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Showing posts with the label Kazumi Sakaguchi

Hayashi Wins National University Half Marathon Title - Weekend Road Review

by Brett Larner

Leaders 14:54 thru 5k, just under 63 pace. Huge pack with almost no separation. pic.twitter.com/s06yAf9wUR — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) March 6, 2016
Lake Biwa was the weekend's biggest race, but there was no shortage of other high-level action across the country.  Last year the National University Men's Half Marathon in Tokyo's Show Kinen Park was the deepest half marathon in history, with 265 breaking 1:06:00 and the top 12 all under 1:02:30.  This year with no World University Games and the World University Cross-Country Championships, NYC Half Marathon, World Half Marathon Championships and Rio Olympics all coming up most of Japan's top university men gave it a miss, resulting in a relatively low-key race by recent standards.  The entire field went out just under 3:00/km pace and stayed there, the numbers whittling down to a final seven.  Ryunosuke Hayashi (Tokai Univ.) broke away in the last km for the win in 1:03:07, his teammate Yuki Hirot…
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Shitara Sets Collegiate National Record, Ito and Kawauchi Blaze Fast 30 km Times in Ome and Kumamoto

by Brett Larner
Ome photos by Mika Tokairin
Kumanichi screencap by Applepie

Cold and clear weather helped bring fast times at both of Japan's major 30 km road races on Feb. 17.  At the 57th Kumanichi 30 km Road Race in Kumamoto, the site of the former 1:28:00 world record set by Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta in 2005) and a race which joined forces with the new mass-partipation Kumamoto-jo Marathon last year to ensure its own survival, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) did the seemingly impossible and fulfilled his pre-race promise of a win around 1:29:30.  Despite a spectacular 2:08:15 marathon PB two weeks ago at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, Kawauchi took apart a top-notch field and outkicked the fresh 22-year-old Fumihiro Maruyama (Team Asahi Kasei) by 3 seconds for the win in 1:29:31, a new PB by 36 seconds and a record on the hillier new course introduced last year by 30 seconds. Kawauchi's time was the sixth-best in Kumanichi history, but considering the toughe…
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Hakoyama, Ugachi Take Kumanichi as Japan's Two Big 30 km Races Line Up on Same Day

by Brett Larner

Traditionally held one week apart, the world's two top 30 km races, the Kumanichi 30 km in southern Japan and the Ome 30 km in Tokyo's mountainous western suburbs, were both held Feb. 19 this year.

With over 17000 runners in this year's field Ome has long been a popular mass-participation event along with hosting an elite race, but Kumanichi has typically been an elite-only event with only a few dozen men and a handful of women.  Keeping with the explosion of mass-participation events, this year Kumanichi incorporated a new amateur full marathon, the Kumamotojo Marathon with a field of 10000, while keeping the small elite 30 km division on a new course covering most of the marathon course.  The leading candidate for the London Olympics 10000 m squad, Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta) took things in stride in his second Kumanichi appearance, splitting a solo 14:25 for the first 5 km well ahead of world record pace.  Although he slowed progressively for t…
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