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JRN's Ten Most-Read Stories of 2024

Hirabayashi Knocks 'em Out in Osaka - Feb. 25 Fresh off the equivalent of a 1:00:40 half marathon on Day One of the Hakone Ekiden, 21-year-old Kiyoto Hirabayashi of Koku Gakuin University ran a debut and collegiate record 2:06:18 to win the Osaka Marathon. Post-race his coach Yasuhiro Maeda compared Hirabayashi to former NR holder Atsushi Fujita , Maeda's teammate in their days at Komazawa University . Ethiopian Waganesh Nekasha won the women's race in 2:24:20. ASICS Apologizes for Typo on Tokyo Marathon T-Shirts - Feb. 28 Tokyo Marathon sponsor ASICS issued an apology after selling an official t-shirt with a misspelled English word on it even though the misspelling actually increased the shirt's appeal. Sutume Asefa Kebede and Benson Kipruto Run Fastest-Ever Marathons in Japan to Win in Tokyo - Mar. 3 Ethiopian Sutume Asefe Kebede and Kenyan Benson Kipruto ran the fastest times ever produced on Japanese soil, Sutume dropping Rosemary Wanjiru at 40 km to win ...
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Osaka International Women's Marathon and Osaka Half Marathon Elite Fields

The elite field for the Jan. 26 Osaka International Women's Marathon is out, and it's a really short list, especially given Osaka International's World Athletics platinum label status. There's last year's winner Workenesh Edesa , 3rd-placer Mizuki Matsuda , 7th-placer Natsumi Matsushita , 9th-placer Madoka Nakano and 12th-placer Kana Kobayashi , top Japanese Paris Olympic marathon placer Yuka Suzuki , veteran Kenyan-born Israeli Lonah Chemtai Salpeter , the debuting Nanaka Izawa , and that's about it. Workenesh outran Honami Maeda last year, both going under 2:19 and Workenesh getting the win in 2:18:51. She has to be viewed as the favorite. Salpeter has run as fast as 2:17:45 before, but she hasn't run under 2:25 in the marathon or under 1:10 in the half marathon since 2022, so there's not much reason to think she's going to be competitive in a faster race here. Matsuda and Suzuki both ran PBs in their last marathons, Matsuda a 2:20:42 in Berlin ...
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Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden Preview - Collegiate Women's National Championship

The last big race of the year is Monday's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden , the season-ending national championship race for university women. Between Mt. Fuji and October's Morinomiyako Ekiden , up to this season Meijo University was undefeated in 13-straight championship ekiden races, with 7-straight wins at Morinomiyako and 6 at Mt. Fuji. But nothing lasts forever, and at this year's Morinomiyako the last big dynasty school before Meijo, Ritsumeikan University , winner at Morinomiyako from 2011 to 2015 and at Mt. Fuji from 2013 to 2017, outran a flailing Meijo squad to take the win for the first time in 9 years. Its runners took stage wins on 3 of the 6 legs, Yumi Yamamoto breaking the Second Stage CR, Tomo Muramatsu the Third Stage CR, and anchor Makoto Tsuchiya outrunning Meijo captain Nanase Tanimoto for the win. Meijo's big names, especially Tanimoto and Nanaka Yonezawa , have been off their best most of this season, and it showed when they were only 4th at Mori...
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