Weekend Road Race Roundup

Both of the big 30 km races this weekend had some of the fastest winning times in their histories, with the Kumanichi 30 km the faster. Kotaro Kondo (SGH) pushed the pace to grind the competition, splitting 15:02-14:56-14:37-14:31 until only Kyuma Yokota (Toyota Kyushu) was left. Things slowed from 20 to 25 km but Kondo still pulled away, putting over a minute on Yokota over the last 10 km and just missing the CR by 2 seconds in 1:28:54. Yokota was 2nd in 1:30:01, with nobody else clearing 1:32. Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) had an even bigger margin of victory in the women's race, wining in 1:44:39 by nearly 2 minutes.

At the Ome 30 km and 10 km Road Race, Paris Olympics marathon team members Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Mao Ichiyama (Shiseido) took the top spots in solo performances. With a strong tailwind in the uphill first half and headwind in the mostly downhill second half Akasaki went out incredibly hard, splitting 28:45 at 10 km, on track to break the NR by 1:45, and 58:35 at 20 km, still 7 seconds under NR pace. But between the headwind and a couple of climbs between 20 and 23 km he couldn't stay on NR pace, and Akasaki had to settle for a 1:29:46 win. It's rare to see a sub-1:30 on the Ome course, and with a margin of victory of 4 1/2 minutes over Ibuki Kaneko (Komazawa Univ.) it showed how dominantly Akasaki ran.

Ichiyama had a similar pattern, 33:45 at 10 km and slowing from there to win in 1:45:21 by more than 8 minutes. Azusa Sumi (Universal Entertainment) won the women's 10 km in 33:57, with Nozomi Sugaya (Komazawa H.S.) running 30:01 to break the 1993-era high school boys' 10 km CR. Sugaya will start at Hakone Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University in April.

There weren't any top-tier marathons in Japan this weekend, but it was still one of the busiest marathon weekends of the year with mass-participation races across the country:

• Local Yuma Morii ran the fastest time of the weekend, a PB 2:14:15 to win the Kyoto Marathon by more than 3 minutes over Yotaro Suzuki. Fuka Hirokawa had a closer race on her hands, winning 2:47:22 to 2:48:16 over Miyuki Nishimura.
• Retired Olympians Hisanori Kitajima and Kentaro Nakamoto went 1-2 at the Kitakyushu Marathon, Kitajima winning in 2:15:36 and the 41-year-old Nakamoto, now head coach at the Yasukawa Denki corporate team, 2nd in 2:17:26. Yuma Kawatani took 3rd in 2:19:44. Kana Itai had the fastest women's time of the weekend, running 2:45:19 to win by more than 3 minutes over Asami Morino.
• Held in parallel with the Kumanichi 30 km, the Kumamoto Castle Marathon saw Tokyo University grad student Hiroaki Furukawa win for the fourth time in a PB 2:16:14. Yuhi Takami was 2nd in 2:19:57. Like in Kyoto the women's race was closer, Michiru Kato getting the win in 2:48:05 with Manami Tanigawa close behind in 2:48:48.
• The Kochi Ryoma Marathon looked like a duel between ultra runner Takehiko Gyoba and amateur Takemaru Yamasaki, side-by-side through a 1:08:31 first half and all the way past 35 km. Gyoba dropped Yamasaki with 5 km, but in the last km Shota Shiode of Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University came from over 2 1/2 minutes behind at halfway to run Gyoba down in the last km. Shiode took the win in 2:19:20, with Gyoba 2nd in 2:19:43 and Yamasaki 3rd in 2:20:52. Hong Kong's Leanne Szeto won the women's race in a PB 2:53:04.
• In training for the Tokyo Marathon in two weeks, 2:08:55 marathoner Akira Tomiyasu won the Okinawa Marathon in 2:22:15, beating local Tatsunori Hamasaki by 58 seconds. Ayano Ikehara was the women's winner in 3:00:21.

In some races from last weekend that we didn't have time for while in New York:

• Corporate leaguer Akihiro Kaneko won the Ehime Marathon in 2:14:33, with amateur Rinta Miyaoka 2nd in 2:19:02. Yuka Gito led five women under 2:48, winning 2:40:17.
• Ayumi Yokota was faster than Gito in winning the Himeji Castle Marathon, running 2:39:16 to win by almost 9 minutes. Haruyuki Morikawa took the men's ran in 2:17:29 with the top 3 all getting under 2:20.
• At the Karatsu 10-Miler, Keito Makise (Toyota Kyushu) took a close win in 47:16 over Junpei Maseda (Waseda Univ.). Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) was 5th in 47:30 after a long recovery from injury, saying afterward that he was happy with where that put him ahead of next weekend's Osaka Marathon. Fired as head coach of Rikkyo University last October days before the Hakone Ekiden qualifier in a scandal involving a female member of his team, Yuichiro Ueno resurfaced in the Hiramatsu Byoin corporate team uniform with a 48:17 for 8th. After overuse injuries in January resulted in rare DNS in his races since then, Yuki Kawauchi (ADHS) could only manage a 58:34 for 67th. Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko) won the women's 10 km in 33:13, Koshiro Tanimoto (Omuta H.S.) the high school boys' 10 km in 29:28, and Shiena Kanamori (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) the high school girls' 5 km in 16:24.

text and photos © 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved