Skip to main content

Shimokado and Obare Win at Matsue Ladies' Half Marathon

http://www.sankei.com/region/news/160321/rgn1603210010-n1.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On a course through the oldest and most scenic parts of town, the Matsue Ladies' Half Marathon held its 37th running on Mar. 20.  Serving as the National University Women's Half Marathon Championships, Matsue hosted 2363 runners from elementary school students to the corporate leagues to the best of the university circuit.  Local supporters turned out all along the course to cheer on the women whose run welcomes spring back to Matsue every year.

The Matsue Ladies Road Race featured four divisions starting one after another, the half marathon followed by the 3.2 km division, a 1.0 km children's race and the 10 km division.  153 women including 94 university runners were entered in the half marathon.  Taking control of the race after just 3 km, invited athlete Miharu Shimokado (Team Shimamura) won in 1:11:48.  "I was able to make it my own race," she said confidently.  Shimokado used Matsue as a tuneup for next month's Boston Marathon.  Runner-up Misaki Ogata (Matsuyama Univ.) was the top collegiate finisher in 1:11:50, taking the National University title by 3 seconds over teammate Ayumi Uehara.

Kenyan Doricah Obare (Team Hitachi), a regular in Matsue, broke the course record in the 10 km, winning in 32:33.  In both the half marathon and 10 km divisions the cutoff times were extended by 20 minutes, allowing many more amateur runners to take part.  Each of them running her own race and her own pace, they enjoyed the scenic castle and waterside views that Matsue has to offer before sampling nearby Lake Shinji's famous freshwater clams post-race.

37th Matsue Ladies' Half Marathon
Matsue, Shimane, 3/20/16
click here for complete results

Women's Half Marathon
1. Miharu Shimokado (Shimamura) - 1:11:48
2. Misaki Ogata (Matsuyama Univ.) - 1:11:50
3. Ayumi Uehara (Matsuyama Univ.) - 1:11:53
4. Yomogi Akasaka (Meijo Univ.) - 1:11:55
5. Honoka Tanaike (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) - 1:12:21
6. Sakie Arai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 1:12:45
7. Wakana Itsuki (Fukuoka Univ.) - 1:12:49
8. Mizuki Tanimoto (Tenmaya) - 1:13:06
9. Kanade Furuya (Matsuyama Univ.) - 1:13:52
10. Maho Shimizu (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 1:14:42

Women's 10 km
1. Doricah Obare (Kenya/Hitachi) - 32:33 - CR
2. Yuko Kikuchi (Hokuren) - 33:16
3. Rina Kurosawa (Hitachi) - 34:44

Comments

Most-Read This Week

World Championships Medalist Racewalking Coach Mizuho Sakai Recognized With Highest Coaching Honor

The 2023 Mizuno Sports Mentor Awards recognizing excellence in coaching were held Apr. 23 in Tokyo. Toyo University assistant coach and race walking coach Mizuho Sakai was given a gold award, the program's highest honor, and expressed her thanks and joy in a speech at the award ceremony. The coach of 2023 Budapest World Championships men's 35 km race walk bronze medalist Masatora Kawano , Sakai said, "This is an incredible honor and I'm truly grateful. As a child I wanted to be in the sporting world and I've spent my life in that world. My end goal was always to play a supporting role for other athletes, so I'm honored to be recognized in this way." Sakai's husband Toshiyuki Sakai , head coach of Toyo's three-time Hakone Ekiden champion team, attended the awards gala with her and was also introduced to the audience. After bowing he took a seat in front of her and watched with warmth as she received recognition for her outstanding work. The Mizun

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

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