Rene poses with local wildlife at the Three Martini bar in Yokohama after her 2:29 (photo courtesy of Boulder Wave)
RW calls it “A Word With Rene Kalmer,” but it’s actually a fairly extensive interview…Rene touches on 5:00 a.m. photo shoots, her sister Christine, the move to marathoning, world travels, and her “Friends” dvd collection. Click here.
Short preview article (click here) in the Asahi Shimbun on the March 11th Nagoya Women’s Marathon…last train to London OG for Japanese women. On the Japanese side, we have 2009 WC silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (Daiichi Life Insurance/adidas) and reigning (i.e. 2010 champ, as last year’s Nagoya was cancelled in the aftermath of the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami) Nagoya champion Yuri Kano (Shiseido/adidas). Lidia Simon (ASICS), whose last marathon was a victory in the inaugural Osaka Marathon last autumn, will be looking to lock down qualification for her 5th (!!!) Olympic Marathon. So far as we have found out, Lidia could become the first woman in Olympic history to qualify for and compete in five Olympic Marathons. Rene Kalmer (adidas), who has been on fire this winter in South Africa since qualifying for the Olympic Games with her 2:29:59 for 5th in November’s hot and humid Yokohama women’s marathon), will be a pacemaker for Nagoya, which is expected to go out at 71:00 for the first half.
Breaking news from our friends at the Virgin London Marathon. No comment on the appearance fee or other conditions of the invitation, which were likely to be quite generous. It is almost certain the media actually will “leave the athlete alone,” as Dave Bedford requests in this interview. Left out of the report were Bedford’s comments that “having observed this athlete’s recent altitude-training in Iten, I believe he has a world of potential; at the same time, is a safe bet to say he is the most biomechanically-challenged athlete we have ever added to the elite men’s field. How he generates a pace of 2:55 per kilometer with that arm carriage is beyond me, but I believe he can get the job done.” Click here for full video report.
The 2012 Virgin London Marathon takes place April 22nd, eight weeks to go from this Sunday.
South Africa’s Independent Newspapers group has posted an article to their on-line site on Rene Kalmer’s (adidas) plans for this year’s Olympic Marathon. “South Africa’s leading female marathon runner, Rene Kalmer, has channelled all her focus this year on one race – the Olympic marathon…” Click here for the full article.
3 hours until Osaka start. Heading to stadium soon with Constantina, Kayoko, Kiyoko, Naoko and all. A bit cold, but good day for running: 6C temps, no wind, no humidity, clear skies. Last-minute article on Kayoko Fukushi.
Kayoko Fukushi following her 3rd place finish at the 2011 Bank of America Chicago Marathon
The IAAF website preview of Sunday’s Osaka Women’s Marathon, with a focus on our athlete Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal/adidas).
In the midst of his altitude training camp with UK Athletics in Iten, Kenya, Lee Merrien (ASICS) has confirmed he will return to the Virgin London Marathon this Spring. The BBC reports on Lee’s plans. Last year in London, Lee earned the Jim Peters Trophy as the top British finisher, with a PB 2:14:27 effort. The London course and sure to be rocking this April as the British men, including also John Beattie (adidas), compete for the remaining two spots on the Olympic marathon squad.
Arrived in Osaka last night and have settled in to the New Otani hotel next to Osaka Castle for Sunday’s women’s marathon. Catching up on some recent news articles on our athletes. Here is the first, a RunnersFeed interview with Patrick Rizzo (Mizuno) shortly after he became the proud owner of a shiny new marathon PB in Houston. Click here.
Constantina Dita (ASICS) has done quite a few interviews since arriving in Osaka ten days ago. She had expected Mizuki Noguchi, who also was training in Boulder for the past ten weeks prepping for Osaka, to be back on form for Sunday’s Osaka International Women’s Marathon. That is, until Mizuki suddenly withdraw from the race this week with an inflamed . Brett Larimer of Japan Running News provides a translation of one of the articles that appeared in the January 24th from Sankei Sports newspaper. Click here for Brett’s translation, and click here for the original Japanese-language post, which includes a photo of Constantina opening the Osaka athlete’s village on Monday.
A couple of days late on this report, but at the January 7th Hampshire County Cross-Country Championships, Lee Merrien (ASICS) and Louise Damen (adidas) took the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, with John Beattie (adidas) runner-up to Lee by just a handful of seconds. John reports: “Louise won comfortably, and on the men’s side Lee just outsprinted me in the last few hundred yards to win by 4 seconds. Was quite an undulating course and I tried constantly for 12k to drop him at every available chance, though he just wouldn’t go away and held on to find more of a sprint than me in the end! Both of us ran well and were 90 secs clear of 3rd which was encouraging. Nice to have my confidence restored somewhat and start 2012 much better than most of what went on in 2011.”
Click here for a short video report on the day’s racing, courtesy of channelonline.tv
