Skip to main content

Kanbara Remains Unbeaten in Fuji Tozan Mountain Race

by Brett Larner

Heavy rain cut the 2009 Fuji Tozan Mountain Race down to size, but two-time defending women's champion Yuri Kanbara and 2006 men's winner Toru Miyahara nevertheless prevailed again to pick up this year's titles.

With conditions dangerous above Mt. Fuji's 2256 m-high 5th Stage on the July 24 race morning, organizers made the decision 30 minutes before the 7:00 a.m. start to shorten the event's 21 km long, 3000 m elevation gain Summit Race. Rather than reaching the summit, athletes in the long race would end at the 5th stage along with the event's 15 km long, 1480 m elevation gain 5th Stage Race entrants. This meant the true uphill specialists in the field such as Kanbara were at a competitive disadvantage against faster athletes who could withstand the relatively mild climb and paved first half of the 5th Stage course.

The rain let up just minutes before the start, leaving the fields in the two divisions with the coolest, most ideal conditions in recent Fuji Tozan history. Miyahara responded with a course-record 1:15:15 victory, beating runner-up Toru Azuma by over six and a half minutes. Kanbara's win was even more decisive. Facing down an expected challenge from rival Tomoko Tamamushi, Kanbara ran 1:33:00 to win by nearly 12 minutes, a feat all the more impressive considering that it did not include the part of the Fuji Tozan course which most plays to her strengths. For their victories Miyahara and Kanbara picked up invitations to the Oct. 25 Mt. Kinabalu mountain race in Malaysia.

Running on the same course an hour and a half later, first-timer Naoto Ikuta unseated two-time defending 5th Stage Race champion Takanori Ono to take the men's division in 1:21:48. Running the 5th Stage Race for the seventh time, Takako Seijo won the women's division for the first with a 1:53:12 clocking.

Click here for complete results from the 2009 Fuji Tozan Mountain Race.

2009 Fuji Tozan Mountain Race - Top Finishers
Summit Race - Men
1. Toru Miyahara - 1:15:15 - CR
2. Toru Azuma - 1:21:47
3. Takahiro Kurihara - 1:23:14
4. Kenichi Hirayama - 1:25:03
5. Suguru Emoto - 1:25:15

Summit Race - Women
1. Yuri Kanbara - 1:33:00
2. Junko Ishikawa - 1:44:53
3. Natsumi Mineshima - 1:45:59
4. Yoshimi Kasezawa - 1:48:59
5. Tomoko Tamamushi - 1:49:19

5th Stage Race - Men
1. Naoto Ikuta - 1:21:48
2. Yoichi Nakanishi - 1:26:04
3. Masahiro Ito - 1:27:44

5th Stage Race - Women
1. Takako Seijo - 1:53:12
2. Satohi Numasawa - 1:56:35
3. Kishiko Suto - 1:59:57

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Ninja Runner Yuka Ando Leads Japanese Women's Marathon Team in London: "I Want to Go For It"

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai

Yamaguchi 10th at United Airlines NYC Half - Weekend Overseas Results

2024 national cross-country champion Tomonori Yamaguchi was the top Japanese finisher in the men's race at the United Airlines NYC Half , taking 10th in 1:04:36. A 2nd-year at Waseda University , Yamaguchi was one of three collegiate runners running New York in the 11th year of JRN's development program collaboration between the Ageo City Half Marathon and the New York Road Runners, a program that has seen people like future half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara and Paris Olympic team member Akira Akasaki make their international debuts. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito started fast, going with the leaders through 5 km in 14:29 before losing touch. Hosei University senior Rei Matsunaga went through in 14:42 in his last race before joining the JR Higashi Nihon corporate team in April. Yamaguchi, who caught COVID after winning last month's National Cross-Country Championships, started more conservatively with a 15:11 first 5km. But where both Ito

Rui Aoki Wins National University Men's Half Marathon - Weekend Results

Yuka Ando 's win at the Nagoya Women's Marathon was the big news of the weekend, but there were other high-level races happening, even in Nagoya. Held in parallel with the marathon, the Nagoya City Half Marathon saw Australians Natalie Rule and Ed Goddard take easy wins by about 2.5 minutes each, Rule in 1:13:57 and Goddard in 1:04:01. The new Biwako Marathon also had a non-Japanese winner, China's Yousheng Guan scoring 1st in 2:14:58 with Japan's Hirohito Sugai next in 2:16:40. Mikiko Ota won the women's race in 2:50:44. The Shizuoka Marathon returned for its first running in five years, with club runner Shumpei Oda leading the top 7 men under 2:20 in 2:15:36. Women's winner Remi Tanaka ran 2:41:23, beating runner-up Ayumi Sano by exactly 7 minutes. And in Tokyo, Rui Aoki continued what has been a great season so far for Koku Gakuin University with a win at the National University Men's Half Marathon . Aoki and Hiro Konda of Chuo Gakuin Unive