Skip to main content

The Greatest Day in Japanese Men's Marathoning History



This isn't going to be a race recap. Past Tokyo Marathon champs Dickson Chumba of Kenya and Birhane Dibaba of Ethiopia running smart races, working hard after 30 km to each score a second Tokyo title, Dibaba negative splitting her way to a 2:19:51 PB just 4 seconds off the course record and Chumba running away to win in 2:05:30. London World Championships bronze medalist Amy Cragg living up to her pre-race vow to make the top three in PB time, taking 3rd in 2:21:42. Cancer survivor Satoru Kasuya delivering his best performance since almost dying five years ago, an emotional 2:14:37 for 30th.

What this is about is today, the day, the one that's been coming. Yuta Shitara getting it right, strong, unafraid, in control when he needed to be, finding what he needed when it counted, breaking the 16-year-old Japanese national record in 2:06:11 and winning a million dollar bonus for it. But not just him. Hiroto Inoue, just as strong, just as in control, never giving up even when Shitara got away, only the 5th Japanese man to break 2:07 at 2:06:54 for 5th. But not just him. Four more Japanese men under 2:09 and another three under 2:10, all of them for the first time. Nine Japanese men under 2:10, evaporating the old record of six from the classic 2003 Fukuoka International Marathon. But not just them. Amateur club runner Asuka Tanaka leading another four Japanese men under 2:11, all for the first time. And on and on.

This was the day. The greatest in Japanese men's marathoning history. The day today's Hakone Ekiden stars truly stepped up to the marathon and ran it the way that made them national celebrities in college at Hakone. The day that's always seemed frustratingly around the corner somewhere. The day that all the pent-up talent and potential broke through everything holding it back and swept away all the doubts and timidity. Is Hakone destroying Japan's future marathoners? NO. Is all the progress at the university level just maxing them out younger with nowhere to go? NO. Are today's Japanese men just a bunch of timid cosplayers who can't really compete at the international level? NO. This was the Japan that's been waiting to break through, the one that's brash, confident and strong. The one that's going to welcome the world to race them in Tokyo in 2 1/2 years. The one that knows who it is. I knew it was coming. It's about time.



Tokyo Marathon

Tokyo, 2/25/18
top 500 women's results and splits
top 500 men's results and splits

Women
1. Birhane Dibaba (Ethiopia) - 2:19:51 - PB
2. Ruti Aga (Ethiopia) - 2:21:19
3. Amy Cragg (U.S.A.) - 2:21:42 - PB
4. Shure Demise (Ethiopia) - 2:22:07
5. Helah Kiprop (Kenya) - 2:28:58
6. Hiroko Yoshitomi (Japan/Memolead) - 2:30:16 - PB
7. Madoka Nakano (Japan/Noritz) - 2:31:41 - PB
8. Mao Uesugi ('Japan/Starts) - 2:31:49 - PB
9. Marie Imada (Japan/Iwatani Zosen) - 2:32:00 - PB
10. Meixia Zhang (China) - 2:33:02 - PB
11. Asuka Yamamoto (Japan/Osaka Gakugei Univ.) - 2:34:26 - debut
12. Yoshiko Sakamoto (Japan/YWC) - 2:35:40 - PB
13. Nana Sato (Japan/Starts) - 2:37:34 - debut
14. Yumiko Kinoshita (Japan/SWAC) - 2:38:51
15. Haruka Yamaguchi (Japan/AC Kita) - 2:39:42
-----
DNF - Purity Cherotich Rionoripo (Kenya)
DNF - Anna Hahner (Germany)

