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Toyota Wins New Expo Ekiden

A new, nominally one-off event held as part of Osaka's hosting of Expo 2025, Sunday's ACN Expo Ekiden pit top top corporate and collegiate teams against each other on a 7-stage, 54.5 km course. The new race lost a bit of steam when New Year Ekiden runner-up Honda declined to participate, when winner Asahi Kasei pulled out days before the race, and when the top two teams at the Hakone Ekiden, Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University , didn't field A-list lineups. In their absence it was pretty much a blowout for New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Toyota , who led start-to-finsh off a great leading run by Yamato Yoshii and stage best titles on 4 of the 7 individual legs to win in 2:32:48. Fujitsu came on strong over the 2nd half with wins by 4th and 5th runners Daniel Kosen and Kazuya Shiojiri and strong runs on the final stages by Hiroki Matsueda and Kengo Suzuki to move into 2nd, finishing 1:14 behind Toyota in 2:34:02. Hakonen 3rd-placer Koku Gakuin University b...
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Tokyo Marathon Top Japanese Man Tsubasa Ichiyama Works 4 Days a Week, Walked On in College

38,000 people ran the 2025 Tokyo Marathon . Every runner had their own story, but one of the most special was Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx). Despite being on almost nobody's radar, he outran some of the best in the country to finish as the top Japanese man. Ichiyama ran most of the race in the 3rd pace group, going through halfway in 1:02:44 and 30 km in 1:29:13. When the pacers stopped, he showed what he could really do. "I'm not good at downhills, so in the first part it was hard to run smoothly," he said at the post-race press conference. "But after the downhill part ended I got into my rhythm, and I think that helped me over the 2nd half." After dropping Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and others, he quickly bore down on the Japanese athletes who had gone out faster in the 2nd pace group. Overtaking Paris Olympics 6th placer Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), at 39.8 km he caught all-time Japanese #2 man Yohei I...
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Weekend Road Race Roundup

The ACN Expo Ekiden was the biggest race of the weekend domestically, but there was so much else going on domestically and internationally that it was hard to keep track. We'll do our best. Saturday in Fukuoka the Fst in Fukuoka road mile and 5 km moved from its usual fall date to a spring date for the first time. Ireland's Sophie O'Sullivan outran high school sensation Sherry Drury by 1 second for the win in the women's mile, 4:53 to 4:54. Drury's mark was a new U20 NR. The men's mile also came down to a 1-second win for Irishman Brian Fay over Japan's Jo Aoki , 4:12 to 4:13. Margaret Akidor had an easy win in the women's 5 km in 15:34, with veteran Yuichiro Ueno outrunning a doubling Fay in the men's 5 km to win in 14:07. Complete results here . The Matsue Ladies Half Marathon hosted the National University Women's Half Marathon Sunday. National champion Ritsumeikan University 's Makoto Tsuchiya outran Daito Bunka University 's...
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