06/02/2019   Kobe 2019: the farewell of Tanii and the come back of Liu Hong






Sunday, February 17 great participation in Kobe for the National Championships of Japan on 20km.

 
At the end of the entries the number of entered athletes is impressive:
- 20km men: 109 athletes
- 20km women: 50 athletes
- 10km U20 men: 122 athletes
- 5km U20 women: 64 athletes
 
 
20km men
 
The most important names are by now those already known to the international public, with the prestige conquered by some years in all the most important races on the planet.
Eiki Tahahashi (1:17:26), Toshikazu Yamanishi (1:17:41) and Daisuke Matsunaga (1:17:46) are the three who have a personal best of less than 1:18 pm, in addition to the world recordman Yusuke Suzuki (1:16:36) who, however, comes from a long period of inactivity and is presented with a season best of 1:21:14.
With a season best inferior to 1:20:00 we introduce:
- Koki Ikeda (1:19:13) who was elected in the poll by Marcia dal Mondo athlete of the year 2018
- Isamu Fujisawa (1:19:15)
- Fumitaka Oikawa (1:19:17)
- Hirooki Arai (1:19:19)
- Tomohiro Noda (1:19:49)
 
It is worth remembering that this will be Takayuki Tanii's farewell competition that in Beijing 2015 crowned his dream of winning a medal at a World Championship.
For him (born February 14, 1983) who will have celebrated three days before the 36 years will be a nice goodbye.
See our news of October 30, 2018 ( click here )
 
Marcia dal Mondo takes the opportunity as well as the wish for a good 36th birthday to thank him for all he did for race walk of the Land of the Rising Sun and above all for the personal friendship that binds him to the administrators of this web site.
 
 
20km women
 
The name that stands out above all is that of Liu Hong (CHN).
The world record holder will compete with the number 250 and will try to improve her season best (at the second official race of the season after returning from maternity) established in Hong Kong on Jan. 01, 2019 (1:30:43).
The days of 1:24:38 of La Coruna (6.6.2015) are not very far, but after this record and the victories of Beijing at the World Championships 2015 and Rio at the 2016 Olympic Games the great Chinese walker wanted to make a choice of different life.
Today we will see her return with the aim of obtaining the selection at the upcoming World Championships in Doha.
 
The leader of Japan is undoubtedly Kumiko Okada (JPN) with his personal best of 1:20:40 and with his best season of 1:31:32
Outsiders are:
- Nanako Fujii (Personal best: 1:33:27 obtained in Takahata on October 28th, 2010)
- Ai Michiguchi (Personal best: 1:31:51 obtained in Nomi on March 20, 2016, but with season 2018 of 1:33:42)
- Kaori Kawazoe (Personal best: 1:33:09 obtained in Nomi on March 19, 2017, but with best season 2018 of 1:33:44)
 
 
It remains only to report that for the first time in Japan athletes will compete on the distance of 20km with the rule of the Penalty Area that provides for the 20km races at the reception of the third red card a stop of 2 minutes (120") instead of DQ, that will be issued after receipt of the fourth red card.