Fukuoka Marathon

The Fukuoka International Open Marathon Championship, held in Fukuoka, Japan, is a prominent international marathon race established in 1947. It is usually held in early December. One of the sponsors is Asahi Shimbun, one of the most famous newspaper publishing companies in Japan.

The reigning Fukuoka Marathon champion is Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya whose time of 2:06:39 in the 2007 edition broke the course record of 2:06:51 set by Atsushi Fujita of Japan in 2000. Deriba Merga of Ethiopia also ran under the old mark in 2007.

History

In 1947, the first Asahi marathon, predecessor of the Fukuoka International Marathon Championship, was held in Kumomoto, hometown of Shizo Kanaguri, the godfather of marathon running in Japan. The inaugural race was won by Toshikazu Wada in 2:45:45. For its first seven years, the venue of the marathon changed every year, and only Japanese men participated. In 1954, foreign athletes were invited to participate for the first time in the history of Japanese marathons. In 1955, the name of the event was changed to become the Asahi International Marathon. In 1963, the race was held outside of Fukuoka for the last time, on the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics marathon course.

In 1966, the Fukuoka Marathon was sanctioned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), and changed its name to the Fukuoka International Marathon Championships. The driving idea behind the name change was to invite the winners of all the major marathons around the world to a year-end race to crown the best marathon runner of the year. Mike Ryan of New Zealand won the 1966 race in 2:14:04.6, after a duel with Hidekuni Hiroshima of Japan, who finish immediately behind in 2:14:05.2.

In 1967, the world's top three performances of the year were recorded at Fukuoka, as the all-time list of performances was largely re-written. Derek Clayton of Australia became the first marathon runner ever to break the magical 2 hours and 10 minutes barrier, racing to a mark of 2:09:36.4. [http://www.iaaf.org/theSport/whatisathletics/TrackAndField/disc=mar/index,newsId=9477.html]

In 1970, for the first time since attaining IAAF sanction and stature as a major international marathon, a Japanese national, Akio Usami, won the prestigious marathon in a Japanese national record time of 2:10:37.8, defeating a stellar international field headed by pre-race favorites Ron Hill and Bill Adcocks of Great Britain.

Men's Winners

Winners of the Fukuoka International Marathon [http://marathoninfo.free.fr/historique/fukuoka.htm]

ee also

* Tokyo Marathon
* Nagoya Marathon
* Osaka Marathon

External links

* [http://www.fukuoka-marathon.com/en/index.html Fukuoka-Marathon.com] - Fukuoka International Open Marathon Championship (official site, English language portal)
* [http://www.asahi.com/fukuoka-marathon/fukuoka_e/index.html Asahi.com] - Fukuoka Marathon sponsor page
* [http://www.iaaf.org/theSport/whatisathletics/TrackandField/disc=mar/index,newsId=9476.html IAAF.org] 'A history of the Fukuoka International Marathon Championships', K. Ken Nakamura, International Association of Athletics Federations