Boulder Wave athlete, Eri Okubo (Second Wave AC/Mizuno) made the January 2012 cover of Japan’s “Runner’s Magazine.” Eri had the cover shot taken after her 2:28 PB at the Berlin Marathon this autumn.
Boulder Wave Articles
Yoshimi Ozaki, Daiichi Life Insurance Team Win Japan’s National Ekiden Championship!
Daiichi Life Insurance, coached by 1991 world championships silver medalist Sachiko Yamashita, won yesterday’s All-Japan Women’s Corporate Ekiden Championship, far and away the biggest team event on the Japanese running calendar. With Yoshimi Ozaki (adidas) setting the pace with a 22:17 effort in the opening 7K leg. Daiichi became the first team in 17 years to lead from start to finish and win for the first time since 2002. Yuriko Kobayashi (Mizuno) also had a brilliant run in the second leg for her Toyota club, passing nine athletes in the 3.9K second leg. kayoko Fukushi (adidas) was 3rd in 36:00 in the 10.9K third leg.
In the final team standings, it was a clean sweep of the top three places by teams Boulder Wave assisted this year with altitude training camps in Boulder. Behind Daiichi was Panasonic in 2nd and Sekisui Chemicals in 3rd. Wacoal (6th) and Universal Entertainment (10th) were two more top-ten clubs who hired us for their summer training camps.
Click here for a link to the IAAF article on yesterday’s race, including a photo of Yoshimi Ozaki.
Recovering from earthquake and tsunami, Sendai stages Ekiden Championships
European Cross Country Champs: Florea 14th in the junior’s race and Frumuz 15th in the seniors race
Velenje, a city located in northern Slovenia, was the host of the European Cross Country Championships on Sunday. The competition included 6 races, juniors, U23 and Seniors, males and females. The adidas Boulder Wave team had 2 runners selected for this competition, Florea Madalina ran in the junior’s race and Frumuz Cristiana in the senior’s race.
Running in decent weather conditions and a not-too-challenging course Florea Madalina managed to finish 14th out of 93 runners, placing second for Romania after Ioana Doaga’s second place finish and silver medal. Romania finished 4th in the team rankings with Bunea Anca (23) and Panaet Elena (36), behind Germany, Russia and winner, Great Britain. The individual title was won by Great Britain’s Emelia Gorecka.
Cristiana Frumuz ran a great race finishing 15th in the women senior’s race, the second runner to finish for Romania after Barca Roxana’s 7th place. Together with Cristiana Casandra (25) and Bobocel Ancuta (41) Romania finished 5th in the team standings. The individual title went to Irland’s Fionnuala Britton, while the team title went to Great Britain. Full results. Race Video. Race Photos.
At the end of the competition Cristiana Frumuz happily said, “…I’m extremely satisfied with my performance today, it certainly means something, but on the other hand I feel very sorry for not getting a medal with the team. However, I hope next year we will be on the medal stand.”
Edna Kiplagat Takes 2nd in JCL Montferland 15K
Edna at the pre-race photo op (Photo courtesy of Montferland Run, all rights reserved).
In her first race since winning gold in the World Championships, Edna Kiplagat finished second in 49:42 in the JCL Montferland 15K in the Netherlands, just behind the winner Ethiopean Abebech Afework in 49:18. Edna ran nice steady splits of 16:42-16:48-16:14, and her husband/coach Gilbert Koech said it is a good sign that she is fully recovered as the Olympic year approaches.
Left to right: Abel Kirui, Hilda Kibet, Edna Kiplagat at the pre-race photo op (Photo courtesy of Montferland Run, all rights reserved).
James Mwangi improves Marathon PB by 2 minutes! 2nd Place in Fukuoka!
James Mwangi Macharia (NTN) chopped nearly two minutes off his PB in yesterday’s Fukuoka International Marathon, finishing second in 2:08:38. James’ previous PB was his 2:10:27 debut at the 2007 Vienna City Marathon, where he also finished second. Click here for the IAAF article on yesterday’s race.
Nuta Olaru finishes 3rd in Cal Int’l Marathon
Despite suffering from hypothermia during the race, Nuta Olaru was third in the California International Marathon this past weekend.
Yoshimi Ozaki 2nd at Yokohama; Rene Kalmer 5th with Massive PB!
A very happy sub-2:30 woman!
The Yokohama International Women’s Marathon is a done deal. The weather gods weren’t particularly friendly, with temps at 23C (71F) and humidity near 50%. But the starting gun was going to go off at 12:10 pm, regardless.
With a Japanese Olympic berth at stake, Yoshimi Ozaki (Daiichi Life Insurance/adidas) gave it her all, but came up just short in the final kilometer. Today’s heat made the race a classic race of attrition, and by 35K the lead pack was down to three: Yoshimi, the UK’s Mara Yamauchi (who ran a brilliant race of patience, only pulling even with the leaders at about 23K), and Daiuhatsu’s Ryoko Kizaki. Right at 39K, Kizaki threw in a big move that dropped Mara, but Yoshimi stayed right on her. With about 1500m remaining, Yoshimi threw in her own surge, seeking to repeat her winning move in the last edition of this race. After opening about 10 meters, the gap grew no more. Kizaki stayed tough, drew even with a K to go, and then surged away to win by 2:26:32 to Yoshimi’s 2:26:49.
Yoshimi will almost certainly have to come back for next March’s Nagoya International Women’s Marathon to fight again for an Olympic team spot.
Meanwhile, Rene Kalmer (Nedbank/adidas) was having a phenomenal break-through day. After checking the weather, Rene decided before her warm-ups that it would be a day for racing for place rather than trying to put up an impressive mark. In the end, she got both. Backing away from an earlier plan to target 74:00 for the first half, she instead came through in a very solid and contained 74:58 at 10th place. As planned and hoped, Rene then began taking down other runners throughout the second half, with some impressive running. Her 17:27 split from 20K-25K was the fastest of any of the eventual top ten runners, and her 17:22 for the next 5K was better than all but the lead pack. By 30K she had moved up to 7th, and five minutes later Russian Alevtina Ivanova and Ethiopian Robe Guta were suddenly within range and Rene was up to 5th. The 1:35 gap to 4th looked fairly insurmountable at that point, but Rene continued coming on like a freight engine and was just 16 seconds out of 4th by the finish .
Nevertheless…2:29:59, a nearly five minute improvement over her PB this Spring of 2:34:47. Incredible stuff in today’s conditions. We have to check the stats, but we’re fairly certain this makes Rene only the 4th woman in South African history to break 2:30, and the first to do it in quite a few years. More important, her spot on the South African marathon team for next summer’s London Olympic Games is pretty much locked in. Post race comment: “Now I’m a marathoner. Let’s get some ice cream.”
Louise Damen (adidas) had a very rough day, with a DNF. “We rarely have temperatures like this back home, and I wasn’t at all ready for this kind of weather. There isn’t much that could be done about it and by 10K I was already feeling out of it.”
Next up: off to the awards ceremony and post-race party at Yokohama’s Pan-Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel.
Edna Kiplagat in Monaco for World Athletics Gala
Edna Kiplagat (Nike) and her husband/coach, Gilbert Koech, are among the invited guests for this weekend’s World Athletics Gala in Monaco. The year-end celebration of the athletics season will feature many of this past summer’s world championships’ gold medalists, an IAAF Council meeting, a rocking party, and the crowning of the men’s and women’s Athletes of the Year.
Click here for the IAAF’s preview article.
