Matsumoto and Waku Win in Hokkaido, Yamaguchi Become First Woman to Win New Caledonia Four Times

As a route to qualification for next month's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials the Hokkaido Marathon saw higher-quality results than usual last year, but in its first edition after the closing of the trials qualifying period yesterday's 2019 running had no shortage on quality. In warm conditions the men's race went out conservatively with a 1:06:57 first half and turned into a show of who could negative split the hardest, with the top six all running the second half faster. Ryo Matsumoto, part of the top current marathon program in Japan, Toyota, won by over 30 seconds in 2:12:57 with 2nd through 6th all finishing within 15 seconds of each other in the mid-2:13s.

Kasumi Yoshida (Nitori) did a lot of the work in leading the women's pack for the first 30 km before heavy favorite Mirai Waku (Univ. Ent.) took off. Waku had said pre-race that she wanted to break 2:30, but despite falling well short of that she opened a lead of over a minute and a half to win in 2:33:44. 2015 winner Yui Okada (Otsuka Seiyaku) was next in 2:35:16, with Yoshida 3rd in 2:35:38. Two-time winner Chihiro Tanaka (Athle-C), 49, was 11th in 2:48:49.

At almost the same time, club runner Haruka Yamaguchi became the first woman to win the New Caledonia International Marathon four times, running 2:36:56 on a tougher course than in Hokkaido to win by nearly 9 minutes. The second-fastest women's winning time in New Caledonia history and fastest since its course was certified in 1995, Yamaguchi's run made her the fastest Japanese woman ever in New Caledonia and was good enough for her to finish 3rd overall, beating men's 3rd-placer Mark Moore (New Zealand) by over a minute. Japanese men Yuki Kawauchi and Junichi Ushiyama went 1-2, a fifth-straight Japanese double in New Caledonia.

2019 Hokkaido Marathon

Sapporo, Hokkaido, 8/25/19
complete results

Women
1. Mirai Waku (Univ. Ent.) - 2:33:44
2. Yui Okada (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:35:16
3. Kasumi Yoshida (Nitori) - 2:35:38
4. Chika Ihara (Higo Ginko) - 2:36:24
5. Yume Nagayama (Osaka Geijutsu Univ.) - 2:36:41
6. Erika Honda (Higo Ginko) - 2:40:18
7. Mai Nagaoka (Sysmex) - 2:40:33
8. Aki Odagiri (Takemura) - 2:44:23
9. Moeka Toge (Osaka Geijutsu Univ.) - 2:45:29
10. Mai Fujisawa (Excel AC) - 2:45:41
11. Chihiro Tanaka (Athle-C) - 2:48:49

Men
1. Ryo Matsumoto (Toyota) - 2:12:57
2. Masanori Sumida (Aichi Seiko) - 2:13:33
3. Koki Tanaka (Kanebo) - 2:13:36
4. Michael Githae (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:13:43
5. Shota Yamazaki (Yakult) - 2:13:44
6. Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) - 2:13:48
7. Kenta Iinuma (SGH Group) - 2:13:55
8. Ryo Ishida (SDF Academy) - 2:14:07
9. Kansuke Morihashi (Raffine) - 2:14:17
10. Takuma Shibata (Komori Corp.) - 2:14:50

New Caledonia International Marathon

New Caledonia, 8/25/19

Women
1. Haruka Yamaguchi (Japan) - 2:36:56
2. Yuko Kawauchi (Japan) - 2:45:34
3. Nana Ogawa (Japan) - 2:47:39

Men
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Japan) - 2:17:24
2. Junichi Ushiyama (Japan) - 2:19:59
3. Mark Moore (New Zealand) - 2:38:06

© 2019 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...

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by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer. These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly. I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes. As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway. That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...

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