Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin. Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06.

Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shiori Zama (Shimamura) won the women's race by almost 3 minutes over Asuka Yamamoto (Universal Entertainment) - 1:44:57, with Haruka Ito (Komazawa H.S.) taking the high school girls' 10 km in 35:07 and Ryusa Furuya (Takushoku Daiichi H.S.) the high school boys' race in 29:54.

The former home of the 30 km world record, Kumamoto's Kumanichi Road Race is usually a faster race than Ome, but this year the men's race was more of a tense pack race til near the end. Mahiro Sato pulled away late to win in 1:31:51, the third big road title so far this year for the Konica Minolta corporate team following teammate Taiga Hirayama's wins at the Osaka Half Marathon and National Corporate Half Marathon. 2nd through 4th all finished within 7 seconds, Hinata Kuroki (Soka Univ.) taking 2nd in 1:32:25.

Higo Ginko teammates Eriko Otsuka, Miyu Kubo and Hina Tada ran most of the race together and finished close, Otsuka winning in 1:49:50, Kubo next in 1:50:00 and Tada 3rd in 1:50:07.

58th Ome Road Race

Ome, Tokyo, 15 Feb. 2026

complete results

Men's 30 km

1. Masato Arao (ND Software) - 1:30:54

2. Yudai Shimazu (GMO) - 1:31:58

3. Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:32:07

4. Akihiro Kaneko (Comodi Iida) - 1:32:20

5. Takumi Oishi (Suzuki) - 1:32:35

6. Takuma Akiyoshi (Tokyo Univ.) - 1:32:48

7. Yuichi Sato (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:33:56

8. Ryo Kuchimachi (Subaru) - 1:36:12

9. Ezekiel Cheboitibin (Kenya) - 1:36:42

10. Ruon Oikawa (ND Software) - 1:36:54

Women's 30 km

1. Shiori Zama (Shimamura) - 1:44:57

2. Asuka Yamamoto (Univ. Ent.) - 1:47:41

3. Anna Matsuda (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:52:32

4. Eri Suzuki (Kumashiro T&F Assoc.) - 1:55:53

5. Mitsuko Hirose (Tokyo Wings) - 1:57:39

High School Girls' 10 km

1. Haruka Ito (Komazawa H.S.) - 35:07

2. Reika Kitamura (Komazawa H.S.) - 35:41

3. Ayane Kobayashi (Komazawa H.S.) - 35:58

4. Yuho Fujii (Komazawa H.S.) - 36:27

5. Arisa Otsuka (Fussa H.S.) - 37:47

High School Boys' 10 km

1. Ryusa Furuya (Takushoku Daiichi H.S.) - 29:54

Kumanichi Road Race

Kumamoto, 15 Feb. 2026

complete results

Men's 30 km

1. Mahiro Sato (Konica Minolta) - 1:31:51

2. Hinata Kuroki (Soka Univ.) - 1:32:25

3. Koki Kobayashi (SG Holdings) - 1:32:31

4. Takuto Aramaki (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:32:32

5. Sota Sumihara (Aisan Kogyo) - 1:33:38

6. Kaito Iida (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:34:11

7. Yuito Nakamura (SG Holdings) - 1:34:34

8. Kento Otsu (Chuo Hatsujo) - 1:34:55

Women's 30 km

1. Eriko Otsuka (Higo Ginko) - 1:49:50

2. Miyu Kubo (Higo Ginko) - 1:50:00

3. Hina Tada (Higo Ginko) - 1:50:07

70th Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden

The 70th running of the Yamagata-ken Judan Ekiden happened over the start of the Golden Week holidays, a 3-day, 29-leg race covering 306.9 km around the northern prefecture of Yamagata. There used to be a lot more of these races where people from the prefecture run for their hometown teams on a Tour de Whatever prefecture or area it happens to be held in, but Yamagata's is one of the few to have survived this long. And amazingly enough, local broadcaster YBC live streamed the entire thing on Youtube. There aren't many corporate teams in the mostly rural area, so runners from the ND Software corporate team played a heavy role, its 2 best runners Masato Arao and Ryoma Takeuchi winning their stages on Day 2 with Takeuchi doubling to anchor the Kita-Murayama team to an overall 5th-place finish, and Koichi Shoji breaking the 2nd leg CR on Day 1 and winning the 2nd-to-last stage on Day 3 to play a key role in the Yamagata city team taking the overall win in 16:06:51, 3:09/km ...

Ochiai, Kawamura, Usuki and Mishima Set NR - Golden Week Track Roundup

There was a lot of action on the track over Japan's Golden Week holidays. Highlights: Shizuoka International Meet - Fukuroi, 3 May Men's 800 m NR holder Ko Ochiai (Komazawa Univ.) broke his own record with a 1:43.90 win. Daigo Usuki (18 Ginko) and Gakuto Mishima (Nippatsu) both broke the NR in the T20 men's 400 m, Usuki getting the win in 49.08 and Mishima 2nd in 49.15. Lauren Bruce (New Zealand) threw a meet record 67.44 m on her final attempt in the women's hammer throw, but even her shortest throw of 64.31 m was over 3 m better than the rest of the field. Kazuki Kurokawa (Sumitomo Denko) got the men's 400 mH meet record with a 48.50 for the win. Women's 3000 mSC NR holder Miu Saito (Panasonic) won the steeple in 9:31.83, the 2nd-best time in her career so far, despite falling. 2nd through 4th all broke 10 minutes. National University Men's Ekiden Kanto Region Qualifier - Hiratsuka, 4 May The top 8 teams at November's National University Men...

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

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