Skip to main content

Weekend Race Results

by Brett Larner

Apart from the Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet and Sunday's epochal Tokyo Marathon, three other significant races took place in Japan on Feb. 27.

Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) took the Kumanichi 30 km road race, winning in 1:32:14 by 18 seconds over Komazawa University's Akinori Iida. No women competed in this year's running.

At the 60th running of the venerable Kashima Yutoku Road Race, Hiroaki Koike (Toyo Univ.) won the men's half marathon in a modest 1:05:04, the only runner to break 66.

Korean university runner Seung Ho Baek beat Toyo University's Koshi Watanabe by 1 second to win the Inuyama Half Marathon in 1:03:47, while Mao Kuroda lead a near-sweep by Team Yutaka Giken runners in the women's division in a strong 1:12:21. Six women went under 35 minutes and six men under 30 in Inuyama's 10 km.

Kumanichi 30 km
Kumamoto, 2/27/11
1. Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) - 1:32:14
2. Akinori Iida (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:32:32
3. Shota Yamaguchi (Team Fujitsu) - 1:32:46
4. Go Nakagawa (Team NTT Nishi Nihon) - 1:33:04
5. Takahiro Aso (Team Aisan Kogyo) - 1:33:29

Kashima Yutoku Road Race
Saga, 2/27/11
Men's Half Marathon: Hiroaki Koike (Toyo Univ.) - 1:05:04
Women's Half Marathon: Kyoko Katafuchi (Tsuruta Clinic) - 1:22:22
Men's 10 km: Akira Iwasaki (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 30:22
Women's 10 km: Yuka Ezaki (Team Kyudenko) - 37:08

Yomiuri Inuyama Half Marathon
Inuyama, 2/27/11
Men's Half Marathon
1. Seung Ho Baek (Korea) - 1:03:47
2. Koshi Watanabe (Toyo Univ.) - 1:03:48
3. Taichi Takase (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:03:51
4. Myong Seung Lee (Korea) - 1:03:56
5. Junya Kanda (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:04:01

Women's Half Marathon
1. Mao Kuroda (Team Yutaka Giken) - 1:12:21
2. Nami Kakitsu (Nagoya Univ.) - 1:13:29
3. Akiko Matsunaga (Team Yutaka Giken) - 1:14:49

Men's 10 km
1. Tomoya Shirayanagi (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 29:39
2. Shuichi Nishio (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 29:41
3. Daichi Jinno (Chukyo Prep H.S.) - 29:42

Women's 10 km
1. Mai Tanabe (Team Aichi Denki) - 34:13
2. Mao Kiyota (Chukyo Prep H.S.) - 34:19
3. Manami Takeuchi (Team Aichi Denki) - 34:28

(c) 2011 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