Shitara Returns to Ageo - Weekend Preview

It's yet another busy mid-ekiden season weekend, but there's no question what its biggest race is. In a country packed with all of the world's deepest half marathons the Ageo City Half Marathon is the deepest of them all, universities targeting the legendary Hakone Ekiden transforming what would otherwise be an ordinary country town road race into something really special as each team's runner try to convince their coaches they belong on the Hakone A-squad.

Since 2011 the New York Road Runners have thrown fuel on the fire by inviting the top two Japanese collegiate finishers to March's United Airlines NYC Half in a program conceived and coordinated by JRN. The first runner to earn an invite was Toyo University second-year Yuta Shitara, who went over and ran what was then the fastest time ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, 1:01:48, in his international road racing debut. Now the half marathon national record holder and a corporate leaguer for the Honda team, Shitara returns to Ageo this year for the first time since then to tune up for next month's Fukuoka International Marathon.

It goes without saying he's the favorite, his main competition being former Hakone Ekiden uphill darling Daichi Kamino (New Balance) and whichever of the university men decide they want to really go for it. Last year's runner-up Patrick Mathenge Wambui (Nihon Univ.), two of Tokai University's top men in Hayato Seki and Shota Onizuka, super-frosh Yuhi Nakaya (Waseda Univ.) and Shogo Ise (Komazawa Univ.), one of the two runners to earn the invite to the last NYC Half, highlight the university field entries.

Also in the field are the recently-struggling 2018 Boston Marathon champ Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and 2017 London World Championships marathoner David Nilsson of Sweden. JRN will be on-site to cover the race live and present the two NYC trip winners with their invitations.

The other main road race action is the Kobe Marathon, now an IAAF bronze label race featuring a decently competitive international field detailed here. Corporate men's qualification for the New Year Ekiden national championships also wraps up with the combined Chubu and Hokuriku Region Corporate Ekiden in Aichi. Notable names there include Taku Fujimoto (Toyota), 2:07:57 last month at the Chicago Marathon, and Ageo-NYC alum Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota).

Kansai Region university men will be racing their season-ending championship ekiden Saturday at the Tango University Ekiden with live coverage on the official website. A number of university men and women will be spending the weekend abroad at the Seven Hills Loop in the Netherlands. With never a moment to rest, many corporate runners from regions other than the two above will be in Hiroshima for the Chugoku Corporate Time Trials track meet Saturday.

© 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

World Championships Medalist Racewalking Coach Mizuho Sakai Recognized With Highest Coaching Honor

The 2023 Mizuno Sports Mentor Awards recognizing excellence in coaching were held Apr. 23 in Tokyo. Toyo University assistant coach and race walking coach Mizuho Sakai was given a gold award, the program's highest honor, and expressed her thanks and joy in a speech at the award ceremony. The coach of 2023 Budapest World Championships men's 35 km race walk bronze medalist Masatora Kawano , Sakai said, "This is an incredible honor and I'm truly grateful. As a child I wanted to be in the sporting world and I've spent my life in that world. My end goal was always to play a supporting role for other athletes, so I'm honored to be recognized in this way." Sakai's husband Toshiyuki Sakai , head coach of Toyo's three-time Hakone Ekiden champion team, attended the awards gala with her and was also introduced to the audience. After bowing he took a seat in front of her and watched with warmth as she received recognition for her outstanding work. The Mizun

Hirabayashi Runs PB at Shanghai Half, WR Holder Nakata Dominates Fuji Five Lakes - Weekend Road Roundup

Returning to the roads after his 2:06:18 win at February's Osaka Marathon, Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin University) took 5th at Sunday's Shanghai Half Marathon in a PB 1:01:23, just under a minute behind winner Roncer Kipkorir Konga (Kenya) who clocked a CR 1:00:29. After inexplicably running the equivalent of a sub-59 half marathon to win the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage, Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was back to running performances consistent with his other PBs with a 1:02:30 for 8th. His AGU teammate Kyosuke Hiramatsu was 10th in 1:04:00. Women's winner Magdalena Shauri (Tanzania) also set a new CR in 1:09:57. Aoyama Gakuin runners took the top four spots in the men's half marathon at the Aomori Sakura Marathon , with Hakone alternate Kosei Shiraishi getting the win in 1:04:32 and B-team members Shunto Hamakawa and Kei Kitamura 2nd and 3rd in 1:04:45 and 1:04:48. Club runners took the other division titles, Hina Shinozaki winning the women's half

The Ivy League at the Izumo Ekiden in Review

Last week I was contacted by Will Geiken , who I'd met years ago when he was a part of the Ivy League Select Team at the Izumo Ekiden . He was looking for historical results from Izumo and lists of past team members, and I was able to put together a pretty much complete history, only missing the alternates from 1998 to 2010 and a little shaky on the reverse transliterations of some of the names from katakana back into the Western alphabet for the same years. Feel free to send corrections or additions to alternate lists. It's interesting to go back and see some names that went on to be familiar, to see the people who made an impact like Princeton's Paul Morrison , Cornell's Max King , Stanford's Brendan Gregg in one of the years the team opened up beyond the Ivy League, Cornell's Ben de Haan , Princeton's Matt McDonald , and Harvard's Hugo Milner last year, and some of the people who struggled with the format. 1998 Team: 15th of 21 overall, 2:14:10 (43

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