Weekend Road and Track Roundup

A roundup of the main road and track action on the last weekend of Japan's 2024-25 academic and fiscal year:

Doubling off a 2:07:06 PB at the Tokyo Marathon 4 weeks ago, Tatsuya Maruyama took bronze at the Asian Marathon Championships in Jiaxing, China in 2:11:56. Gold went to North Korea's Il Ryong Han in a breakaway 2:11:18, with silver medalist Tianyu Chen of China just ahead of Maruyama in 2:11:50. Japan's Shungo Yokota was a distant 4th in 2:14:00, with Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir 6th in 2:15:14. Japanese women Kaede Kawamura and Natsumi Matsushita were 5th and 6th in 2:31:26 and 2:34:40, with medals going to China's Bing Wu, gold in 2:26:01, North Korea's Kwang-Ok Ri, silver right behind her in 2:26:07, and defending gold medalist Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh landing in bronze this time in 2:28:56, her third sub-2:29 performance so far in 2025.
Back home, four men broke 2:20 at the Fukui Sakura Marathon. Ko Kobayashi from the Shindengen Kogyo corporate team got the win in 2:16:37 by nearly a minute over club runner Natsuki Ishibe. The women's race saw Yukie Nagata get the win by just 17 seconds over Momoko Yao, 2:40:31 to 2:40:48. The top 7 women were all under 2:47, pretty good depth for a 3rd-tier Japanese marathon.
On the track, Australia's Maurie Plant Meet was the main event. In his last race before joining Waseda University on April 1, Rui Suzuki ran 13:25.59 for 6th in the 5000 m, the 2nd-fastest Japanese high school mark and 3rd-fastest U20 time ever. Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University's Masaya Tsurukawa was 9th in 13:26.23, with Shunsuke Yoshii, Tetsu Sasaki and Tomonori Yamaguchi unremarkable in 13:55.79, 13:59.73 and 14:06.17. Ryoji Tatezawa was last by 5 seconds in the men's 1500 m in 3:48.24. Yudai Nishi and Koki Ueyama were only 6th and 7th in the men's 200 m in 21.00 and 21.01. In women's track events, Nagisa Shimotabira was 13th of 14 in the 3000 m in 9:07.01, while Tomoka Kimura and Yume Goto took the bottom two places in the 1500 m in 4:19.97 and 4:31.21. Like Tatezawa, Kimura was 5 seconds behind the closest finisher ahead of her. At the other end of the spectrum, Japanese women took the top 3 places in the 100 mH, Yumi Tanaka getting the win in 13.11 over Chisato Kiyoyama and Hitomi Nakajima.
On the field at Maurie Plant, Tomohiro Shinno won the high jump in a middling 2.20 m, with last year's 3rd-place Naoto Hasegawa 5th at 2.16 m and Takashi Eto ;6th at only 2.12 m. Yuki Yamashita was 4th in the triple jump at 15.67 m (-1.8). Yuji Tsutsumi was last in the men's discus throw at 53.62 m, the only athlete not to throw over 54 m. Nagisa Takahashi was a decent 2nd in the women's high jump after clearing 1.86 m. Momone Ueda and Sae Takemoto went 4-5 in the women's javelin throw at 57.65 m and 56.91 m.
With the 10000 m National Championships coming up in 2 weeks most of the big names gave The TEN a miss this year. Kenta Sekiguchi ran the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, 28:07.46 for 5th in the B-heat, with Shotaro Ishihara 9th in 28:14.50. No Japanese women raced.
In Yokohama, the Nittai University Time Trials series kicked off its 2025-26 run even though it was still technically 2024-25. Takuma Akiyoshi from the University of Tokyo had the fastest men's 10000 m at Nittai in 28:45.62, one of 6 men there to break 29 minutes. Juntendo University's Riito Ikema had the fastest 5000 m in 13:36.26, less than half a second ahead of Honda's Nanami Arai. Men's times in the 3000 m, 1500 m and 800 m were unremarkable.
The biggest women's mark went to Nittai's own Miu Saito, who moved up to all-time Japanese #6 in the 3000 m steeplechase and #2 on the collegiate list with a 9:41.57 PB for the win. Corporate leaguer Janet Nyiva edged high schooler Lucy Nduta by 0.35 seconds to win the 5000 m in 15:28.45, with the unattached Sora Shinozakura taking the 3000 m in 9:11.44 after recently quitting the Panasonic corporate team, and Maki Izumida outleaning Kadogo Chebotibin to win the 1500 m in 4:22.36. Saito's Nittai teammate Miko Suzuki won the women's 800 m in 2:13.57.

Nagoya Asian Games Test Event Canceled After Insulation Falls From Venue Ceiling

A section of insulation material fell from the ceiling of Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena, the official venue for squash competition at September's Nagoya Asian Games. There were no injuries, but the city suspended use of the arena until its safety could be guaranteed, resulting in the cancelation of the Asian Games squash test event which was scheduled to have begun on May 14. It is not yet clear whether the arena will be usable for the Asian Games as planned. According to city officials, arena staff found that the insulation material had fallen onto a work walkway 13 m above the ground on the night of May 11. The fallen material was 3.6 m long, 50 cm wide and 2.5 km thick, and was found to be waterlogged. The cause of the accident is unknown, but it is possible that it was caused by rainwater leaking in from the roof. The same insulation material is installed across the entire ceiling, and the city plans to check for the extent of the possible flooding. Asked whether the arena will be re...

Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon

On Apr. 9 the Kinki Region Bureau of Health, Labor and Welfare's Drug Control Division arrested Matthew Inglis Fox , 38, an Australian business owner of no known fixed address, on charges of violating the importation regulations of the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling tablets containing marijuana elements from the United States. The suspect had entered Japan in February to run in the Osaka Marathon . The suspect was arrested on suspicion of smuggling approximately 12 pills containing marijuana by sending them from a U.S. airport to Osaka's Kansai Airport using an international courier service on Feb. 19. The Osaka branch of the Customs Service discovered the tablets in arriving cargo and suspected them to be narcotics. Customs contacted the Narcotics Control Division, which then began its investigation of the case. According to the Narcotics Control Division, the suspect denies the charges. Translator's note: Fox, who received a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Mara...

My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...

japan running news

Search This Blog