Matsuo Wins Third Nobeoka Marathon Title - Weekend Road Racing Roundup

The National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships were the biggest Japanese race of the weekend, but there was a lot more going on across the country. At the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon, local Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) dropped teammate Taiki Yoshimura with a surge at the 40 km mark to become the first runner in Nobeoka's 58-year history to win it three times. His winning time of 2:12:02 was also a PB and put him 7 seconds up on Yoshimura. Shota Miyagami (Kyudenko) was 3rd in 2:12:26. Complete results.

The Ehime Marathon also had its 58th running. Haruki Okayama (Comody Iida) won the men's race in 2:14:53, with Yoshiki Nakamura (Ehime Ginko) and Takaki Mori (Mont Blanc) running 2:17:04 and 2:18:39 for 2nd and 3rd, Nakamura hanging on after a hard fall just before 29 km. Two weeks after running 2:32:48 in Osaka, Miharu Shimokado (Brooks) ran 1:35 under the old course record to win the women's race in a new record of 2:33:57. No other women cleared 2:45.

At the 36th Moriya Half Marathon, Keiya Arima (Chuo Gakuin University) ran a course record 1:02:59 to win in his final race before graduation and retirement from competitive running. His teammate Mizuki Nagayama was also under the old course record in 1:03:24 for 2nd.

The 60th Karatsu 10-Miler saw Ryota Matono (MHPS) win a three-way sprint finish in the men's 10 miles against Naoki Ota (Waseda Univ.) and Ken Yokote (Fujitsu), taking the top spot in 46:43 with both Ota and Yokote coming in at 46:44. Erika Honda (Higo Ginko) ran 33:18 to win the women's 10 km, exactly tying National Corporate 10 km Championships winner Momoka Kawaguchi's time. But the biggest results in Karatsu came in the high school boys' 10 km, where Go Ennyu (Oita Tomei H.S.) ran 29:01 to lead 20 boys under 30 minutes. Complete results.

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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