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

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