Osaka Half Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Held alongside the Osaka International Women's Marathon, its companion Osaka Half Marathon has grown from a mass-participation mixed gender event to now feature as one of Japan's top post-ekiden season half marathons. Not being a national team selection event for the World Half Marathon Championships it doesn't get many of the big names, who mostly line up a week later in Marugame, but the fields are definitely not bad.

On the women's side, last year's winner Reia Iwade (Under Armour), the fastest female Japanese marathoner of 2019, is back as the only woman in the race to have broken 70 minutes. But she has serious competition from Yuka Hori (Panasonic), only 1:11:05 at the 2018 National Corporate Half but fresh off a 31:38.63 PB for 10000 m earlier this month. 10000 m collegiate national record holder Hikari Yoshimoto (Daihatsu) should also be one of the bigger threats to Iwade after a brilliant anchor run at last month's National Corporate Women's Ekiden.

On the men's side the likable Yohei Suzuki (Aisan Kogyo) has the only recent sub-62 time in the field, but three other men, Yuki Oshikawa (NTN), Naoya Takahashi (Yasukawa Denki) and newly-crowned Swedish marathon national record holder David Nilsson all went under 1:02:10 last year and make it a seriously close race up front. Sub-2:10 marathoners Jo Fukuda (Nishitetsu), Kenji Yamamoto (Mazda) and Kohei Matsumura (MHPS) should also be near the front end if not leading.

JRN will be on-site in Osaka on race weekend. Check back closer to race date for more info and live streaming options for following the race internationally.

Osaka Half Marathon

Osaka, 1/26/20
complete elite field listing
times listed are best in last three years except where noted

Women
Reia Iwade (Under Armour) - 1:09:46 (Osaka 2019)
Yuka Hori (Panasonic) - 1:11:05 (National Corporate Half 2018)
Kotomi Tsubokura (Wacoal) - 1:11:08 (Osaka 2019)
Yuko Kikuchi (Edion) - 1:11:32 (Sanyo 2019)
Kaori Yoshida (Team RxL) - 1:11:54 (Ageo 2018)
Hikari Yoshimoto (Daihatsu) - 1:12:39 (Sendai 2019)
Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:12:41 (Gifu Seiryu 2017)
Rui Nishida (Sysmex) - 1:13:34 (Osaka 2018)
Yuki Kanehira (Sysmex) - 1:14:12 (Sanyo 2017)
Natsuki Omori (Daihatsu) - debut - 2:29:15 (Osaka Women's Marathon 2019)

Men
Yohei Suzuki (Aisan Kogyo) - 1:01:53 (Marugame 2018)
Yuki Oshikawa (NTN) - 1:02:01 (National Corporate Half 2018)
Naoya Takahashi (Yasukawa Denki) - 1:02:01 (National Corporate Half 2018)
David Nilsson (Sweden) - 1:02:09 (Ageo 2018)
Jo Fukuda (Nishitetsu) - 1:02:25 (Marugame 2019)
Kenji Yamamoto (Mazda) - 1:02:34 (National Corporate Half 2019)
Masaki Takamoto (Subaru) - 1:02:36 (National Corporate Half 2019)
Kohei Matsumura (MHPS) - 1:02:37 (National Corporate Half 2019)
Masanori Sumida (Aichi Seiko) - 1:02:37 (National Corporate Half 2019)
Masamichi Yasuda (Aichi Seiko) - 1:02:39 (National Corporate Half 2018)
Tatsuya Maruyama (Yachiyo Kogyo) - 1:02:42 (National University Half 2019)
Shinji Yoshimoto (Kurosaki Harima) - 1:02:45 (National Corporate Half 2019)
Yuto Fujiyama (Osaka Police) - 1:02:54 (Osaka 2019)
Daichi Takeuchi (Toenec) - 1:02:59 (Osaka 2019)

© 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

japan running news

Search This Blog