Skip to main content

A Double 30 km Day: Shitara and Matsumi Win Kumanichi, Oshikawa and Shimokado Take Ome

by Brett Larner
Former national university record holder Keita Shitara (Team Konica Minolta) returned to Japan's biggest 30 km, the Kumanichi Road Race, for the first time in three years to pick up the win in Kumanichi's 60th edition.  A graduate of 2014 Hakone Ekiden winner Toyo University, Shitara took the race in hand from the start, leading through 5 km in 14:38 just 2 seconds off the pace for the 1:28:52 course record set in 2014 by Toyo's Yuma Hattori.  Early company included Shitara's Konica Minolta teammate Masato Kikuchi, Toyo grad Kento Otsu (Team Toyota Kyushu) and current Toyo students Ryo Kuchimachi and Shun Sakuraoka.  Over the next 10 km the pack whittled down to just Shitara and Sakuraoka, 20 seconds off CR pace at 15 km in 44:15 with Otsu another 20 seconds back.

Around 21 km Shitara got a few strides on Sakuraoka, who began to fade rapidly and was overtaken by Otsu and others.  Otsu initially closed, but even as Shitara slowed dramatically Otsu was unable to keep up the chase.  Shitara took the win in 1:30:45, 50 seconds off his 2013 time but a big improvement over last year's race.  Otsu was 2nd in 1:31:16 to make it a Toyo alum 1-2, Ryo Matsumoto (Team Toyota) moving up to 3rd in 1:31:24.

Coached by 1991 World Championships marathon silver medalist Sachiko Yamashita, Sakiko Matsumi (Team Daiichi Seimei) won the women's division in in 1:45:59 in her first 30 km race.  Matsumi pushed the pace start to finish, getting company from Mami Onuki (Team Sysmex) and Chika Ihara (Team Higo Ginko) through 20 km but covering the last 10 km alone.  Matsumi will run next month's Nagoya Women's Marathon in a shot at the Rio Olympics marathon team.
Further north in Tokyo's western hills Japan's other big 30 km celebrated its 50th running.  The Ome Road Race saw its field chasing a 3 million yen bonus for breaking the antique 1:29:32 course record set back in 1981 by the great Toshihiko Seko.  A lead quintet developed early, with Otsu's teammate Yuki Oshikawa (Team Toyota Kyushu), Kenyan Michael Githae (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC),  marathoners Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Yared Asmerom (Eritrea) and university runner Jinnosuke Matsumura (Josai Univ.) breaking away in the first 5 km.  Kawauchi was quick to drop, followed first by Matsumura and then Asmerom.  For nearly 20 hilly km Oshikawa and Githae ran side-by-side, but heading back onto flatter ground with around 2 km to go Oshikawa kicked away for a 9-second win in 1:31:37.  Kawauchi clawed his way back up through the field, advancing to 3rd in 1:32:40.

The women's race played out similarly, with marathoner Kaoru Nagao (Team Univ. Ent.) leading a quartet that included her younger teammate Mirai Waku (Team Unv. Ent.), Miharu Shimokado (Team Shimamura) and Kotomi Takayama (Sysmex) through a quick first 5 km before people began to drop.  By 15 km it was down to Shimokado and Waku, who ran against each other through 20 km before Shimokado worked one of the biggest hills on the course to get a lead of almost 10 seconds.  Waku fought back on the flat and closed to within 2 seconds but couldn't seal the deal as Shimokado took the win in 1:43:55.  Takayama was a distant afterthought in 3rd in 1:46:12.  Rio Olympics marathon team contender Kaori Yoshida (Runners Pulse), the top Japanese woman at the Saitama International Marathon selection race and due to line up again in Nagoya, was an apparent DNF, dropping out somewhere after 10 km.

60th Kumanichi 30 km Road Race
Kumamoto, 2/21/16
click here for complete results

Men
1. Keita Shitara (Konica Minolta) - 1:30:45
2. Kento Otsu (Toyota Kyushu) - 1:31:16
3. Ryo Matsumoto (Toyota) - 1:31:24
4. Masato Kikuchi (Konica Minolta) - 1:32:09
5. Shun Sakuraoka (Toyo Univ.) - 1:32:15

Women
1. Sakiko Matsumi (Daiichi Seimei) - 1:45:59
2. Mami Onuki (Sysmex) - 1:46:37
3. Chika Ihara (Higo Ginko) - 1:47:06
4. Sakie Arai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 1:47:53
5. Yoko Miyauchi (Hokuren) - 1:50:44

50th Ome 30 km Road Race
Ome, Tokyo, 2/21/16
click here for complete results

Men
1. Yuki Oshikawa (Toyota Kyushu) - 1:31:37
2. Michael Githae (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:31:46
3. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:32:40
4. Yared Asmerom (Eritrea) - 1:33:24
5. Takaya Hamato (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:35:00

Women
1. Miharu Shimokado (Shimamura) - 1:43:55
2. Mirai Waku (Universal Entertainment) - 1:43:57
3. Kotomi Takayama (Sysmex) - 1:46:12
4. Megumi Amako (Canon AC Kyushu) - 1:47:39
5. Ami Utsunomiya (Canon AC Kyushu) - 1:48:10
-----
DNF - Kaori Yoshida (Runners Pulse)

© 2016 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...
1 comment
Read more

Who's Running Tokyo Worlds?

The Japanese marathon teams will be the most prestigious ones to be on for September's Tokyo World Championships, and with Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon the window for Japanese athletes to get onto the JAAF's shortlist closed. Who's on it? The final decision won't be made until Mar. 26, but let's look through the selection criteria and see who's guaranteed, who's pretty likely, and who has a chance. 1. Marathon medalists at the Paris Olympics - There weren't any, so nobody makes the team this way. Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) were the top placers, both of them running PBs in the Olympics to finish 6th. You'd think that would count for something a year later, but you'd think wrong. 2. JMC Series IV Champions - The top point scorers in the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV, which ran from April, 2023 to March, 2025, earn places on the marathon teams along with cash prizes. For women that's Yuka ...
1 comment
Read more

Tokyo Marathon Top Japanese Man Tsubasa Ichiyama Works 4 Days a Week, Walked On in College

38,000 people ran the 2025 Tokyo Marathon . Every runner had their own story, but one of the most special was Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx). Despite being on almost nobody's radar, he outran some of the best in the country to finish as the top Japanese man. Ichiyama ran most of the race in the 3rd pace group, going through halfway in 1:02:44 and 30 km in 1:29:13. When the pacers stopped, he showed what he could really do. "I'm not good at downhills, so in the first part it was hard to run smoothly," he said at the post-race press conference. "But after the downhill part ended I got into my rhythm, and I think that helped me over the 2nd half." After dropping Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and others, he quickly bore down on the Japanese athletes who had gone out faster in the 2nd pace group. Overtaking Paris Olympics 6th placer Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), at 39.8 km he caught all-time Japanese #2 man Yohei I...
Post a Comment
Read more