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

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

japan running news

Search This Blog