Yamada and Yoshizumi Win Fuji Mountain Race

Starting in front of Fujiyoshida City Hall in Yamanashi prefecture, the 72nd Fuji Mountain Race took place July 26 with 4043 people entered in its summit and Fifth Stage divisions. Due to bad weather at Mt. Fuji's peak the summit division was cut off at the Fifth Stage, covering the same 15 km course with 1480 m elevation gain as the Fifth Stage division.

Yuki Yamada (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) won the summit division race for the first time in 1:17:26, two-time women's champion Yuri Yoshizumi (Medifoam) making it three in a row in 1:37:23. Takuya Saito (Nichizei Business) and Kaori Yoshida (Team RxL) topped the men's and women's Fifth Stage division races, Saito winning for the first time in 1:22:10 and Yoshida running 1:37:10 to win for the second year.

The winner of the men's Fifth Stage race last year, Yamada was set to take on the summit race for the first time this year. Disappointed at having to settle with a win over a course cut off at the Fifth Stage, he said, "I achieved my goal of winning against a high-level field, but my real goal was to beat them to the peak. I guess I'll have to do that next year."

A member of the Comody Iida corporate team until last summer, Yamada entered Tokyo Nogyo University at age 21 at the start of the academic year this spring. He hopes to run the Hakone Ekiden. "I want to run the Hakone Fifth Stage," he said. "I'm good at uphill running and like doing it, so that's what I want to do."

Aiming to be a legitimate contender at the very top of the international skyrunning and mountain running circuit, even with the course cut short at the Fifth Stage Yoshizumi beat 2nd place by 8:26 to score her third-straight women's summit division title. "It's too bad we couldn't go all the way to the peak, but I'm happy to win for a third time," she said. "I gave it my best today."

Yoshizumi started skyrunning in 2016. Now 33, this year she is competing seriously in the VKWC series, the world series of skyrunning. So far she has scored two 2nd place finishes and one 4th place, altogether ranking her 2nd in the world this season. In September she has two more races in Switzerland and France. "September is the main event," she said. "Winning today was a big boost."

72nd Fuji Mountain Race

Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, 7/26/19
complete results
summit division (cut off at Fifth Stage): 15 km with 1480 m elevation gain
Fifth Stage division: 15 km with 1480 m elevation gain

Men's Summit Division
1. Yuki Yamada - 1:17:26
2. Ruy Ueda - 1:18:40
3. Shun Gorotani - 1:20:04
4. Christian Mathys (Switzerland) - 1:21:15
5. Suguru Emoto - 1:23:39

Women's Summit Division
1. Yuri Yoshizumi - 1:37:23
2. Mina Ogawa - TBC
3. Yuko Tateishi - 1:45:49
4. Maki Ogihara - 1:46:17
5. Mitsuko Hirose - 1:48:19

Men's Fifth Stage Division
1. Takuya Saito - 1:22:10
2. Yuki Inoshita - 1:25:26
3. Tatsuya Itagaki - 1:26:07

Women's Fifth Stage Division
1. Kaori Yoshida - 1:37:10
2. Reiko Kobayashi - 1:39:35
3. Yoshimi Tanaka - 1:42:19

source article:
https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2019/07/27/kiji/20190726s00062000615000c.html
translated and edited by Brett Larner

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