Venice, Frankfurt and the National University Women's Championships - Weekend Road Racing Preview

Three main races make up the lion's share of this road racing action, two abroad and one on home ground.

Bouncing back from a bad run three weeks ago at the Chicago Marathon, 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) will make his Italian debut at the Huawei Venice Marathon with support from JRN.

Since Chicago Kawauchi has raced twice, a 1:05:18 the weekend after Chicago at the Namerikawa Half Marathon and a 1:00:48 for 2nd at last weekend's Takashimadaira 20 km.The Takashimadaira time equates to a 1:04:08 half marathon, and given that rate rate of improvement over Namerikawa and his 14:47 closing split he is optimistic about Venice.

"If the pack gets into a good rhythm early on then I think I can run in 2:10 to 2:12 range," he said. Most years that would put him in contention for the win in Venice, and with his 2018 best standing at 2:11:46 and the fastest time ever by a Japanese man on Italian soil at 2:12:51 he's got good secondary and tertiary time goals in place if the weather cooperates. Right now it looks like race day will have temperatures in the mid-teens, a moderate headwind and rain. Whatever his time, if he succeeds Kawauchi will become the first Japanese winner in Venice history.

Also Sunday, three sub-2:10 Japanese men are scheduled to run the Frankfurt Marathon, one of them already qualified for the MGC Race 2020 Olympic trials event and the others hoping to make the cut. Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Konica Minolta) has the fastest PB among them at 2:09:12 from last year's Tokyo Marathon, but with a long injury following that he hasn't run a marathon in the year and a half since. To qualify outright for the MGC Race he'll need to run under 2:08:30. Tadashi Isshiki (GMO) has an easier task ahead to qualify. After running 2:09:43 in Tokyo in February he only needs to clear 2:12:17 in Frankfurt to get in via the two race sub-2:11:00 average option. Akinobu Murasawa (Nissin Shokuhin) was the first Japanese man to qualify for the MGC Race with a win at the hot and humid 2017 Hokkaido Marathon. In Tokyo this year he took his PB down to 2:09:47, finishing just behind Isshiki. In Frankfurt he'll be trying to take it even further.

Back home the main event is the Morinomiyako Ekiden, the National University Women's Championships race. Last year Meijo University surprised the favorites to take its first national title since 2005. This year Meijo looks like the clear favorite with the best 5000 m average in the field by a solid margin. 2nd last year just 35 seconds back from Meijo, Daito Bunka University is positioned to do it again, ranked 2nd behind Meijo by a margin of 7 seconds per runner. Last year's 6th-placer Tokyo Nogyo University could surprise, ranked 3rd behind DBU as the only other team with a six-runner 5000 m average under 16 minutes.

The winningest team in Morinomiyako history with ten national titles to its name, Ritsumeikan University was far back in 3rd last year. This year its star runner Naruha Sato is the fastest woman in the field with a best of 15:27.83, but overall it's down in strength as a team, ranked only 4th with an average 5000 m time of 16:02. With six stages averaging 6.3 km facing them that may be too much of a deficit to overcome in order to compete with Meijo and DBU for the win. NTV will broadcast the Morinomiyako Ekiden live starting at 12:00 Sunday Japan time.

text and photo © 2018 Brett Larner