Masako Chiba at the 2003 World Championships (© Getty Images)
Sapporo, JapanThe 2006 Hokkaido Marathon, which doubles as one of the selection races for the Japanese marathon team for the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, is scheduled to be held in the northern metropolis of Sapporo on Sunday 27 August.
WOMEN
The featured runners in the women’s field are three-time defending champion Masako Chiba and Yumiko Hara, who was sixth at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki.
Chiba, who won the bronze medal in both the 1997 World Championships (at 10,000m) in Athens and the 2003 World Championships (at marathon) in Paris, recorded her personal best - 2:21:45 - at the 2003 Osaka Ladies Marathon. Last year Chiba won the Hokkaido Marathon with 2:25:46 and was third in the Chicago Marathon with 2:26:00.
Hara recorded her personal best – 2:24:19 – at her debut marathon, the 2005 Nagoya Women’s Marathon. Five month later in Helsinki, despite starting out with the overly ambitious pace, Hara came within one second of her personal best. She finished sixth. Much is expected of her third marathon of her career.
Another promising young runner in the field is 21-years-old Masami Sakata, a teammate of Hara at Kyocera Track team. After one month of marathon training, Sakata made her marathon debut in the 2006 Osaka Ladies Marathon, where she was fourth in 2:27:13. More recently Sakata was sixth in the Sapporo Half Marathon in July with 1:11:19. Her second marathon is awaited with much anticipation.
Anastasia Ndereba, a younger sister of Catherine, is invited from Kenya. She set her marathon personal best when she won the 2002 Venice marathon in 2:29:03. Anastasia run in the last two Osaka Ladies Marathons. She was ninth in the 2005 edition with 2:30:45 and eighth in the 2006 edition with 2:32:47.
Chiba is not the only past winner in the field. Chika Horie won the 2002 Hokkaido Marathon with the personal best of 2:26:11. More recently she was third in the 2006 Nagoya Women’s Marathon in 2:28:01 in March, and 11th in the Boston Marathon in 2:34:40 five weeks later.
Two other sub-2:30 marathon runners, Eri Hayakawa and Mai Tagami, are in the field. Hayakawa was second in the 2004 Honolulu Marathon in 2:28:11, personal best. She won the 2003 Honolulu Marathon, and was second in 2005 edition. She was fifth in the 2005 Chicago Marathon with 2:28:50. More recently Hayakawa was 10th in the 2006 London Marathon in 2:31:41. Tagami was third in the 2003 Hokkaido Marathon with 2:36:26 and then second in the 2004 edition with 2:29:43, personal best.
MEN
The featured runners in the men’s field are John Kagwe and Eric Wainaina of Kenya. Kagwe, two-time (1997 & 1998) New York City Marathon champion, recorded his personal best of 2:08:12 in the 1997 New York City Marathon. More recently Kagwe was 7th in the 2004 New York Marathon with 2:12:35. Eric Wainaina, two-time Olympic marathon medalist – bronze in 1996 and silver in 2000 – won the 2003 Hokkaido Marathon. He set his personal best, 2:08:43, in the 2002 Tokyo Marathon. More recently Wainaina was 8th in the 2004 Tokyo Marathon with 2:11:03 and 10th in the 2005 Sapporo half marathon with 1:03:00.
Two Japanese in the field, Yukinobu Nakazaki and Tomonori Watanabe, have broken the 2:10 barrier in the marathon. Nakazaki, who set his personal best, 2:09:28, in the 2004 Tokyo marathon, was second in the 2003 Hokkaido Marathon. More recently Nakazaki was third in the 2005 Beijing Marathon with 2:12:29. The defending Hokkaido marathon champion Tomonori Watanabe set his personal best of 2:09:40 in the 1999 Hofu Marathon. Last year, besides winning the Hokkaido Marathon in 2:14:50, Watanabe was 12th in the 2005 Lake Biwa marathon with 2:13:25.
The 2003 national 10,000m champion Toshihiro Iwasa is expected one day to be the premier marathon runner in Japan. However, he has yet to break the 2:10 barrier. His personal best is only 2:10:17, the time he recorded when he was sixth in the 2002 Lake Biwa Marathon. More recently Iwasa was third in the 2005 JPN Corporate team Half Marathon Championships with 1:01:36. His breakthrough marathon is long overdue.
Ken Nakamura for the IAAF
Invited Runners
Name/Personal Best
Men
John Kagwe (KEN) 2:08:12
Eric Wainaina (KEN) 2:08:43
David Kariuki (KEN) 2:16:09
Japanese
Yukinobu Nakazaki 2:09:28
Yoshimasa Kunitake 2:12:24
Tadayuki Tsutsumi 2:10:53
Kodai Fukunaga 2:13:09
Yusuke Kataoka 2:13:09
Tomonori Watanabe 2:09:40
Akihiro Oshikiri 2:15:09
Toshihiro Iwasa 2:10:17
Terumasa Okamura 1:02:19 half Marathon
Women
Anastasia Ndereba (KEN) 2:29:03
Fatima Cabral (POR) 2:33:02
Japanese
Yumiko Hara 2:24:19
Masako Chiba 2:21:45
Masami Sakata 2:27:13
Chika Horie 2:26:11
Eri Hayakawa 2:28:11
Mai Tagami 2:29:43
Aki Negoro 2:33:40
Hitomi Koike 2:38:47
Kaori Yoshida 1:10:18 half marathon
Sachiyo Yamada 1:12:48 half marathon
Tomoko Shimokawa 1:12:28 half marathon
