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Big marathon debuts in Tokyo on Sunday

Posted February 16th, 2007 at 12:00 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Some of the world’s oldest and most important marathons are held in Japan, like the Fukuoka Marathon which was held for the 60th time last September and featured a blazing run by Haile Gebrselassie.

But that race had a only 303 finishers, and is emblematic of the elitist status which marathons occupy in Japan. In fact, there are no large mass marathons in Japan. The largest, known to Race Results Weekly, is the Tsukuba Marathon which had 9708 finishers last year, roughly one fourth the total finishers of the ING New York City Marathon, the world’s largest with 37,866 in 2006. The largest marathon in the world in terms of Japanese participants is not in Japan, but rather in the United States. The Honolulu Marathon had 17,905 entrants from Japan in 2006 out of a total of 28,635.

But all of that will change on Sunday as the Tokyo Marathon for 2007 will, for the first time, permit recreational runners to enter.

In fact, some 25,000 runners (plus another 5000 in a 10-K) have signed up to run the 42.195 km on a new point-to-point course which loses a total of about 30m from start at the Tokyo Metropolitan Main Building to finish at the Tokyo “Big Site.” Most of the elevation loss occurs in the first 8 km, so the first 5-K and 10-K splits should be fast.

The event will maintain its traditional men’s elite field, and Kenyans Sammy Korir and Daniel Njenga are the top entrants. It will be broadcast live on the Fuji Television Network, and is organized jointly by the Japan Association of Athletics Federations and the Metropolitan Government. The course was designed to showcase the city.

Technically, It will be the 28th running of this event and it serves as a selection race for the Japanese team for the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Osaka. The first Japanese finisher, provided he runs sub-2:09:30, will get an automatic berth on the team.

Vanessa said:

Naha Marathon is the biggest open full-marathon race in Japan. It’s held in Okinawa annually. The Naha Marathon is known as the “Festival of Sun, Ocean, and Joggers” according to the Naha Marathon Association and originally started in 1985. They even proclaim it to be one of the premier events of Japan, and it certainly seems worthy of that proclamation. The original idea for the marathon was to commemorate the 25 year bond between Naha and Honolulu as they have long considered themselves ’sister cities’.

The marathon provides an annual renewal and reminder of the strong intent to foster domestic and international interaction between the people of Okinawa and the rest of the world. The course is a full 42.195km long and covers almost the entire southern area of Okinawa stretching from Naha’s central district over the majestic Naha Span bridge and all the way past such famous sites as Peace Prayer Park, and the Gokyusendo caves until finally winding its way back into the heart of downtown Naha and concluding at the beautiful Onoyama Park.

The 2005 race had 22,806 registrations and 14,882 finishers!

2006 marked the 22nd running of the race. More than 21,000 runners entered the marathon, and a record 71.79%, 15,108, finished the grueling run from Asahibashi along Highway 58, then winding around the island before finishing at Onoyama Park.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:13 am