Skip to main content

Mara Yamauchi and Mekubo Mogusu Win Marugame Half Marathon

by Brett Larner

Mara Yamauchi in Marugame. Click photo to visit Yamauchi's blog.

Japan-resident British runner Mara Yamauchi's strong 2008 continued on into 2009 as scored a resounding victory at the 2009 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon on Feb. 1, running a sixteen-second PB of 1:08:29 on the event's new course to win by almost a minute over her strongest competitor Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC), winner of the 2008 Sapporo and Rock 'n' Roll San Jose half marathons. General division runner Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) rounded out the top three, while Reiko Tosa (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo), running Marugame as a preparation run for her final race at next month's Tokyo Marathon, was a surprise 4th in 1:10:58. Times were fast overall with two women in the top eight besides Yamauchi clocking PBs and another three recording fast debuts.

In the men's race, Marugame record holder Mekubo Mogusu (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) led rival Kenyan student runner Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) through the early stages of the race before easily dispatching him for a perfunctory 1:00:37 win nearly a minute off his 2007 time. Although Mogusu and Gitau said prior to the race that they were targeting 59 minutes, both runners are scheduled to run the Feb. 20 Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon and may have been saving themselves for that race's more competitive field. Mogusu showed continued development as he did not overreact to the pressure of having Gitau tailing him through the first half of the race.

Asian half marathon record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) was a distant 3rd, winning a sprint finish against a dense pack of top Japanese runners, every single one of whom ran a PB. Sato never attempted to lead the pack, tailing the pack leaders throughout the race and then easily outsprinting all with 300 m to go. "I'm in the middle of marathon training," commented Sato afterwards. "I cleared my target for this race, so I'm satisfied. I could feel that I need to work on my stamina, though."

Complete results for the Marugame Half Marathon are available here.

2009 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon Top Finishers
Women
1. Mara Yamauchi (U.K.) - 1:08:29 - PB
2. Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) - 1:09:22
3. Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) - 1:10:24
4. Reiko Tosa (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:10:58
5. Yumi Hirata (Team Shiseido) - 1:11:18 - PB
6. Rieko Sakane (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 1:11:29 - debut
7. Kaori Urata (Team Tenmaya) - 1:11:35 - debut
8. Yoshie Uehashi (Team Toto) - 1:11:39 - PB
9. Miho Notagashira (Team Wacoal) - 1:11:47
10. Rika Shintaku (Team Shimamura) - 1:11:49 - debut

Men
1. Mekubo Mogusu (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:00:37
2. Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) - 1:01:34 - debut
3. Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:02:24
4. Satoru Kitamura (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 1:02:26 - PB
5. Makoto Tobimatsu (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 1:02:26 - PB
6. Tomoaki Bungo (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:02:27 - PB
7. Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 1:02:29 - PB
8. Sota Hoshi (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:30 - PB
9. Yuki Nakamura (Team Kanebo) - 1:02:32 - debut
10. Hideyuki Anzai (Team JAL Ground Service) - 1:02:33 - PB

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Frank Stebner said…
Where can we find full rests for the Marugame Half Marathon?
Frank
Anonymous said…
HOLA BRETT
¿EN QUE POSICION TERMINO NAOKO TAKAHASHI?
GRACIAS
MARCOS
CHILE
Anonymous said…
What the hell! Reiko Tosa has good form. Why don't she run the world championships?
Brett Larner said…
Marco--
Long time no see. Takahashi ran 1:26:18. Her place wasn't counted as she was a guest runner, but she was the 43rd woman to finish. There's a picture of her running here:
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/other/090201/oth0902011813013-n1.htm

I guess she is doing Nagoya next month, also as a guest runner.

Dennis--
Tosa said beforehand she was going to run 1:17, so everybody was surprised by her 1:10. I don't think she's strong enough to make the World Champs team any more, but it looks like she could run 2:27 or so in Tokyo, which seems like a good way to go out.
Brett Larner said…
Frank--

There's a link to results in the article, but the results page is hard to use if you don't read Japanese. When you go to the results page, two links appear in the middle of the page if you scroll down a bit. Choose the upper one. After that you have to input the bib number (1st box - ignore it) or place range (2nd and 3rd boxes, from place A to place B), then chose the division on the right (pro men, pro women, amateur men, amateur women), then click the button and the results, all in Japanese, will come up.
Anonymous said…
Brett, love your blog. Has me very interested in running a marathon in Japan.
I am Canadian and a big fan of Jon Brown. I know he was on the startlist for this race, but I can't decipher the results to find him. Any chance you can pick him out of the results for me?
Many thanks.
Anonymous said…
Maybe this sort of form will maybe convince Tosa to carry on competing. I don't want her to retire!
Frank Stebner said…
Apparently Jon Brown had a not so good day and ran 1:17:48.

Not sure what happened but he was hoping for 1:03.

Frank (also a Jon Brown fan.)
Brett Larner said…
Jon was up front with the pack of guys who ended up around 1:02:30 until about 15km. Looks like the next 5km was pretty rough:

5km: 15:02
10km: 29:47 (14:45)
15km: 44:44 (14:57)
20km: 1:12:29 (27:45) (!)
finish: 1:17:48

I guess he is running in the Chiba Int'l XC meet next week as well. Better luck then.

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Sprinter Shoji Tomihisa Retires From Athletics at 105

A retirement ceremony for local masters track and field legend Shoji Tomihisa , 105, was held May 13 at his usual training ground at Miyoshi Sports Park Field in Miyoshi, Hiroshima. Tomihisa began competing in athletics at age 97, setting a Japanese national record 16.98 for 60 m in the men's 100~104 age group at the 2017 Chugoku Masters Track and Field meet. Last year Tomihisa was the oldest person in Hiroshima selected to run as a torchbearer in the Tokyo Olympics torch relay. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the relay on public roads was canceled, and while he did take part in related ceremonies his run was ultimately canceled. Tomihisa recently took up the shot put, but in light of his fading physical strength he made the decision to retire from competition. Around 30 members of the Shoji Tomihisa Booster Club attended the retirement ceremony. After receiving a bouquet of flowers from them Tomihisa in turn gave them a colored paper placard on which he had written the characters