16 Women and 26 Men on the Current Olympic Trials Qualifier List

Last weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon and the Tokyo Marathon the weekend before brought the main part of the first year of qualification for the Marathon Grand Championship Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials to be held in Nagoya in October, 2027, to an end. There are still a few races like the Nagano Marathon and overseas World Athletics platinum label races this season where people might qualify, but for the most part we're not likely to see many new additions until August's Hokkaido Marathon, where the qualifying period opened last year. As of right now 16 women and 26 men have qualified, although the first woman to make the cut, Ai Hosoda, announced that she was retiring after Tokyo earlier this month.

Out of the 16 women to have qualified so far, Mikuni Yada is the fastest with her 2:19:57 debut at Osaka Women's in January. Including Hosoda that makes 2 qualifiers for the Edion corporate team, but Daihatsu has the biggest share of the field so far at 3 qualifiers, Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori in Nagoya and Mizuki Matsuda at Osaka Women's. It's a great achievement for head coach Miwako Yamanaka, one of the few female head coaches in the industry in Japan.

Mitsubishi Juko also has 3 qualifiers on the men's list, Ichitaka Yamashita getting there in Osaka, Ryota Kondo in Tokyo, and Hiroto Inoue at Beppu-Oita. But 3 independent runners not belonging to corporate teams are on the list too, the 2 fastest Suguru Osako and Kengo Suzuki and the slowest, Yudai Fukuda. Sora Shinozakura on the women's list is also an independent athlete, bringing the total to 4 out of 42 overall.

The Otsuka Seiyaku team has 3 qualifiers total so far, Rie Kawauchi and Kana Kobayashi on the women's list and Daisuke Uekado on the men's, and there are also 3 collegiate runners on the men's list, Asahi Kuroda of Aoyama Gakuin University, Shinsaku Kudo of Waseda University, and Itta Tameike of Chuo University. Other teams with 2 qualifiers so far include Tokyo Metro, Kurosaki Harima, and Toyota.

Interestingly, and a bit entertainingly, former Takushoku University roommates and multiple Olympic and world championships teammates Kentaro Nakamoto and Arata Fujiwara, both have 2 people on the corporate teams they now coach, in the field, Nakamoto's Yasukawa Denki having the edge with Ryo Goda running 2:06:51 in Osaka and Kiyoshi Koga 2:07:46 in Beppu-Oita, and Fujiwara's Suzuki having Tomohiro Fujimura, 2:08:49 in Tokyo, and Takumi Oishi, 2:08:51 in Fukuoka.

We'll follow up with an updated list as things evolve.

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."...

Akasaki 2nd, Maeda 9th - Berlin Marathon Japanese Results

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/PhotoRun Even with a few withdrawals there was a massive group of Japanese athletes at the Berlin Marathon this year, most of the group that typically goes to the Chicago Marathon seeming to opt for Berlin instead. With men's winner Sebastian Sawe taking a shot at the world record, Akira Akasaki , Yuhei Urano and NR holder Kengo Suzuki sat back in a 3rd group targeting the JAAF's 2:06:30 standard for 2028 Olympic marathon trials qualification. The group held steady on that pace, quickly passing and leaving behind Hakone fan favorite Aoi Ota , who went out with a 14:26 opening 5 km only to finish in 2:14:02. Suzuki dropped off, but Akasaki and Urano were together through 30 km until Urano did the same. The top Japanese finisher in the Paris Olympics last year, from there Akasaki had what had to have been an incredibly fun last 12 km, picking faster people off one by one as he rolled on. Ultimately he made it all the way up to 2nd in a 2:06:15 PB. ...

Watching Japanese Race Broadcasts Online

One option for watching Japanese races online from overseas is Keyhole TV . The quality and reliability of the streaming varies, but it is usually at least watchable. A paid premium key usually results in significantly better quality. Go here or here to get the Keyhole TV player, or just Google it to find up-to-date sites offering it. If you have downloaded Keyhole before, make sure you have the most recent version of the player for optimal performance. Another option that looks promising is http://www.jpplayer.com/ This also looks good but takes time to set up so might be a better long-term option: http://www.nihonnamaterebi.com/ A list of these and other options: http://www.d-addicts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=73546 This site sometimes has some channels not available elsewhere. JRN also offers live English race commentary for some races via Twitter @JRNLive . To use Keyhole, once you have downloaded, installed and o...

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