Kenyans Sweep Kumamoto Kosa Road Race

Japan-based Kenyans dominated at the revamped and improved Kumamoto Kosa Road Race across all three of its main distances. Agnes Ngetich from the Canon team got things started in the women's 5 km, blasting a 14:48 that left Japanese NR holder Nozomi Tanaka almost 40 seconds behind. Tanaka, whose 15:25 was technically a NR, was only 10 seconds up on Nanami Watanabe, who continued a good season with a 15:35 for 3rd only 1 second off Tanaka's previous NR iteration.

Kosa's 10 km race has historically been for high school boys, but this year's race had an excellent field of corporate league runners. Triple Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Vincent Yegon, now with the Honda corporate team, won in 28:05 by 1 second over Festus Kiprono. Mangata Kibet was 3rd in 28:13, with Kenyans taking the top 6 spots. Top high schooler Mahiro Kubo from local Omuta H.S. ran a solid 29:58, good enough for the win a lot of years but only 14th against his older competition.

Kosa is the site of the fastest 10-miler ever run, and even though it wasn't especially fast this year it had another close race in its premier distance. Anthony Maina from the Koichi Morishita-coached Toyota Kyushu team outkicked Senshu University's Duncan Maina by 1 second for the win in 46:07, with Cleophas Kandie from Mitsubishi Juko making it a Kenyan top 3. Collegiate runner Riku Kodama was the top-placing Japanese man at 4th in 46:21.

49th Kumamoto Kosa Road Race

1 Dec. 2024

complete results

Men's 10 Miles

1. Anthony Maina (Kenya/Toyota Kyushu) - 46:07

2. Duncan Maina (Kenya/Senshu Univ.) - 46:08

3. Cleophas Kandie (Kenya/Mitsubishi Juko) - 46:12

4. Riku Kodama (Juntendo Univ.) - 46:21

5. Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 46:25

6. Kosei Machida (Chuo Hatsujo) - 46:27

7. Benuel Mogeni Magoma (Kenya/Yasukawa Denki) - 46:30

8. Yuta Shitara (Nishitetsu) - 46:34

9. Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda) - 46:35

10. Keito Makise (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:37

11. Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko) - 46:40

12. Tatsuya Furukawa (Juntando) - 46:48

13. Naoto Hashimoto (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 46:49

14. Kento Nishi (Osaka Gas) - 46:51

15. Yoshiki Oshiro (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:51

16. Hidekazu Hijikata (Asahi Kasei) - 46:53

17. Kyosuke Hanao (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:54

18. Wataru Tochigi (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 46:57

19. Kazuki Moriya (Mitsubishi Juko) - 46:57

20. Keita Sakamoto (Aichi Seiko) - 46:58

21. Takanori Ogata (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:59

22. Shun Sadakata (Mazda) - 47:03

23. Shota Nishimura (Aichi Seiko) - 47:04

24. Ryoto Yoshioka (Mitsubishi Juko) - 47:07

25. Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko) - 47:07

Men's 10 km

1. Vincent Yegon (Kenya/Honda) - 28:05

2. Festus Kiprono (Kenya) - 28:06

3. Mangata Kibet (Kenya/Mazda) - 28:13

4. Jonathan Ndiku (Kenya/YKK) - 28:25

5. Richard Kimayat (Kenya) - 28:34

6. Joseph Mutwanthei (Kenya) - 28:42

7. Nagiya Mori (Honda) - 28:51

8. Ryoma Aoki (Honda) - 28:53

9. Ken Nakayama (Honda) - 28:59

10. Victor Kipkirui Mutai (Kenya/Honda) - 29:04

Women's 5 km

1. Agnes Ngetich (Kenya/Canon) - 14:48

2. Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 15:25 - NR

3. Nanami Watanabe (Panasonic) - 15:35

4. Diana Cherotich (Higo Ginko) - 15:44

5. Martha Mokaya (Kenya/Canon) - 15:52

Updates on Transfers

April 1 is the start of Japan's new academic and fiscal year, and there's always a wave of transfer announcements to go with it. Some notable ones yesterday: 800 m NR holder Rin Kubo skipped university to go straight to 2023 Queens Ekiden national champion Sekisui Kagaku after her graduation from Higashi Osaka Keiai H.S. Multiple NR holder Nozomi Tanaka rejoined the Toyota Jidoshokki women's team after having left it to pursue a solo pro career as a New Balance athlete. Already on the team for this fall's Nagoya Asian Games in the 10000 m, Ririka Hironaka announced a switch from her longtime home at Japan Post to the Uniqlo women's team. Collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda joined the 2026 national champion GMO corporate team after graduating from 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University last week. Hakone Ekdien First Stage CR holder Rui Aoki joins the Sumitomo Denko corporate team after running his final race for 2025 Izumo Ekiden w...

Chien Breaks TPE NR, Iwata Betters ID-Class WR - Weekend Track Roundup

The last weekend of the academic and fiscal year saw at least 5 meets with good results domestically and abroad. Kicking things off Friday was the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, where Tomohiro Shinno and Naoto Hasegawa took 1st and 3rd in the men's high jump, both of them only clearing 2.18 m along with 2nd-placer Roman Anastasios . 12 other Japanese athletes were in action on the second day of the meet on Saturday, where 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura ran 3:42.84 for 6th in the men's 1500 m. Nagiya Mori had a better one in the men's 3000 m with a 7:45.40 for 4th. Both Yota Mashiko and Rui Suzuki cleared 8:00 too, Mashiko's 7:53.84 the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese-born high schooler. Abigail Fuka Ido and Nagisa Takahashi both placed 3rd in their events, Ido going 23.85 (-0.9) in the women's 200 m and Takahashi clearing 1.82 m in the women's high jump. 8 Japanese men were at The TEN in California to run 10000 m. In the B-heat won by Edward Marks in ...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

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