Skip to main content

Confirming Olympic Marathon Target, Kinukawa to Run Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2011120100706

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Having doubled in the 5000 m and 10000 m at the summer's Daegu World Championships, 5000 m national champion and 10000 m junior national record holder Megumi Kinukawa (22, Team Mizuno) confirmed Dec. 1 that the marathon is her target for the London Olympics.  Kinukawa will run the Dec. 4 Shanghai International Half Marathon, and if her result is good she will race one of the two remaining domestic Olympic selection marathons, either January's Osaka International Women's Marathon or March's Nagoya Women's Marathon.

Kinukawa ran the 10000 m at the 2007 Osaka World Championships while still a student at Sendai Ikuei High School.  After that she suffered a long absence from the sport, but this year she returned to win the National Championships 5000 m.  Her coach from the beginning, Takao Watanabe, commented, "In Shanghai we're going to see once and for all whether or not she is cut out for the marathon."

Translator's note: Despite the outstanding late-spring comeback that saw Kinukawa win the 5000 m at Nationals in a year-leading 15:09.96 and go on to clock 31:10.02, she ran poorly at the World Championships.  Since then she has won the amateur-level Amsterdam Half Marathon and, most recently the 5000 m B-heat at the Nittai University Time Trials.

Comments

Kevin said…
Who is running Osaka Ladies Marathon? Are they running to just record their pb instead of trying to make the olympics? All of theJapanese women's marathoners didn't make 08 team except Nakamura. Looks like Japanese runners give up trying to make the olympics. Only Yurika Nakamura finished the olympic marathon.
Brett Larner said…
They don't usually announce the Osaka Int'l field until after the ekiden champs. Those are on the 18th this year. I'm sure that if any top woman ran a PB in Osaka she would be doing it while trying for the Olympic team.

Most-Read This Week

10000 m National Championships Preview

  Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a

Golden Games in Nobeoka Top Results

  For everyone not running yesterday's 10000 m National Championships , where the Asahi Kasei corporate team dominated the men's race with four out of four men sub-28 including winner Jun Kasai , 27:17.46, the grand dame of Japan's long distance time trial circuit was happening on AK's home ground in Miyazaki at the Golden Games in Nobeoka . Not including kids' races, a total of 74 women and 227 men ran in 14 heats of 5000 m, with a packed-in crowd of fans lining the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons. It's a pretty awesome meet, and memorable performances included: National champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. standout Caroline Kariba continued to kill it in the second month of her corporate league career, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 15:00.95 in a race where 3 out of the top 4 including her ran PBs. National champion Meijo University seemed flat at this point in the season, with none of its people under 16 minutes and star Nanase Tanimoto leading