Skip to main content

Ten Men Under 1:01, Five Women Under 1:10 at National Corporate Half Marathon Championships



Before last weekend only eight Japanese men had ever gone under 1:01 in the half marathon on record-legal courses, with another four on the old downhill Tokyo Half course. At last Sunday's Marugame Half four did it, two who had done it before and two who went under the national record in the first time clearing 1:01. At today's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships eight more did it, equalling all of Japanese history in the course of eight days and the previous record-legal history in a single race.

Not too much question why, but the racing was still good. Kenyan James Rungaru (Chuo Hatsujo) earned the win, 16 seconds ahead of the pack at 5 km in 14:33 and only going faster from there to his 1:00:27 finish. The main pack had a leisurely 14:49 opening 5 km before getting it in gear, dropping to 14:17 for the next 5 km and getting down as fast as 14:12 splits between 15 and 20 km. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) was the first Japanese man across the line, dropping Kenyan Patrick Muendo Mwaka (Aisan Kogyo) and twelve other Japanese men to take 2nd overall in 1:00:49.

Hiroki Suzuki (YKK) was 3rd in 1:00:50, with the top ten all clearing 1:01 and the next four within 5 seconds of it. The twelve Japanese men in the top 14 all made the all-time Japanese top 25. Marugame last week set new records for number of finishers under 62 minutes, 63 minutes and 64 minutes. Today's race crushed all of them, with 46 men breaking 62, 71 under 63, and 86 clearing 64. What could March's National University Men's Half Marathon Championships possible bring?

The women's National Championships were divided in two, a 10 km division and a half marathon. The 10 km was mostly notable for its splits, with 26 of the 31 women in the race jogging a 17:35 first half and then blasting a 15:43 second half. Momoka Kawaguchi (Toyota Jidoshokki) won by a stride over Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko) in 33:18, with Reina Hashino (Hitachi) 3rd in 33:26.

The women's half wasn't as crazily deep as the men's, but was still solid quality for a Japanese race. After a modest 16:46 opening 5 km a lead group of nine separated, going through 10 km skimming just under 1:10 pace in 33:09. The pack thinned to seven by 15 km before things really got moving, and with one km to go it was the proven Sakiho Tsutsui (Yamada Denki) side-by-side with Ayano Ikemitsu (Kagoshima Ginko) with unknown Kaena Takeyama (Daihatsu) right behind.

A teammate of Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Mizuki Matsuda, Takeyama had the gears to get the win, kicking away on the track with 200 m to go to break the tape in 1:09:12 to Tsutsui's 1:09:14, Ikemitsu close behind for 3rd in 1:09:16. All three of them made it into the all-time Japanese top 25. Juri Ichikawa (Yamada Denki) and Ikumi Fukura (Otsuka Seiyaku) also broke 1:10, with the next five under 1:11 and the top 20 all under 1:12. As the most neglected of the major long distances for Japanese women, the depth of the results were encouraging, whatever the boost from the footwear. Now they just need to incorporate the distance into the National Corporate Women's Ekiden to give them parity with the men and the same kind of leg up in marathon-directed development.

48th National Corporate Half Marathon Championships

Yamaguchi, 2/9/20
complete results

Women's Half Marathon
1. Kaena Takeyama (Daihatsu) - 1:09:12
2. Sakiho Tsutsui (Yamada Denki) - 1:09:14
3. Ayano Ikemitsu (Kagoshima Ginko) - 1:09:16
4. Juri Ichikawa (Yamada Denki) - 1:09:55
5. Ikumi Fukura (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:09:58
6. Nao Yamamoto (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 1:10:04
7. Maki Izumida (Daiichi Seimei) - 1:10:13
8. Mao Uesugi (Starts) - 1:10:17
9. Wakana Itsuki (Kyudenko) - 1:10:39
10. Natsumi Matsushita (Tenmaya) - 1:10:50
11. Toshika Tamura (Hitachi) - 1:11:13
12. Kanako Takemoto (Daihatsu) - 1:11:25
13. Chiharu Suzuki (Hitachi) - 1:11:28
14. Nana Sato (Starts) - 1:11:36
15. Misaki Kato (Kyudenko) - 1:11:37
-----
20. Miki Hirai (Higo Ginko) - 1:11:53
29. Yuma Adachi (Kyocera) - 1:12:52
35. Ai Ikemoto (Daihatsu) - 1:13:58
37. Yomogi Akasaka (Starts) - 1:14:36
-----
DNF - Yuka Hori (Panasonic)
DNF - Kikuyo Tsuzaki (Noritz)
DNF - Yuki Maehata (Otsuka Seiyaku)

Women's 10 km
1. Momoka Kawaguchi (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 33:18
2. Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko) - 33:19
3. Reina Hashino (Hitachi) - 33:26
4. Nagisa Shimotabira (Daihatsu) - 33:29
5. Shuri Ogasawara (Denso) - 33:30
6. Rina Miyata (Kyudenko) - 33:33
7. Mei Kanemaru (Miyazaki Ginko) - 33:41
8. Hina Kawakita (Denso) - 33:44
9. Rika Ichihara (Miyazaki Ginko) - 33:50
10. Sumire Honda (Juhachi Ginko) - 33:51

Men's Half Marathon
1. James Rungaru (Chuo Hatsujo) - 1:00:27
2. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) - 1:00:49
3. Hiroki Suzuki (YKK) - 1:00:50
4. Patrick Muendo Mwaka (Aisan Kogyo) - 1:00:53
5. Shin Kimura (Honda) - 1:00:54
6. Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) - 1:00:55
7. Jun Nobuto (Mazda) - 1:00:56
8. Takahiro Nakamura (Kyocera Kagoshima) - 1:00:57
9. Masashi Nonaka (Osaka Gas) - 1:00:58
10. Daisuke Horiai (Yakult) - 1:00:59
11. Ryota Sato (Tokyo Police Dep't) - 1:01:01
12. Yusuke Baba (Komori Corp.) - 1:01:02
13. Noritoshi Hara (Honda) - 1:01:03
14. Daisuke Hosomori (YKK) - 1:01:05
15. Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 1:01:08
16. Tsubasa Ichiyama (Saitama Ika Univ. Group) - 1:01:14
17. Tsuyoshi Bando (Osaka Gas) - 1:01:18
18. Tatsuya Oike (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:01:23
19. Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) - 1:01:26
20. Takumi Kiyotani (Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:01:27
21. Kenta Uchida (Saitama Ika Univ. Group) - 1:01:37
22. Yusuke Osumi (JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:01:41
23. Naoki Aiba (Chudenko) - 1:01:42
24. Koki Yoshioka (Chuo Hatsujo) - 1:01:42
25. Fumihiro Maruyama (Asahi Kasei) - 1:01:45
-----
46. Hiroki Tsujiyoko (Osaka Gas) - 1:01:58
71. Chihiro Fujie (Press Kogyo) - 1:02:59
86. Kansuke Morihashi (Raffine) - 1:03:55
95. Ayumu Hisaibaru (Kurosaki Harima) - 1:04:55
105. Eikichi Kazaoka (JFE Steel) - 1:05:56
-----
DNF - Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu)

© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

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...
18 comments
Read more