Know Your Japanese Runners in Boston

It's a week until the Boston Marathon. After decades of its best giving it a miss Boston is coming back into fashion among Japan's elite marathoners. With top three finishes in the men's race the last two years we just might see three in a row for the first time since the golden years back in 1965-1967. A brief introduction to who'll be on the starting line this year:

Nami Hashimoto
PB/SB: 2:33:22 (Nagoya 2019)
Hashimoto has been on a roll so far this year, winning her debut at the Jan. 27 Katsuta Marathon in 2:34:18, running a PB of 1:46:30 three weeks later for 2nd at the Ome 30 km, then bettering her Katsuta time another three weeks later with a 2:33:22 at the Nagoya Women's Marathon. Both Katsuta and Ome send top-placing finishers to Boston, making this Hashimoto's international debut.

Hiroto Inoue
PB/SB: 2:06:54 (Tokyo 2018)
Generally considered to have the best chance of making Japan's 2020 Olympic marathon team, Inoue had a stellar 2018 with a 2:06:54 in Tokyo and a gold medal in the Jakarta Asian Games marathon. Pursuing racing instead of a faster time since his 2:06:54, Inoue arrives in Boston off his best half marathon in four years, a 1:02:12 win at the Mar. 3 Tamana Half Marathon. After training for Boston in New Zealand he told Japanese media, "More than just running it I want to win."

Nao Isaka
PB/SB: 2:36:48 (Katsuta 2019)
Like Hashimoto running her marathon debut at Katsuta on Jan. 27, Isaka earned her place in Boston by finishing 3rd in 2:36:48. So far she has been solid internationally, winning the 2016 Porto Half Marathon in Portugal and taking 2nd at last December's Singapore Half Marathon.

Hiroki Kai
SB: 2:17:29 (Katsuta 2019)
Kai won the hilly Katsuta Marathon men's race just 12 seconds off his best to score a Boston invitation. Two weeks later he ran a 1:04:58 PB at the National Corporate Half Marathon Championships. A full-time massage therapist, Kai is a two-time winner of Thailand's Phuket Marathon, taking it in 2017 and 2018.

Yuki Kawauchi
SB: 2:09:21 (Lake Biwa 2019)
After winning Boston last year Kawauchi struggled through much of the rest of 2018, running three of the slowest marathons of his career. Near the end of the year things started to turn around, and at March's Lake Biwa Marathon he broke 2:10 for the first time in almost two years with a 2:09:21. His mother Mika will also be running Boston in Wave 4.

Masao Kizu
PB/SB: 2:18:21 (Nobeoka 2018)
Going the Ome 30 km route to Boston after a 1:01:45 PB at the Feb. 3 Marugame Half, Kizu was the top Japanese man there at 2nd overall in 1:33:30. Coached by former marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka, Kizu's only previous marathon experience was a 2:18:21 debut for 7th in Nobeoka last year just before his graduation from Nihon University.

Kaoru Nagao
SB: 2:36:09 (Nagoya 2019)
A former member of the Universal Entertainment corporate team now competing as a club runner, Nagao was 4th in Ome in 1:47:49 to earn a Boston invitation. Four weeks later she ran 2:36:09 at the Nagoya Women's Marathon, over nine minutes off her PB but the best time of her club era by a long shot. In her only previous international marathon Nagao was 22nd in the 2017 NYC Marathon in 2:44:26.

Hayato Sonoda
PB/SB: 2:09:34 (Beppu-Oita 2018)
With an awkward tilt of his head reminiscent of Hiromi Taniguchi, Sonoda has been working his way up through the ranks the last couple of years, peaking with a 2:09:34 for 2nd at last year's Beppu-Oita Marathon. This year he was 8th in 2:10:39, and in his Boston tune-up, the Mar. 17 Niigata Half Marathon, he only managed a 1:06:01 for 21st.

Khishigsaikhan and Kuira Break Ageo City Half Marathon CRs (updated)

Stellar conditions and a solid fields meant times were going to be fast at the Ageo City Half Marathon , and in both the women's and men's races the front end took full advantage of the day. In the midst of the super-deep men's field Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh , the top Mongolian in this summer's Budapest World Championships marathon and in last month's Hangzhou Asian Games marathon, ran steady and strong, splitting 33:29 at 10 km, 1:10:38 pace, before pushing the 2nd half. Khishigsaikhan crossed the finish line 1:10:32, 1:22 under the old course record, 3:35 ahead of 2nd-place Kana Kobayashi , and a massive 4:16 off the Mongolian women's national record. Khishigsaikhan is currently training in Japan and ran Ageo in prep for next month's Taipei City Marathon, where she was 3rd last year. The men's race went out hard, with Kenyan Brian Kipyegon (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.), NR holder Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) and the ambitious Rei Matsunaga (Hosei) leading the ...

A Few Words on Chicago

by Brett Larner photos by Dr. Helmut Winter Chicago comes at a tough time for Japan's corporate leagues, just before the start of the fall ekiden season's regional qualifiers. Although just about every team has more than enough people to fill their lineups for these relatively minor events, head coaches will usually not let their better athletes do an October marathon, whether because of the limited recovery time in the event that they decide a big gun has to run in a qualifier, or because it would give them the hassle of explaining to the parent corporation why a star is off doing his or her own thing instead of being there for the team. As a result you typically only see Japanese runners at Chicago when they are looking to drop something big, as with Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) and Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota) this year, or, like the block of Japanese men at 2:12~2:13 , as part of a corporate federation junket for promising third-tier men to get the exp...

Tanaka and Hashioka Win Gold - World U20 Championships Day Two Japanese Results

Working together to execute an aggressive frontrunning team strategy born from failure two years ago in Bydgoszcz , 2018 Asian U20 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka and 2018 Asian Junior Cross Country gold medalist Yuna Wada opened a massive lead over the African Junior Cross Country medalist Ethiopian duo of Meselu Berhe and Tsige Gebreselama in the early going of the Tampere World U20 Championships women's 3000 m. Tanaka took the lead from the gun before Wada went out front at 200 m to set a fast pace. Through splits of 3:00 and 3:03 for the first 2000 m, Tanaka kicked hard from 300 m out to close with a 2:51 for Japan's first-ever gold medal in the event, winning in a PB of 8:54.01. Berhe and Gebreselama caught Wada on the back corner but weren't even close to matching Tanaka, taking 2nd and 3rd in PBs just under the 9-minute mark. Wada just held off Kenyan Jenali Jemutai Yego for 4th in 9:00.50, seeming happy in post-race interviews to have helped a teammate ...

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