Kamino Over Kawauchi at Takashimadaira 20 km

With last week's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai having changed from 20 km to the half marathon distance the Takashimadaira 20 km Road Race is now Japan's premier 20 km, four laps of a perfectly flat 5 km loop in Tokyo's northwestern suburbs. Working his way back from a DNF last month at the Berlin Marathon, independent Daichi Kamino (New Balance) went head-to-head this year with 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), a regular at Takashimadaira.

After a slow 15:27 opening lap Kamino went to the front, picking up the pace to 15:18 for the second lap and cutting the lead group down from a dozen to six. 2014 Ageo City Half Marathon winner Koki Takada (Sumitomo Denko) and collegiate men Kotaro Hirata (Teikyo Univ.), Fuma Nakamura (Teikyo Univ.) and Tomoya Yoneda (Tokai Univ.) hung with Kamino and Kawauchi through a 15:15 third lap until Kamino attacked again.

Hirata and Kawauchi tried to follow, but Kamino was too much to keep up with. Running alone the rest of the final lap he crossed the finish line in 1:00:37 to win Takashimadaira for the first time. With his characteristic fast finish Kawauchi disposed of Hirata, closing to within 11 seconds of Kamino in the last kilometer for 2nd in 1:00:48. Hirata was the top university finisher at 3rd in 1:00:53. Shiori Shimomura (Comody Iida) won the women's race in 1:16:01

Kawauchi's time was equivalent to a 1:04:08 half marathon, his second-best performance of 2018 and a good step toward his planned Italian debut at next weekend's Huawei Venice Marathon. He and Kamino will next face each other three weeks after that at the Ageo City Half Marathon where they will be joined by half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda).

43rd Takashimadaira Road Race

Takashimadaira, Tokyo, 10/21/18

Men's 20 km
1. Daichi Kamino (New Balance) - 1:00:37
2. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:00:48
3. Kotaro Hirata (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:00:55
4. Fuma Nakamura (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:01:10
5. Koki Takada (Sumitomo Denko) - 1:01:17
6. Tomoya Yoneda (Tokai Univ.) - 1:01:23
7. Yuta Suzuki (Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:01
8. Yuki Harazuka (Kanagawa Univ.) - 1:02:07
9. Tomohiro Oka (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:08
10. Mizuki Otsuka (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:50

Women's 20 km
1. Shiori Shimomura (Comody Iida) - 1:16:01
2. Mitsuko Hirose (Tokyo Wings) - 1:17:24
3. Yuka Aoyama (Crest) - 1:17:34

© 2018 Brett Larner

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

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...

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