Four Big Races This Weekend

Four big races happen Sunday, and it's looking like only one of them might escape the cold rain that's forecast to hit most of the country that morning. That would be Kyoto's Biwako Cross Country meet, the lesser cousin of Fukuoka's National Cross Country Championships three weeks later but still filling an important hole in the calendar left by the demise of the Chiba Cross Country meet. Biwako attracts a few corporate teams and top high schools like Wacoal and Toyokawa H.S., but its main claim to fame is as the National Junior High School Cross Country Championships. Complete entry lists here.

In the heart of Yokohama's industrial zone Sunday is one of two big half marathons, the Kanagawa Half Marathon and 10 km. Top-tier collegiate runners will be headed for Marugame, on which more later, but a lot of the schools that ran last month's Hakone Ekiden will send big contingents from their rosters of alternates and B-tier runners, and that always makes it one of the super-deep races of the season. Expect to see heavy representation by Hakone top two Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University, Tokai University, Meiji University, Nihon University and more,

The Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon in Kagawa will be the bigger deal, the home of the Japanese men's national record and always with one of the best half marathon fields of the year in Japan. Sheila Chepkirui, Pauline Kamulu and Dolphine Omare lead the women's race this time, where the most exciting storyline might be the debuts of 5000m/10000m all-time JPN #2 Ririka Hironaka and #1 high schooler Caroline Kariba (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.).

Alexander Mutiso vs. Charles Langat vs. Cleophas Kandie is another good race waiting to happen in the men's race, and despite the expected rain hopes are high that Komazawa's Kotaro Shinohara will come through with Japan's first-ever sub-60 half marathon after running 1:00:11 last year. Sondre Moen and Brett Robinson are both in the race too, and 42-year-old Ser-Od Bat-Ochir will be trying to better his 1:02:10 Mongolian NR after a 1:02:53 tuneup last weekend in Osaka. BS-Fuji will have the live broadcast starting at 10:30 a.m. local time. Entry list info here.

Last up is the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in Oita. Beppu-Oita doesn't factor into consideration for the Paris Olympic team, but while that means there isn't a lot of top-tier talent it's still got a good field at the 2:06-2:08 level, with internationals Mohamed Reda El Aaraby, Hicham Laqouahi and Aychew Bantie leading domestic men Fumihiro Maruyama, Yuta Koyama, Yuta Shimoda, Kazuya Azegami, Ryo Osaki and Yuichi Yasui. Canadian Ben Preisner is also in the field, hoping to ride the deep pack to something a tier up from his 2:11:47 at the Oregon World Championships, and Hakone Ekiden Ninth Stage winner Genta Kuramoto of overall champ Aoyama Gakuin will be making his marathon debut. TBS has the live TV broadcast starting at 11:50 a.m. local time Sunday, with streaming above. Entry lists here.

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

Ichiyama 8th at Copenhagen Marathon

Currently the #10-ranked Japanese man in the marathon with the fastest-ever domestic time at the elite Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx) made his international debut at Sunday's Copenhagen Marathon , literally an international debut as it was his first time outside the country. Ichiyama hoped to be in contention to break the 2:08:23 CR and go for the win, and with cool and breezy conditions ran easy in the lead group through 30 km. But something ate away at almost everyone as time went by, several people in the lead men's and women's groups saying humidity, and past 30 km Ichiyama fell off. Falling as low as 9th, he rallied after 40 km to finish 8th in 2:13:07. "It was different than in Japanese races," he said. "I'm used to bigger packs and more even pacing, but this was a kind of racing I hadn't done before. There's a lot to think about. I didn't feel like I was sweating a lot, but I got really thirsty and started sk

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

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