Ando Breaks Osaka Half CR, Bizarre DQ of Men's Winner

Yuka Ando (Wacoal) and Desta Burka (Denso) raced each other to a new Osaka Half Marathon course record, while the men's race saw a very strange apparent DQ of winner Taiyo Iwasaki (JFE Steel).

Running with Wacoal male coaching staff member Seiya Morimoto as pacer, Ando set out on pace to go sub-68 with the goal of bettering her 1:08:13 PB from the 2022 National Corporate Half. Burka, who had only run 1:09:31 once in 2021, was right there next to her the entire time as the pace held steady through 15 km. But as Ando started to fade over the next 5 km Burka dropped her and opened a small lead. It looked like the win and CR would be hers, but over the last km Ando fought back and passed her on the track to score the win by 2 seconds in a 1:08:18 CR. "My goal was to beat my PB, but I'm glad I got close," she said post-race. Burka's 1:08:20 was also well under the old CR of 1:09:43 and a PB by over a minute.

The men's race saw 42-year-old Mongolian Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Shin Nihon Jusetsu) take it out on 1:01:30 pace before being overtaken by the pack at 5 km. And from there it was purely a pack race, with a lead group of 13 together until they entered the park for the last stretch to the stadium finish. Yuma Nozawa (Soka Univ.) made the first move to break away, then Shunsuke Shikama (Logisteed). Coming into the stadium Shun Sadakata (Mazda) pulled away and looked set to win, but in the home straight Iwasaki surged past to break the tape in 1:01:41, a second off his PB.

But something was strange. Iwasaki was wearing a pink 5-digit mass participation bib instead of his entry number of 132. Right after finishing he talked to Sadakata and made gestures about his bib that seemed to say he had exchanged it for some reason and gotten the number 50101 bib. When official results came up Sadakata was listed as the winner and Iwasaki as a DNS under his original bib of 132, with no mention of him being DQd or having been in the race at all. If he had lost his original bib or the chip had been malfunctioning and he was given the 50101 bib as a replacement it's hard to see why he would have been disqualified. Even though it was a mass participation bib the organizers had to have let him start in the elite block, so again it's hard to see the rationale for a DQ. The absence of a DQ in the results adds to the mystery of exactly what happened.

Early leader Bat-Ochir finished 39th in 1:02:53, a tune-up for next weekend's Marugame Half, while Korean Minho Park ran an almost 7-minute PB of 1:02:54 for 40th. Bib #1 Yuki Kawauchi (ADHS) was a DNS with injury after a disastrous 1:10:17 run at the Okukuma Half a week earlier. One notable DNF was Soka University's Riki Koike, who dropped out before 10 km after going through the first 5 km in 14:38.

Osaka Half Marathon

Osaka, 28 Jan. 2024

complete results

Women

1. Yuka Ando (Wacoal) - 1:08:18 - CR

2. Desta Burka (Ethiopia/Denso) - 1:08:20 - PB

3. Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) - 1:10:56

4. Mio Kuroda (Kyocera) - 1:11:02

5. Yuri Mitsune (18 Ginko) - 1:11:07

6. Akino Asahina (Senko) - 1:11:23

7. Saki Arai (Takushoku Univ.) - 1:11:31

8. Ami Furunishi (Meiji Kokusai Iryo Univ.) - 1:11:40

9. Shuho Takahashi (Asia Univ.) - 1:11:52

10. Yukari Wada (Senko) - 1:11:53

Men

1. Shun Sadakata (Mazda) - 1:01:41

2. Shunsuke Shikama (Logisteed) - 1:01:41

3. Wataru Tochigi (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 1:01:42

4. Keito Makise (Toyota Kyushu) - 1:01:44

5. Koki Yoshioka (Chuo Hatsujo) - 1:01:44

6. Rintaro Takeda (Yakult) - 1:01:44

7. Kenji Yamamoto (Mazda) - 1:01:44

8. Hidekazu Hijikata (Asahi Kasei) - 1:01:45

9. Kento Kikutani (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:01:46

10. Yuma Nozawa (Soka Univ.) - 1:01:46

11. Masaki Tsuda (Nishitetsu) - 1:01:47

12. Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei) - 1:01:48

13. Keigo Yano (Kao) - 1:01:52

14. Taisei Kiyono (Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:01:53

15. Takashi Soma (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:01:53

16. Akihiro Kaneko (Comodi Iida) - 1:01:54

-----

DQ - Taiyo Iwasaki (JFE Steel)

DNS - Yuki Kawauchi (ADHS)

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