Takashi Doi Wins Trans Japan Alps Race in Course Record Time

by Koichi Iwasa for DogsorCaravan.com

photos by Sho Fujimaki and Hao Moda

Five days after it began, the Trans Japan Alps Race 2022 (TJAR) welcomed its first finisher to Ohama Beach in Shizuoka on the Thursday, Aug. 11 Mountain Day public holiday. That first finisher this year was Takashi Doi, arriving at the finish line amid heavy rain 4 days, 17 hours and 33 minutes after he started. Doi beat the previous course record of 4 days, 23 hours and 52 minutes set in 2016 by Shogo Mochizuki by 6 hours and 19 minutes.

Doi arrived at the Chosugoya checkpoint marking the beginning of the descent out of the Southern Alps 301 km from the starting point at 12:45 a.m. on the 11th. At around 5:20 a.m. he crossed the Hatanagi Otsuri bridge at 307 km, emerging onto a paved forest road with 88 km to go. Even though he'd been skipping long naps up to then, Doi still looked fresh and light when he arrived at the Ikawa Auto Camp checkpoint with 69 km to go at 8:04 a.m. From there on out he continued on without any major breaks. The rain started to come down as he entered the outskirts of Shizuoka, but crowds still turned out to cheer Doi on as he became the 2022 race's first finisher.

Doi first took part in the TJAR last year. He led on the first day, but with an approaching typhoon looming ominously the race was canceled at the end of the day. It only took his second attempt for him to finish it and rewrite the record book. Doi's trail resume includes an 11th-place finish at the 2015 UTMB, and more recently a runner-up finish at UTMF this past April. In 2020 he was 4th in the 298 km Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge in 56:25. It's safe to say that he's one of Japan's top athletes on the ultra distance and trail running scene.

Behind Doi, Kazuki Ishio, Naomasa Kimura and Makoto Baba all made it to the Sanpuku Pass Shelter checkpoint at 268 km before midnight Wednesday night. Four-time winner and previous course record holder Mochizuki was also high up in the standings. Ishio got to the Chosugoya checkpoint at 301 km at around 5:00 p.m., Kimura arriving at 6:50 p.m. and Baba and Mochizuki both coming in around 10:40 p.m. Ishio passed the 69 km to go point at around 10:00 p.m., putting him on track to reach the finish at Ohama Beach Friday morning. A finish on the morning of the sixth day is an excellent performance that stands up against past years' winning runs.

The deadline at the Ichinose checkpoint was noon Thursday, but apart from three athletes who had dropped out everyone in the race made it through and advanced on into the Southern Alps. The Sanpuku Pass checkpoint at 268 km was the next cutoff, the deadline falling at 5:00 p.m. on the 12th. But again this year there are worries about the weather. The forecast calls for a low-pressure tropical storm south of Japan to strengthen into a typhoon as it heads north. Rain on the 12th is expected to grow heavier in the area of the race as time goes on. That seems likely to impact the event continuing to go forward.

In Yamanaka in the Southern Alps where we are online athlete tracking has a delay, but as of the end of the fifth day the standings look like this according to GPS data:

Finish: Takashi Doi - 4:17:33 - CR

69 km to go: Kazuki Ishio

83 km to go: Naomasa Kimura

~302 km: Shingo Mochizuki

~301 km: Makoto Baba

~294 km: Atsushi Kaise

~293 km: Yoshihiro Ide

~292 km: Masashi Noyori

~288 km: Masataka Ohata

~287 km: Yusuke Hayashida

~286 km: Takahiro Makino

~275 km: Soki Sato

~271 km: Kaname Sago

~268 km: Akihiro Suruya, Naohiro Hoda

~265 km: Haruo Ozaki

~263 km: Hidesuke Yokoi, Atsushi Seki

~255 km: Kenichi Yoshikawa

~254 km: Hironori Nakajima

~248 km: Kengo Noda

~247 km: Kenichi Ijima

~243 km: Kazunori Kubo, Mitsuru Mikami

~241 km: Kenichiro Inasaki, Takahiro Matsumoto

~240 km: Hideki Kawata

DNF, evening, Day 4: Shinichi Tsuboi

DNF, night, Day 3: Atsuhiro Nishida

DNF, morning, Day 3: Masaaki Takeuchi

Thanks to Sho Fujimaki, Hao Moda, and the other great trail photographers who contributed to making our coverage possible.

https://dogsorcaravan.com/2022/08/12/day5-2022-tjar-digest/

translated by Brett Larner

Hakone Champ AGU Hits 50 km a Day in Spring Break Training Camp

Having scored its 3rd-straight Hakone Ekiden win this past January, Aoyama Gakuin University spent the Golden Week spring holidays training on the Myoko Plateau in Niigata from May 2-6. Along with the champion men's ekiden team, the first 2 members of AGU's new women's long distance team Nodoka Ashida and Kairi Ikeno , and AGU alumni and 2026 New Year Ekiden champion GMO team members Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda also took part in the training camp. Depending on the day's training schedule, mileage at the camp was over 50 km a day. AGU men's captain Kaito Nakamura confidently said, "This Golden Week training camp is where we lay the foundations for our 4th-straight Hakone title." A lot of people spend Golden Week on vacation, but the AGU ekiden team spent their time working hard on Myoko's rolling land amid the sprouting leaves of spring. On the 2nd day of the camp, May 3, team members woke up at 5:00 a.m. to do their warmup. The team assembled a...

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

Shikama and Njeri Win Sendai International Half Marathon

Shunsuke Shikama (Logisteed) and Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) won the Sendai International Half Marathon Sunday in Sendai, Shikama in 1:01:31 and Njeri in 1:09:20. Mizuki Nishimura (Tenmaya) was the top Japanese woman at 2nd overall. The men's race went through 5 km in 14:34 and 10 km in 29:22. Shikama ran alongside top competition including Shoki Yamaguchi (Soka Univ.), who has been running well in half marathons this season, and Tokyo World Championships marathon team member Naoki Koyama (Honda). On a course with many small ups and downs, Shikama attacked on a downhill just after 15 km, quickly breaking free of the lead group of 7. 13 seconds up by 20 km, Shikama covered the last 1.0975 km in 3:06 to seal his first Sendai title. A graduate of Juntendo University , Shikama is in his 4th season with Logisteed. At the 2024 National Corporate Half Marathon he ran 1:00:41, and at last year's East Japan Corporate Ekiden he won the Third Stage. In his marathon d...

japan running news

Search This Blog