Skip to main content

Kano, Nishihara Lead Field of 308 at Sanyo Women's Road Race

http://svr.sanyo.oni.co.jp/feature/sports/road/2010/12/01/20101201095337.html

translated by Brett Larner

The organizing committee of the 29th Sanyo Women's Road Race, to be held Dec. 23 in Okayama, have announced the fields for this year's running. 88 women are entered in the Yuko Arimori Cup Half Marathon and 220 in the Kinue Hitomi Cup 10 km, making for the race's largest-ever overall field, 308. A large number of experienced international-level athletes will wrap up their 2010 on Okayama's local streets.

Headlining the half marathon are defending champion Yumi Hirata (Team Shiseido) and 2009 World Championships marathon 7th placer Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC). Locally-based Team Tenmaya will supply Athens Olympics marathoner Naoko Sakamoto, 2010 Berlin Marathon 3rd place finisher Tomo Morimoto and last year's runner-up Kaori Urata. Other top women include Noriko Matsuoka and Kaori Akagawa (both Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), Mika Okunaga (Team Kyudenko) and this year's fastest Japanese woman over the half marathon distance, Yoko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera).

The 10 km is split into two division, with 182 women in the elite division and 38 in the general division. The emphasis in the elite division is on the younger runners. At the top of the high-level field are 2009 World University Games 10000 m gold medalist and 2009 National University 5000 m champion Kasumi Nishihara and 2010 Asian Games 10000 m 5th placer and 10000 m national university record holder Hikari Yoshimoto (both Bukkyo University). Also scheduled to compete are 10000 m national junior record holder and Sendai Ikuei H.S. graduate Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno), 2008 Sanyo runner-up Risa Shigetomo and 2008 Beijing Olympics marathoner Yurika Nakamura (both Team Tenmaya), and 2010 World Half Marathon team member Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera).

Both races will begin at Kanko Stadium. The half marathon is scheduled to start at 10:00 and the 10 km at 10:15.

Translator's note: Nishihara and Yoshimoto's presence, along with that of any other top university women, is a by-product of the cancellation of the National University Women's Invitational Ekiden originally scheduled for the same day. Also expect to see larger than usual fields at the Dec. 25 Nittai University Women's Long Distance Time Trials track meet.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

10000 m National Championships Preview

  Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a

Golden Games in Nobeoka Top Results

  For everyone not running yesterday's 10000 m National Championships , where the Asahi Kasei corporate team dominated the men's race with four out of four men sub-28 including winner Jun Kasai , 27:17.46, the grand dame of Japan's long distance time trial circuit was happening on AK's home ground in Miyazaki at the Golden Games in Nobeoka . Not including kids' races, a total of 74 women and 227 men ran in 14 heats of 5000 m, with a packed-in crowd of fans lining the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons. It's a pretty awesome meet, and memorable performances included: National champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. standout Caroline Kariba continued to kill it in the second month of her corporate league career, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 15:00.95 in a race where 3 out of the top 4 including her ran PBs. National champion Meijo University seemed flat at this point in the season, with none of its people under 16 minutes and star Nanase Tanimoto leading