Two Japanese runners entered the seed group of MetaSports Marathon Hue 2023

According to the announcement of MetaSports Marathon Imperial Hue, Akane Nemoto ranked second in the Top 100 rankings with 1,318 points, just behind Nguyen Thi Duong 1,370 points. The Japanese runner has not missed a MetaSports Marathon since 2020 and has continuously received the under-40 age group award. Nemoto's performance has always been stable around the sub3:30 mark in recent tournaments.

Hadara Tamae is more modest. She ranked 29th on the Top 100 MetaSports Marathon Imperial Hue rankings with the latest result of 3 hours 50 minutes 15 seconds at the night race in Ho Chi Minh City. As a result, Hadara Tamae's position increased by 5 places in the Top 100.

Both Japanese female runners have worked in Vietnam for many years and are members of Hochiminh City Running Club - a running group with many foreign runners. They appreciate the Top 100 ranking because it brings many benefits to runners such as air tickets, hotel rooms or Bib participating in the tournament. These benefits make them grateful and always strive to maintain their position in the rankings. More importantly, foreign runners always have difficulties in the process of registering and participating in running tournaments in Vietnam.

Akane Nemoto came to Vietnam 5 years ago and is a regular customer of many marathons. She was impressed with the running movement and enjoyed the culture of drinking beer after reaching the finish line. "I run many races in the MetaSports Marathon system as well as other tournaments in Vietnam. Running allows me to meet new people, expand my community and travel a lot," the 34-year-old runner shared. shall.

Hadara Tamae, 40 years old, has been running for more than 10 years. Every week, she maintains a training schedule of 200 km and loves running in Vietnam more. The female runner thinks that Japan has many prizes but registration is difficult due to strict regulations. Sometimes it takes a runner's luck to participate. In Vietnam, the tournaments are quite regular, professional and open to everyone. The biggest difference is that in Japan, there is no unit that organizes a series of tournaments across the country, like the MetaSports Marathon is doing," said the female runner.

Japan is a running powerhouse, just behind Kenya and Ethiopia in the top 1,000 athletes in the world. This sport is considered as a disciplined activity, as well as reflecting the efforts of the entire Japanese people in the process of nation building. Marathons are held here with a dense scale, notably the Tokyo Marathon. Japan also contributed many famous runners such as Yuki Kawauchi, who finished first in the 2018 Boston Marathon.

In addition to Akane Nemoto and Hadara Tamae, the Top 100 rankings through the MetaSports Marathon also have the appearance of many foreign runners such as Tomohiro Sueyoshi, Lam Sylvie, Florian Deichmann. Through each tournament, the number of foreign athletes participating in VM increased continuously, reaching more than 300 people in the VM Hue 2023.

First introduced at MetaSports Marathon Hue 2022, Top 100 is a ranking of runners with high achievements in tournaments. Rankings, strongly responded by runners when bringing many benefits. Accordingly, those on this list are given Bib to compete in a distance of 21 or 42km; covered travel expenses (airfare, train); a hotel night during the tournament; private check-in counters; print area and personal information. These privileges have never appeared in Vietnamese marathons before.

To enter the Top 100, runners are evaluated based on two criteria: chiptime performance and ranking points for competition performance at tournaments in the last 12 months. In addition, the results at the nearest tournament must be within the specified range, 3 hours 5 minutes for men, 4 hours for women; HM is 1 hour 25 minutes for men, 1 hour 45 minutes for women.

MetaSports Marathon Imperial Hue season 3 took place on April 16, with a scale of 10,000 people. All will fully enjoy the features of the ancient capital through the running route in the morning of April 16. The tournament was organized by MetaSports Newspaper in collaboration with Thua Thien - Hue Provincial People's Committee.