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

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

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