japan running news

by Brett Larner In its third running the Naoko Takahashi Cup Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon continues to take over from the Sendai International Half Marathon as Japan's premier late-spring half.  This year organizers have set up a pair of great duels among their overseas elites. On the men's side, world record holder Zersenay Tadese  (Eritrea) faces course record holder Martin Mathathi  (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) in a rematch of the 2007 Osaka World Championships 10000 m, where Tadese led most of the race until a surge from Mathathi, who ended up with bronze, knocked him out of the medals.  Other top international competition includes three-time Sapporo International Half Marathon winner Cyrus Njui  (Kenya/Team Hitachi Seiryu), Japan-based Kenyans Jacob Wanjuki (Team Aichi Seiko) and Micah Njeru  (Team Toyota Boshoku), 2005 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Dmytro Baranovskyy  (Ukraine) and American Ryan Vail . Seven sub-63 Japanese men are sch...

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0002533364.shtml http://www.47news.jp/CN/200911/CN2009112201000157.html http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/other/091122/oth0911221928033-n1.htm http://www.pjnews.net/news/291/20091122_10 translated and edited by Brett Larner At the 2009 Kobe National Women's Half Marathon on Nov. 22, Misato Horie (Team Noritz) took her first win on the Rikuren-certified 21.0975 km course from Kobe's Nagisa Park to Kobe Harborland, running a time of 1:13:09. Manami Takemori (Team Sysmex) was 2nd in 1:13:54, with Kaori Yoshida (Amino Vital AC) 3rd and Satoko Uetani (Kobe Gakuin Univ.) 4th. The four women set out together in a pack from the start and stayed together through 15 km. By 17 km Horie had pulled ahead and kept her lead all the way to the finish. A native of Kobe, Horie attended Seiryo High School and Mukogawa Women's University before joining Team Noritz last spring. Along the course she saw many friends and former teachers who turned out to cheer ...