Skip to main content

Matsuo Wins Third Nobeoka Marathon Title - Weekend Road Racing Roundup



The National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships were the biggest Japanese race of the weekend, but there was a lot more going on across the country. At the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon, local Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) dropped teammate Taiki Yoshimura with a surge at the 40 km mark to become the first runner in Nobeoka's 58-year history to win it three times. His winning time of 2:12:02 was also a PB and put him 7 seconds up on Yoshimura. Shota Miyagami (Kyudenko) was 3rd in 2:12:26. Complete results.

The Ehime Marathon also had its 58th running. Haruki Okayama (Comody Iida) won the men's race in 2:14:53, with Yoshiki Nakamura (Ehime Ginko) and Takaki Mori (Mont Blanc) running 2:17:04 and 2:18:39 for 2nd and 3rd, Nakamura hanging on after a hard fall just before 29 km. Two weeks after running 2:32:48 in Osaka, Miharu Shimokado (Brooks) ran 1:35 under the old course record to win the women's race in a new record of 2:33:57. No other women cleared 2:45.



At the 36th Moriya Half Marathon, Keiya Arima (Chuo Gakuin University) ran a course record 1:02:59 to win in his final race before graduation and retirement from competitive running. His teammate Mizuki Nagayama was also under the old course record in 1:03:24 for 2nd.

The 60th Karatsu 10-Miler saw Ryota Matono (MHPS) win a three-way sprint finish in the men's 10 miles against Naoki Ota (Waseda Univ.) and Ken Yokote (Fujitsu), taking the top spot in 46:43 with both Ota and Yokote coming in at 46:44. Erika Honda (Higo Ginko) ran 33:18 to win the women's 10 km, exactly tying National Corporate 10 km Championships winner Momoka Kawaguchi's time. But the biggest results in Karatsu came in the high school boys' 10 km, where Go Ennyu (Oita Tomei H.S.) ran 29:01 to lead 20 boys under 30 minutes. Complete results.



© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .

Chesang Wins Osaka Women's Marathon in 2:19:31, Yada Drops 2:19:57 Debut NR

This year's Osaka International Women's Marathon was a race run with a high level of methodicalness, starting slower than the planned 3:19/km but ramping up until the lead pack was skimming around the 2:20:15-30 projected finish level. After hitting halfway in 1:10:13 with a group of 6, by 25 km only 4 were left up front, sub-2:19 runners Workenesh Edesa , Stella Chesang and Bedatu Hirpa , and the debuting Mikuni Yada , and when the last 2 pacers stepped off at 30 km it was Yada who went to the front. Despite never have raced longer than the 10.6 km Third Stage at November's Queens Ekiden where she had helped the Edion team score its first-ever national title, Yada was very, very impressive, fearlessly surging from 12 km and never letting up, even laughing and smiling to fans along the course. When she started sustaining a pace around 3:15/km the projected finish dropped under 2:20 and all the way down to 2:19:28 by 35 km, and even when all 3 of the more experienced ru...

Hirayama Breaks Osaka Half CR, Martinez Set Puerto Rican NR

The Osaka Half Marathon took another big step up the domestic half marathon rankings from a mass-participation race run alongside the Osaka International Women's Marathon to one of the country's top-tier races. In the women's race, the debuting Jecinta Nyokabi (Denso) went out fast, only to be run down by veteran Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon AC) by 10 km. Nyokabi faded to 6th in 1:10:41, but Yoshikawa pushed on to a PB 1:09:14 for the win. Rina Shimizu (Noritz), Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) and Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.) all broke 70 minutes, Tsuchiya taking the Kansai Region collegiate title in 1:09:32 for 4th overall. Everyone in the top 10 who wasn't debuting ran a PB, a mark of how fast the day was even with cold and windy conditions. The men's race went out on sub-61 pace courtesy of Yudai Shimazu (GMO), then got a big injection of speed when Kyuma Yokota (Toyota Kyushu) took off close to 60-flat pace. Yokota opened a 10-second lead by 15 km, but over ...