National Corporate Half Marathon, Nobeoka Marathon and More

National Corporate Half Marathon, Nobeoka Marathon and More - Weekend Preview

It's a relatively quiet weekend ahead in the middle of Japan's busiest road racing season, but there are still four important races going on in the southern part of the country. The biggest is the National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships in Yamaguchi. Men's national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) is entered in what would be his first race since catching the flu post-Fukuoka and leads the domestic component of a field that includes nine men with recent sub-1:02 times and a million more right on the cusp. If he runs his main competition is sub-60 man Paul Kuira (Konica Minolta). 61:30ish runners Keisuke Nakatani (Nissin Shokuhin) and Kengo Suzuki (Fujitsu) will be looking to make comebacks after long periods of injury.

The women's field is split between the half marathon and 10 km. Only three women in the half have broken 70 minutes before, Miho Shimizu (Hokuren) doing it the most recently with a 1:09:27 at Nationals in 2016. Shiori Yano (Canon AC Kyushu) is the most exciting newcomer in the field, one of the six women who cleared the Doha World Championships 10000 m qualifying standard in Yamaguchi in December. Two of the other qualifiers, Harumi Okamoto (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Yuka Hori (Panasonic) lead the 10 km, where two-time winner Yui Fukuda (Toyota Jidoshokki) is a DNS. The men's and women's half will be broadcast on delay on TBS starting at 14:00 local time Sunday.

The Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon is the weekend's highest-level full, a developmental-level race that saw its top four finish seconds apart in 2:12 last year. With a lot of 2nd and 3rd-tier men having taken a swing at Olympic trials qualification last weekend in Beppu-Oita the Nobeoka entry list is a bit thin this year, but two-time winner Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) is slated to be back again to try to win Nobeoka for the third time. Next-best on the entry list after Matsuo is Shingo Igarashi (Josai Univ. Staff), 2nd last October at the Osaka Marathon in 2:14:19, exactly two minutes behind Matsuo's runner-up mark in Nobeoka last year.

The Ehime Marathon is also Sunday, a longstanding mass-participation race with a sub-elite field that sometimes produces times in the top 25 best Japanese marks for the season. 2:15:05 amateur Naoki Inoue (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) leads the men's field, with Hiroki Shoi (Ehime Ginko) leading the women's field at 2:33:04.

The Karatsu 10-Miler rounds out the main action, with an interesting matchup between Jakarta Asian Games marathon gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (MHPS) and Ibusuki Nanohana Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) ahead of their duel at April's Boston Marathon. Sub-62 half marathoners Ken Yokote (Fujitsu) and Takuya Fujikawa (Chugoku Denryoku) and 2:08:59 marathoner Takuya Noguchi (Konica Minolta) are also in the mix. Opting for Karatsu over Nationals, Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) leads the women's 10 km field with a track best of 31:33.33.

© 2019 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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