Buchanan and Takano Win Year-End Half Marathon

Australian Andrew Buchanan took over a minute and a half off his PB to win the third running of Tokyo's Year-End Half Marathon Dec. 29 in the western suburb of Tachikawa.

Conceived of as a race targeting university and corporate league men whose teams had missed out on qualifying for the New Year and Hakone Ekidens and for amateurs to get the chance to run alongside them, the Year-End Half Marathon covers four rolling laps of Showa Kinen Park, the same site used for the Hakone Ekiden Qualifier half marathon and National University Men's Half Marathon.

Buchanan ran as part of a lead group of five near 1:03-flat pace, with the group shaking down to four by 15 km. As Buchanan started to push over the final lap longtime leader Koga Matsuo (Josai Univ.) dropped off, leaving Shingo Moriyama (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) and Taiyo Iwasaki (Jobu Univ.) to compete for the win. Neither was up to the task, Buchanan kicking away for the win in 1:02:50 good enough to make him the fourth-fastest Australian man of 2019 and just 8 seconds off the course record. Moriyama was next in 1:03:06 just a step ahead of Iwasaki, who took 3rd in 1:03:07. All three along with 4th-place Matsuo scored new PBs, no joke given the rolling southern half of each lap of the park.

Miyuki Takano (Raffine) won the women's race by 11 seconds in 1:20:42. In the women's 10 km, Yuka Tanaka (Asia Univ.) outran high-volume marathoner Mitsuko Hirose (Tokyo Wings) for the win in 36:32, with Takashi Nagase (Obirin Univ.) taking the men's 10 km in 30:26.

3rd Year-End Half Marathon

Showa Kinen Park, Tachikawa, Tokyo, 12/29/19
complete results

Men's Half Marathon
1. Andrew Buchanan (Australia) - 1:02:50 - PB
2. Shingo Moriyama (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:06 - PB
3. Taiyo Iwasaki (Jobu Univ.) - 1:03:07 - PB
4. Koga Matsuo (Josai Univ.) - 1:03:24 - PB
5. Yudai Hiruta (Fukushima T&F Assoc.) - 1:03:45
6. Kotaro Maeyama (Obirin Univ.) - 1:04:56
7. Shingo Mizota (Togami Denki) - 1:05:06
8. Hikaru Kumagai (Rafine) - 1:05:24
9. Yuya Hikage (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:27
10. Takahiro Fujita (Asia Univ.) - 1:05:28

Women's Half Marathon
1. Miyuki Takano (Raffine) - 1:20:42
2. Natsuki Iida - 1:20:53
3. Yuki Nashimoto - 1:22:36

Men's 10 km
1. Takashi Nagase (Obirin Univ.) - 30:26
2. Yoshinori Goda (NTT Tokyo) - 30:53
3. Kaisei Ichiba (Obirin Univ.) - 31:20

Women's 10 km
1. Yuka Tanaka (Asia Univ.) - 36:32
2. Mitsuko Hirose (Tokyo Wings) - 36:58
3. Kirara Oshima (Asia Univ.) - 37:08

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Japan's First Goldless Day - Asian Athletics Championships Day Four Highlights

Day 4 of the Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships was the first without a single gold medal going to Japan, but there were still enough silvers and bronzes to go around. Robyn Lauren Brown of the Philippines outclassed the rest of the women's 400 mH final field, taking gold in 57.50. Eri Utsunomiya and Ami Yamamoto made it a Japanese 2-3, Utsunomiya running 57.73 for silver and Yamamoto 57.80 for bronze. Yusaku Kodama also scored silver in the men's 400 mH, running 48.96 behind Qatari winner Bassem Hemeida 's 48.64. Yuki Yamasaki won bronze in the heptathlon with 5696 points, Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Voronina taking gold in 6098 and Swapna Barman silver in 5840. Teammate Karin Odama was 4th in 5487. Another bronze came in the mixed 4x400 m relay, with Japan running 3:15.71 behind India's 3:14.70 and Sri Lanka's 3:15.41. Naoto Hasegawa and Ryoichi Akamatsu both cleared 2.23 m in the men's high jump, Hasegawa finishing 4th overall and Akamatsu 5th. ...

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