Kiyama and Murakami Making International Debuts at United Airlines NYC Half

Since the start of JRN's collegiate development program in 2012, a partnership between the New York Road Runners and the Ageo City Half Marathon that brings two of the top male university half marathoners in the country to the United Airlines NYC Half every year, a total of 25 athletes have made the trip. For most of them it's been their first time racing outside Japan. 10 of the 25 have been from Komazawa University, including 4 of the 5 fastest times and 4 of the 5 best placings. Kenta Murayama's 1:00:57 for 5th in 2017 leads both lists and still stands as the fastest half marathon ever run by a Japanese man on U.S. soil.

This year two more Komazawa runners are in New York as numbers 24 and 25, Yudai Kiyama and Hibiki Murakami. At Ageo last November Kiyama and Murakami ran PBs of 1:01:59 and 1:02:04 for 2nd and 4th overall to pick up invites to the NYC Half. A 3rd-year, Kiyama was a national-level 1500 m runner in high school. At Komazawa he struggled to make its starting roster for the 3-race ekiden season, making only the 10-man Hakone Ekiden squad his 2nd year in 2024, where he was 12th on the downhill Sixth Stage.

This past season he missed the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden teams again, but his Ageo performance marked a breakthrough that was enough to have Komazawa head coach Atsushi Fujita give him the responsibility of handling the important First Stage at Hakone. He ran well, leading the chase pack behind breakaway leader Shunsuke Yoshii of Chuo University and showing his roots as a 1500 m runner with a fast kick that put him 2nd behind Yoshii. A month later he made a massive breakthrough at the Marugame Half Marathon, running as high in the field as 7th in a race where the top 4 all broke 60 minutes, dropping to 15th by 20 km, but coming back with the fastest close in the field to retake 10th.

A 2nd-year, Murakami's standout performance in high school was a win on the 2021 National High School Ekiden's Seventh Stage where he anchored Sera H.S. to the national title. Like Kiyama he didn't make Komazawa's starting roster for any of the 3 ekidens his first year, but after missing Izumo last fall he made his debut 2 weeks before Ageo with a 5th-place run on the National University Ekiden's Fifth Stage. His Ageo time earned him a place on one of Hakone's 2 longest legs, the 23.1 km Ninth Stage, where he was 5th again. Marugame was good to Murakami too as he ran a new PB of 1:01:46.

1:00:32 makes Kiyama the fastest Japanese collegiate runner ever to line up in New York, where he is ranked 5th in the field. Murakami is the 3rd-fastest ever behind Kiyama and Murayama. With other alumni of the program like Yuta Shitara and Akira Akasaki having gone on to break national records and make single-digit placings at the Olympics, good runs in New York would mark Kiyama and Murakami as top people to watch in the next generation of Japanese distance runners. Streaming of the United Airlines NYC Half starts at 7:00 a.m. local time Sunday.

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...

Who's Running Tokyo Worlds?

The Japanese marathon teams will be the most prestigious ones to be on for September's Tokyo World Championships, and with Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon the window for Japanese athletes to get onto the JAAF's shortlist closed. Who's on it? The final decision won't be made until Mar. 26, but let's look through the selection criteria and see who's guaranteed, who's pretty likely, and who has a chance. 1. Marathon medalists at the Paris Olympics - There weren't any, so nobody makes the team this way. Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) were the top placers, both of them running PBs in the Olympics to finish 6th. You'd think that would count for something a year later, but you'd think wrong. 2. JMC Series IV Champions - The top point scorers in the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV, which ran from April, 2023 to March, 2025, earn places on the marathon teams along with cash prizes. For women that's Yuka ...

Tokyo Marathon Top Japanese Man Tsubasa Ichiyama Works 4 Days a Week, Walked On in College

38,000 people ran the 2025 Tokyo Marathon . Every runner had their own story, but one of the most special was Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx). Despite being on almost nobody's radar, he outran some of the best in the country to finish as the top Japanese man. Ichiyama ran most of the race in the 3rd pace group, going through halfway in 1:02:44 and 30 km in 1:29:13. When the pacers stopped, he showed what he could really do. "I'm not good at downhills, so in the first part it was hard to run smoothly," he said at the post-race press conference. "But after the downhill part ended I got into my rhythm, and I think that helped me over the 2nd half." After dropping Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and others, he quickly bore down on the Japanese athletes who had gone out faster in the 2nd pace group. Overtaking Paris Olympics 6th placer Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), at 39.8 km he caught all-time Japanese #2 man Yohei I...

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