japan running news

2023 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University 's 1st and 8th runners from its winning team Kensuke Tsubura  and Yuto Akahoshi were at the United Airlines NYC Half Sunday with head coach Hiroaki Oyagi and his wife Kyoko Oyagi as part of the partnership between race organizers NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon set up by JRN in 2012. For both athletes it was the first time for them to ever go outside Japan. Akahoshi, a 3rd-year at Komazawa who ran his PB of 1:02:00 at Ageo last fall, lasted longer in the main pack, staying with the group that ended up filling 4th through 14th after the breakaway move up the East Side by world record holders Jacob Kiplimo and Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda and Moroccan Zouhair Talbi . In the last 5 km he dropped back to finish 14th in 1:03:49, just behind 2022 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Maru Teferi of Israel. "My goal was to come here and try to stay with some of the best athletes in the world, so I'm pretty disap...

The New York Road Runners have announced the elite women's and men's fields for the Mar. 19 United Airlines NYC Half . Alongside half marathon WR holder Jacob Kiplimo and 5000 m/10000 m WR holder Joshua Cheptegei , 2023 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University 's Kensuke Tsubura and Yuta Akahoshi will make their international debuts. Tsubura and Akahoshi were the top two Japanese collegiate finishers at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , earning them places in NYC through a program JRN has run since 2012 in cooperation with the NYRR and Ageo city hall. Tsubura finished 2nd on the opening leg at Hakone to get Komazawa off to a solid start, with Akahoshi maintaining Komazawa's lead on the second day of the race with a 4th-place finish on the eighth leg. Their win capped a 2022-23 season sweep of all three major university ekidens, the first-ever triple crown for head coach Hiroaki Oyagi . Oyagi will travel to NYC with his two athletes, and having announced pos...

The world's deepest half marathon returned after a 3-year absence Sunday in Ageo, Saitama. In its 35th anniversary year the Ageo City Half Marathon debuted a tweaked new World Athletics-certified course that moved its starting point onto the road outside the stadium traditionally used for its start and finish.  Boniface Mulwa (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) took off from the massive main pack after a leisurely 14:48 opening 5 km, pursued at first by national record holder Yusuke Ogura and Kensuke Tsubura of this season's Izumo and National University Ekiden course record breaker Komazawa University . But Mulwa's sub-14 split from there to 10 km was too much for them, and he ran the rest of the way complete alone out front. Ageo's first sub-61 clocking looked to be in the works, but after a short stretch of undulations leading to 15 km Mulwa slowed just enough to miss that and let the chase group start to come back into sight of him. With a kick on the last lap of the track...