Toyo University Wins Yaizu Minato Half Marathon Overall and Team Titles

Runners returned to the city of Yaizu on Sunday for the 37th Yaizu Minato Half Marathon, its first running since 2019 after two years in a row of pandemic cancelations. In addition to the event's Pair Marathon university team competition, 5389 people were entered in the mass-participation race, which was limited to residents of Shizuoka Prefecture. The first hot day of the year saw them traversing Yaizu's roads, with Toyo University 4th-year Daichi Kimoto leading them home in a course record-tying 1:03:42.

The Pair Marathon scored each of the 19 competing universities on the combined times of its top two registered finishers. Along with 2nd-year teammate Shu Yoshida, 4th in 1:04:29, Kimoto also helped Toyo win the team scoring competition in 2:08:11, a course record and Toyo's first win in 16 years. Post-race Kimoto smiled as he said, "We came here to get the overall and team wins."

At January's Hakone Ekiden Kimoto was only 19th out of 21 teams on the 4th Stage, and afterward he struggled to regroup and recover. "There were days when I could barely even jog," he said. "I'm still not completely back to normal." Temperatures in Yaizu reached 23˚ on race day with piercing sunshine, but, he said, "Heat doesn't bother me." Kimoto broke free of the competition after 17 km, ultimately opening 24 seconds on 2nd place.

Yoshida, one of Toyo's alternates at Hakone, also ran aggressively to finish 4th. "Kimoto has experience and talent, but that didn't mean I was just going to let him beat me," he said. He learned a lot from watching his teammates move up from 9th at the end of Hakone Day One to 4th overall. "It takes inner strength to perform on the big stage," he said.

As a special prize for winning the Pair Marathon in record time, the Toyo athletes received an entire southern maguro tuna from the local fishing port association. Laughing and smiling on the podium as they received the prize, they said, "We'll share this with everyone back in the dorm." Next month both plan to run in the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, and with maguro power in their veins you can be sure they'll be aiming higher than ever.

37th Yaizu Minato Half Marathon

Yaizu, Shizuoka, 10 Apr. 2022

Men

1. Daichi Kimoto (Toyo Univ.) - 1:03:42 - CR tie

2. Masahiro Mekata (Aoyama Gakuin Univ. - 1:04:06

3. Ryuji Uruta (Toka Univ.) - 1:04:17

4. Shu Yoshida (Toyo Univ.) - 1:04:29

5. Takato Azechi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:40

6. Kenta Shimura (Soka Univ.) - 1:04:45

7. Yusuke Akutsu (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:57

8. Ryo Fujimoto (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:08

9. Mitsuhiro Kurihara (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:27

10. Atsushi Maeda (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:41

Pair Marathon

1. Toyo University (Kimoto/Yoshida) - 2:08:11 - CR

2. Aoyama Gakuin University (Mekata/Azechi) - 2:08:46

3. Koku Gakuin University (Akutsu/Fujimoto) - 2:10:05

4. Tokai University (Uruta/Sato) - 2:11:06

5. Chuo Gakuin University (Maeda/Hada) - 2:11:32

source article:

https://hochi.news/articles/20220411-OHT1T51057.html?page=1

translated by Brett Larner

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...

Route Inn Hotels Win National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier for First Time

After Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race in Tokyo, 2nd-tier corporate women's teams were in Fukuoka for their own national championships qualifying race, the Princess Ekiden . With Queens Ekiden 19-placer Otsuka Seiyaku a DNS, 30 teams lined up for the 6-stage, 42.195 km race where the top 16 would go on to join the top 8 from last year's Queens Ekiden at next month's national race. Coming right in the middle of the international fall marathon season several teams had people still tired from Berlin and Chicago, with Daihatsu fielding Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori from Berlin, Tokyo Metro sending out its own Berlin duo of Mao Uesugi and Ayumi Morita , and Kraftia not playing its top member Yuka Akasaki after her solid run in Chicago last week. After a fast start from eventual 9th-placer Denso 's Rio Matsutani , Daihatsu took over on the Second Stage and held it until the Fifth, where a tired Omori dropped to 3rd. Mayuka Fujita from Route Inn H...

japan running news

Search This Blog