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:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Takei Breaks Gold Coast Marathon CR in Dominant Japanese Run

Japanese men showed up in force at the 45th ASICS Gold Coast Marathon Sunday in Australia, taking the top 6 spots and 8 of the top 10 led by a 2:07:33 course record by Yuki Takei . Expert pacing by World Marathon Majors-bound Tsubasa Ichiyama and Masato Arao kept things on track to break the 2:07:40 CR by 30 seconds until Arao stepped off at 30 km, a 30 km that saw at least two falls, one by 2:08:40 runner Ryoma Takeuchi at 23 km and another by debuting 61-minute half marathoner Tatsuya Tsunashima at 27 km. In Tsunashima's case it was enough to knock him out of the race when he hit his head on the pavement, send to the hospital post-race for examination. When Arao stepped off former Aoyama Gakuin University ekiden specialist Aoi Ota went straight to the front, looking to make up for a stellar and predictable DNF at this year's Tokyo Marathon in prep for Berlin by getting an easy finish under his belt. Right on him was Yuki Takei , 2:08:06 in Osaka the week before Tokyo. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gold Coast Marathon Elite Field (updated)

Australia's Gold Coast Marathon is back for its 45th running with title sponsorship from longtime partner ASICS. Two-time winner Rodah Tanui is the top name in the women's race with a 2:23:14 in Copenhagen two years ago, with her strongest competition coming from Olympian Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh , who set a Mongolian NR of 2:26:32 in Tokyo last year. Zerihun Alemtsehay and Caroline Kilel both have recent sub-2:30 times, and debuting Ethiopian Tegest Ayalew looks to have a sub-2:30 in her too. Pacing is planned to be a 1:12:00 first half, an ambitious goal for pretty much everyone except maybe Tanui. Up front in the men's race are a solid trio of 2:07 runners made up of Ethiopians Gizealew Ayana and Japan-based Derese Workneh , and Kenyan Mathew Samperu . The top tier of Japanese men come in at the 2:08 level, including Mizuki Higashi , Yuki Takei , and Ryoma Takeuchi , a pacer at Gold Coast last year. Past winner Yuki Kawauchi has only run under 2:20 once in 2024 a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Buchanan Breaks Australian All-Comers Record at Gold Coast Half

For the second time in a month Australians Andy Buchanan , Isaac Heyne , Sam Clifford , Ryan Gregson and Brett Robinson faced off against a big group of 60-61 minute Japanese men pulled in from a big February half marathon, and for the 2nd year in a row Buchanan outkicked them all for the win at the China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon . Robinson, 3rd at last month's Launceston Half Marathon , got things moving with a fast start that put the race on pace to go just over 60 minutes, well under Pat Carroll 's 1:01:11 Australian all-comers record that Launceston winner Teruki Shimada missed by just 1 second. Yuma Nishizawa , 1:00:29 at February's National Corporate Half Marathon where most of the Japanese men in the field ran, took over to keep it moving, then handed over to Launceston runner-up Isaac Heyne . Heyne did most of the work the rest of the way, the pace gradually slowing and incrementing over Carroll's record, until a move from 2:07 marathoner Naoya Sakud...
Post a Comment
Read more