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
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
Post a Comment
Read more