Skip to main content

Ueno Solos Second-Straight Fuchu Tamagawa Half Win

http://www.komaspo.com/4157

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The 35th Fuchu Tamagawa Half Marathon took place Nov. 23 in Tokyo's western suburb of Fuchu.  In their last road race before the Jan. 1-2 Hakone Ekiden, defending Fuchu Tamagawa winner Wataru Ueno and teammate Toshiaki Nishizawa of 2012 National University Men's Ekiden champion Komazawa University went 1-2.  Both athletes ran well from the start, running together through 10 km before Ueno made a move to go alone into the lead just before 13 km, leaving Nishizawa behind to fade away.  Looking calm and composed he ran as though there was nothing else, taking the win in 1:05:01.  At the other end of the spectrum, Nishizawa's face showed the strain of the second half of the race and he drifted to a distant 2nd in 1:06:20.  In terms of their placing they showed the characteristic Komazawa strength, but neither athlete was able to reach his time goal.  Both athletes gave comments after the race.

Wataru Ueno
I was still tired from our latest training camp but the conditions were great after the rain let up and it was easy to run.  I dug deep on this one.  Coach (Hiroaki Oyagi) had given me some advice, so I picked things up at 5 km, but even so I was aiming for 64 flat and I ended up a minute short of that.  Since I ran a fair amount of it alone I think it was good mental training (for the Hakone Ekiden).  This is going to be my last Hakone so I want to win my stage and help get the overall win.

Toshiaki Nishizawa
I'm still recovering from the last training camp, so in running with Ueno he was really pushing it and I was just trying to stay with him.  But, I found that I was more fatigued than I expected and after 10 km I started to fade back and was soon by myself.  (Coach Oyagi told me that) this was my last race before Hakone and that I should work on speeding up in the second half, but I couldn't do anything to impress him in this race.  I guess I have to impress him in practice now.  I have to try to overcome my own weakness.

35th Fuchu Tamagawa Half Marathon
Fuchu, Tokyo, 11/23/12

Men
1. Wataru Ueno (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:05:01
2. Toshiaki Nishizawa (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:06:20
3. Suguru Abe (Kanagawa Univ.) - 1:07:21

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Keita Satoh Running New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile

1500 m U20 NR holder Keita Satoh (Nike Swoosh TC) is running this weekend's New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile , the first time that a Japanese man has been invited in the race's 45-year history. In university Sato had to change focus away from middle distance to the half marathon-scale lengths of the Hakone Ekiden stages, but since graduating in March and relocating to Flagstaff he has refocused on the 1500 m, going from 3:43.19 in April in his first 1500 m in almost 4 years to 3:38.30 over the course of 5 races. Fifth Avenue will be his last race before heading back to Japan for one more track 1500 m and some down time. Men's entries with best 1500 m times in last 3 years: Stefan Nillessen (NED) - 3:29.23 (2025) Flavien Szot (FRA) - 3:30.74 (2025) Oliver Hoare (AUS) - 3:31.07 (2024) Jake Heyward (GBR) - 3:31.18 (2026) Titouan Le Grix (FRA) - 3:31.46 (2026) Romain Mornet (FRA) - 3:31.62 (2025) Adam Spencer (AUS) - 3:31.83 (2026) Pieter Sisk (BEL) - 3:31.85 (2025) Gary Martin (...

Multiple National Records This Weekend

Olympic and World champion Haruka Kitaguchi got the biggest headlines among Japanese athletes this weekend, overcoming a rough last year and a half that included injury and a coaching change to break her own javelin throw NR by over a meter and a half to win the inaugural WA Ultimate Championship in Budapest. U20 WR and Asian AR holder Ziyi Yan opened with a big 68.05, 0.67 m further than Kitaguchi's best-ever from back in 2023. That could have been the end, but Kitaguchi came back from a 61.15 m first attempt to throw a massive 68.92 m NR on her next one, ultimately enough for the win. She still has a long way to go to match the 18-year-old Yan's 71.74 m from May, but it was a clear statement that Kitaguchi is back. Back home at the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Kyoto, women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota continued a solid comeback season of her own, bettering her NR from May by 1 cm with a 4.51 m on her first attempt. Morota took another 3...