time: )

Women's Marathon
Yukiko Akaba - place: / time:
Yoshiko Fujinaga - place: / time:
Yuri Kano - place: / time:
Yoshimi Ozaki - place: / time:



Below is a quick guide to the Japanese marathon teams at this year's World Championships. The first column shows each athlete's fastest marathon time within the World Championships qualification window of Sept. 3, 2007 to Aug. 3, 2009. The second column shows his or her slowest time in a serious race effort during the same period. The third column shows the runner's lifetime best. Click here for a more detailed preview of the men's team, or here for a profile of the women's team. You can also search this blog for more info on a particular athlete. Click here for complete entry lists for the World Championships marathons. Good luck.

Labels:

Comments

Kevin said…
I think akaba will be the top japanese finisher cause of her impressive half marathon pb. This what I think
Akaba 7th place 2:25:25
yoshiko fujingaga 18th 2:28:09
Yuri Kano 11th place 2:26:34
yoshimi Ozaki 10th place 2:26:00
Yoko shibui 16th 2:27:16 I also think shibui will run wth the lead pack for 30km but is going to fade badly to 16th place.
August 11, 2009 at 8:05 AM
Brett Larner said…
Kevin--

Please email me your predictions if you want to enter the contest. Remember to include predictions for the men's race.
August 11, 2009 at 9:23 AM
Anonymous said…
Great idea, I´ll definitely take part (although I have no clue what Ozaki has been doing of late)!
Btw how is the combined accuracy of place and time measured and how is a DNS or DNF accounted for ´mathematically´?

Joe
August 11, 2009 at 4:46 PM
Brett Larner said…
Joe--

Essentially, for each runner you will be assigned 10 pts. per place different from the actual finishing place and 1 pt. for each second difference in predicted and actual finishing time. Incorrect DNS or DNF predictions will incur substantial penalties. A perfect prediction will score zero points, and thus the lowest score wins. One person can only win one of the three prizes (overall, men's, women's). In case of a tie the winner will be chosen through a vote by the JRN editorial board.
August 11, 2009 at 5:47 PM
Brett Larner said…
P.S. I will have men's and women's marathon previews up by the end of the week. I'll try to summarize each Japanese runner's recent performances. For more info on Ozaki or anyone else you can use the search function to find all the articles I've had about her.
August 11, 2009 at 5:49 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