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.

Hassan Runs NR/CR for Osaka Win, Dibaba Hits Women's CR, Yoshida and Shuley Earn Legends

This was maybe the most entertaining marathon in years. After rocking the 2nd leg at last year's Hakone Ekiden Hibiki Yoshida (Sunbelx) ran an incredible 1:01:01 CR for the 21.9 km New Year Ekiden 2nd leg last month, equivalent to a 58:47 half marathon. That predicted a 2:03:27 marathon if he ever ran one, and when Yoshida announced he was debuting at this year's Osaka Marathon he wasted no time in saying it'd be a shot at the 2:04:55 NR. Things went out fast enough with a 14:50 split through 5 km, 2:05:11 pace, but Yoshida just couldn't hold back and took off at 8 km. He clearly DGAF about what was probably going to happen as his projected finish kept getting faster, 2:04:41, 2:04:15, 2:03:51, 2:03:40, edging closer and closer to what his New Year time predicted, but not helped along by the fact that he missed 4 out of his first 5 drink bottles. People laughed, and then cheered him on. 30 km was the first time he slowed, his finish projection dropping to 2:03:53, an...

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...

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