Men
1. Dickson Chumba (Kenya) - 2:05:30
2. Yuta Shitara (Japan/Honda) - 2:06:11 - NR
3. Amos Kipruto (Kenya) - 2:06:33
4. Gideon Kipketer (Kenya) - 2:06:47
5. Hiroto Inoue (Japan/MHPS) - 2:06:54 - PB
6. Feyisa Lilesa (Ethiopia) - 2:07:30
7. Ryo Kiname (Japan/MHPS) - 2:08:08 - PB
8. Chihiro Miyawaki (Japan/Toyota) - 2:08:45 - PB
9. Kenji Yamamoto (Japan/Mazda) - 2:08:48 - PB
10. Yuki Sato (Japan/Nissin Shokuhin) - 2:08:58 - PB
11. Mohamed El Aaraby (Morocco) - 2:09:18 - PB
12. Kohei Ogino (Japan/Fujitsu) - 2:09:36 - PB
13. Tadashi Isshiki (Japan/GMO) - 2:09:43 - PB
14. Akinobu Murasawa (Japan/Nissin Shokuhin) - 2:09:47 - PB
15. Simon Kariuki (Kenya/Nihon Yakka Univ.) - 2:10:00 - debut
16. Asuka Tanaka (Japan/Yutori RC) - 2:10:13 - PB
17. Hiroki Yamagishi (Japan/GMO) - 2:10:14 - PB
18. Daichi Kamino (Japan/Konica Minolta) - 2:10:18 - PB
19. Kengo Suzuki (Japan/Kanagawa Univ.) - 2:10:21 - debut
20. Tsegaye Mekonnen (Ethiopia) - 2:10:26
21. Juan Luis Barrios (Mexico) - 2:10:55 - PB
22. Hiroaki Sano (Japan/Honda) - 2:12:17
23. Masanori Sakai (Japan/Kyudenko) - 2:13:31
24. Kazuya Ishida (Japan/Nishitetsu) - 2:13:50
25. Yoshiki Koizumi (Japan/Raffine) - 2:13:50 - PB
-----
30. Satoru Kasuya (Japan/Toyota Boshoku) - 2:14:37
42. Yoshiki Kawauchi (Japan/Jaybird) - 2:17:27 - PB
-----
DNF - Vincent Kipruto (Kenya)
DNF - Wilson Kipsang (Kenya)
DNF - Tatsunori Hamasaki (Japan/Nanjo City Hall)
DNF - Minato Oishi (Japan/Toyota)
DNF - Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Japan/Konica Minolta)

photos © 2018 kanon, all rights reserved
text © 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

André Roukema said…
I'm looking forward to your longread about this incredible day for Japanse marathon running.
February 25, 2018 at 8:23 PM
jzstiner said…
Thx you for your write up..!
February 26, 2018 at 2:37 AM
Metts said…
You might say the "hardcore amateur" is alive and well in Japan compared to other countries,and the only country where they might still exist today. A 2:42 for top 500 reminds me of Boston in the late 70's and early 80's. Excellent! And the women's results too! I was watching as they were doing interviews just past the finish line, just before the 3:00 mark, and the finishers just kept streaming in. Might we say running is a part of the Japanese "lifestyle".
February 26, 2018 at 11:27 AM
Geoff B said…
That’s a good day for Yoshiki Kawauchi. Was he selected for the 2018 IAU 100km squad this year (or pursuing qualification)?
February 27, 2018 at 8:43 AM
Brett Larner said…
Yes, it was a PB by a minute for Yoshik just a week after running 2:22 in Kitakyushu, his third sub-2:20 in 2 1/2 months. 100k selection will be based on Saromako in June.
February 28, 2018 at 12:25 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...
Post a Comment
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
54 comments
Read more

Komazawa University One Step Away From Perfect Season With Hakone Ekiden Day One Win

Already the course record-breaker at the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden this season, 2021 Hakone Ekiden champion Komazawa University came one step away from its first-ever triple crown of single-season ekiden wins as it won a highly competitive 2023 Hakone Ekiden Day One over defending champ Aoyama Gakuin University and last year's 6th placer Chuo University . Things got off to an unexpected start when Select Team runner Hayate Nitta of non-qualifier Ikuei University decided to take his one and only Hakone shot and run it up to his ability on the 21.3 km 1st leg even though the rest of the field opted to jog. At one point Nitta had a lead of almost a minute and a half, but as beautiful as it would have been for him to pull it off, Meiji University 's Shunpei Tomita and Komazawa's Kensuke Tsubura still managed to run him down in the final kilometer. Tomita took the stage win in 1:02:44, 1:02:08 half marathon pace vs. his 1:02:10 PB despite the slow s...
4 comments
Read more