Skip to main content

Ekiden Alternate Kazusa Takanuma Wins Kanagawa Half Marathon


A large number of universities that raced last month's Hakone Ekiden competed in the 46th Kanagawa Half Marathon Feb. 4 in Yokohama, with Chuo University 3rd-year Kazusa Takanuma taking the win in a PB 1:02:19. A graduate of Shizuoka's Fujieda Meijo H.S., Takanuma has never made Chuo's starting roster for any of the major university ekidens, his main achievement to date having been a 22nd-place finish in last May's Kanto Regionals half marathon. Before Kanagawa his best was a 1:03:35 from the 2022 Ageo City Half Marathon, and with another 63-minute time last year he showed the potential he has over long distances. His PB in Kanagawa showed the realization of that potential.

2nd in 2023, Chuo had a disappointing 13th-place finish at Hakone this year. Next month star seniors Yamato Yoshii, Shota Nakano and Jin Yuasa will all graduate. On Jan. 30 Takumi Sano was named captain of Chuo's 2024-25 team, and 3rd-years without ekiden experience like Takanuma are expected to play a key role in the year to come.

51 seconds behind in 2nd was Koku Gakuin University 3rd-year Yuto Numai, breaking his PB by over a minute too. Komazawa University 2nd-year Seiryu Morishige was 3rd in 1:03:14, with the next seven collegiate finishers all going under 1:04. Former Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage winner Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Track Tokyo) was the first non-collegiate finisher at 2nd overall in 1:03:04.

Chuo's Yuta Ida won the 10 km in 30:00. Sumika Hori (Shoin Univ.) won the women's half marathon in 1:17:43, with Maki Izumida (Daiichi Seimei) taking a close win in the women's 10 km in 33:51 by 1 second over Haruka Suguro (Hakuho Joshi H.S.).

46th Kanagawa Half Marathon

Yokohama, Kanagawa, 4 Feb. 2024

Women
1. Sumika Hori (Shoin Univ.) - 1:17:43

Men
1. Kazusa Takanuma (Chuo Univ.) - 1:02:19 - PB
2. Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Track Tokyo) - 1:03:04
3. Yuto Numai (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:10
4. Seiryu Morishige (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:03:14
5. Genta Tsuru (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:22
6. Soshin Nakano (Kanagawa Univ.) - 1:03:27
7. Kyosuke Hiramatsu (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:30
8. Sota Morohoshi (Sunbelx) - 1:03:31
9. Tatsuya Furukawa (Juntando Univ.) - 1:03:33
10. Shun Kurihara (Meiji Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:34
11. Shunpei Watanabe (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:35
12. Yudai Nakagawa (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:43

Women's 10 km
1. Maki Izumida (Daiichi Seimei) - 33:51
2. Haruka Suguro (Hakuho Joshi H.S.) - 33:52
3. Aya Kotajima (Hakuho Joshi H.S.) - 34:21
4. Hikaru Hamano (Chuo Univ.) - 34:33

Men's 10 km
1. Yuta Ida (Chuo Univ.) - 30:00

source article:
translated and edited by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Goshima and Kasai Win 10000 m National Titles, Maeda Breaks U20 Asian Record

Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a
1 comment
Read more

10000 m National Championships Preview

  Less than five months since the 2023 10000 m National Championships went down at the 2021 Olympic stadium in Tokyo, the 2024 edition happens Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium, with NHK broadcasting it live starting at 19:25 local time. Doubling up on Nationals like this lets Japanese athletes double dip on placing points to try to get into the Paris Olympics on rankings. But between the number of people who've hit the 30:40.00 women's standard and 27:00.00 men's standard and the lopsided eight spots given away to top placers at World XC, there are only four women's spots and three men's available via rankings. Of those, three of the four women's spots and two of the three men's spots are currently occupied by top placers at December's 2023 Nationals, Ririka Hironaka , Haruka Kokai and Rino Goshima for women and Ren Tazawa and Tomoki Ota for men. The 2023 Nationals did get close to the standards, with Hironaka leading the top four women under
3 comments
Read more

Golden Games in Nobeoka Top Results

  For everyone not running yesterday's 10000 m National Championships , where the Asahi Kasei corporate team dominated the men's race with four out of four men sub-28 including winner Jun Kasai , 27:17.46, the grand dame of Japan's long distance time trial circuit was happening on AK's home ground in Miyazaki at the Golden Games in Nobeoka . Not including kids' races, a total of 74 women and 227 men ran in 14 heats of 5000 m, with a packed-in crowd of fans lining the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons. It's a pretty awesome meet, and memorable performances included: National champion Kamimura Gakuen H.S. standout Caroline Kariba continued to kill it in the second month of her corporate league career, winning the 5000 m A-heat in 15:00.95 in a race where 3 out of the top 4 including her ran PBs. National champion Meijo University seemed flat at this point in the season, with none of its people under 16 minutes and star Nanase Tanimoto leading
1 comment
Read more