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Chepchirchir, Ito, Kawauchi, Kisorio and Sato Headline Elite Field of 53 at Marugame International Half Marathon

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2012011600713
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/news/120116/oth12011619010032-n1.htm
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/01/16/kiji/K20120116002445470.html
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/region/news/120117/kgw12011702170000-n1.htm
http://www.shikoku-np.co.jp/sports/local/20120117000111

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Jan. 16 the organizers of the 66th Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon, scheduled for Feb. 5, announced the 36 men and 17 women making up this year's elite field.  Headlining the overseas men's field are 58:46 all-time #3 half marathoner Matthew Kisorio (Kenya) and course record holder Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya).  The top domestic draws in the men's race are national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and Olympic hopeful Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) in his final tuneup for the Tokyo Marathon.  Two-time World Championships marathoner Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo) will also run, and 2012 Hakone Ekiden top four Toyo University, Komazawa University, Meiji University and Waseda University will all send members of this year's teams.

1:08:07 half marathoner Sarah Chepchirchir (Kenya) leads the overseas women's field, along with Ethiopian Tiki Gelana.  2011 World Championships marathoner Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), 2009 World Championships marathoner Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) and Kagawa natives Yuka Izumi (Team Tenmaya) and Kumi Ogura (Team Shikoku Denryoku) top the women's race.   Making a return from giving birth to her first baby, marathoner Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) will also line up, and 2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon winner Yuri Kano (Team Shiseido) is entered in the women's general division.  11025 people are entered for the half marathon, with entrants in the 3 km and 1 km races swelling the total numbers to 12384.

2012 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon Elite Field Highlights
Marugame, Kagawa, 2/5/12
click here for complete elite field listing

Women
Sarah Chepchirchir (Kenya) - 1:08:07
Yuri Kano (Team Shiseido) - 1:08:57
Yoshiko Fujinaga (Team Shiseido) - 1:09:29
Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) - 1:09:33
Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) - 1:09:54
Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:10:03
Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia) - 1:10:22
Kaoru Nagao (Team Univ. Ent.) - 1:10:45
Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) - 1:10:51
Shino Saito (Team Shimamura) - 1:10:51
Yuka Izumi (Team Tenmaya) - 1:10:58
Yui Sakai (Team Shiseido) - 1:11:05
Sung-Eun Kim (Korea) - 1:11:34
Shoko Mori (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:11:41
Rika Shintaku (Team Shimamura) - 1:11:49
Sayo Nomura (Meijo Univ.) - 1:11:54
Chiharu Matsuo (Team Kyudenko) - 1:12:00
Misato Horie (Team Noritz) - 1:12:16
Kumi Ogura (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 1:12:21
Eriko Noguchi (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:12:44
Ho-Sun Park (Korea) - 1:12:58
Margarita Plaksina (Russia) - 2:27:07 (marathon)

Men
Matthew Kisorio (Kenya) - 58:46
Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya) - 59:48
Atsushi Sato (Teak Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:00:25
Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) - 1:00:32
James Mwangi (Kenya/Team NTN) - 1:00:34
Alistair Cragg (Ireland) - 1:00:49
Daniel Gitau (Kenya/Team Konica Minolta) - 1:01:08
Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo) - 1:01:36
Kenta Oshima (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 1:01:48
Rachid Kisri (Morocco) - 1:01:52
Yuko Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:01:53
Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota) - 1:01:54
Soji Ikeda (Team Yakult) - 1:02:10
Arata Fujiwara (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 1:02:17
Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) - 1:02:17
Keita Kurihara (Team Chudenko) - 1:02:17
Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) - 1:02:20
Munehiro Sugaya (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 1:02:22
Makoto Tobimatsu (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 1:02:26
Cosmas Ondiba (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:27
Chiharu Takata (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:27
Keisuke Nakatani (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:30
Hiromitsu Kakuage (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:34
Ryotaro Nitta (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:02:35
Masaki Shimoju (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:02:35
Masatoshi Kikuchi (Team Fujitsu) - 1:02:36
Satoru Kasuya (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 1:02:40
Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 1:02:40
Takumi Owada (Team Hitachi Cable) - 1:02:40
Tsukasa Morita (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 1:02:42
Seiji Kobayashi (Team Mitsuibishi Juko Nagasaki) - 1:02:44
Shuji Yoshikawa (Team Kyudenko) - 1:02:44
Satoshi Yoshii (Team Sumco) - 1:02:45
Kazuya Deguchi (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:02:46
Daisuke Matsufuji (Team Kanebo) - 1:02:47
Kazuhiko Bando (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 1:02:49
Masanori Kitajima (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 1:02:50
Ryo Matsumoto (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 1:02:50
Shota Yamaguchi (Team Fujitsu) - 1:02:51
Ryo Yamamoto (Team Sagawa Express) - 1:02:51
Yuta Igarashi (Team JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:02:52
Masaki Ito (Kokushikan Univ.) - 1:02:53
Tomoyuki Sato (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:02:53
Hidemi Yokomine (Team Yakult) - 1:02:53
Koji Matsuoka (Team Mazda) - 1:02:55
Yuki Iwai (Team Asahi Kasei) - 1:02:59
Dmytro Baranovskyy (Ukraine) - 2:07:15 (marathon)
Jinhyeok Jeong (Korea) - 2:09:28 (marathon)
Benjamin Gandu (Kenya/Nihon Univ.) - 28:03.43 (10000 m)
Shuhei Yamamoto (Waseda Univ.) - 28:38.15 (10000 m)
Keita Shitara (Toyo Univ.) - 28:46.80 (10000 m)
Hiroyuki Sasaki (Waseda Univ.) - 28:48.47 (10000 m)
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Comments

Kevin said…
It's clear that Yuri Kano won't make the Olympic team. I don't know why she even bother trying running Nagoya.
January 17, 2012 at 1:23 PM
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