Yoshii and Ito Run Stellar Junior Marks at Nittai Time Trials

The 281st Nittai University Time Trials in suburban Yokohama were the biggest track action of the weekend. In Saturday's men's 10000 m A-heat, Hitachi Butsuryu teammates Richard Kimunyan Yator and Jonathan Ndiku went head to head in hopes of showing their coach who's in better shape to run the international stage at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden. With the thousands of dollars in income that can mean to whoever gets picked on the line, Kimunyan, who set a PB and MR of 27:01.42 in winning September's National Corporate Championships, and Ndiku, who ran a PB 27:07.29 to win September's Tokai University Time Trials, went right to the end. Kimunyan got there first in 27:01.74, Ndiku less than a step behind in a PB 27:01.95. Good luck to their coach in picking who to go with for January's main event.

A lap back, 18-year-old Chuo University first-year Yamato Yoshii added to this season's U20 Japanese national record 13:28.31 for 5000 m and Asian U20 half marathon #2 1:01:47 half marathon with a PB 28:08.61, good for all-time Asian U20 #4 and Japanese U20 #3. Pretty good for a frosh season. The next six runners behind Yoshii, all Japanese, and C-heat winner Yuki Suzuki (Kanebo) were under 28:15, pretty stellar considering most of the top tier are saving it for the Dec. 4 National Championships and most of the second tier will be racing at Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance meet.

Suzuki's teammate Samwel Masai took the top spot in Sunday's 5000 m A-heat in 13:28.87, the race video above. The top Japanese spot went to Shoya Kawase (Kogakkan Univ.), one of the highlights of the National University Ekiden earlier this month and dropper of a year-leading collegiate time of 1:01:18 at February's Marugame Half, who ran a PB of 13:32.73 for 4th. Post-race he tweeted, "Hey, a PB somehow! Feels like a 27 is on the way." Kawase will be running the 10000 m A-heat in Hachioji.

But the fun kept coming behind Kawase. Down in 8th, Taishi Ito (Saku Chosei H.S.) ran 13:36.57, the second-best Japanese high school time ever and good for #5 on the Japanese U20 lists. Four other high schoolers were under 14 minutes at Nittai including Ito's teammate Hiroto Yoshioka, 13:50.27 for 3rd in the B-heat. And across the country at the Saga Nighter Time Trials three more did the same, Akimu Nomura (Kagoshima Jitsugyo H.S.) leading the way in 13:55.59. It's a brave new world.

Women's results at Nittai were relatively low-key. National champ Meijo University star Rika Kaseda took the top spot in the 5000 m A-heat in 15:32.77 wearing non-regulation shoes, beating corporate leaguer Yuri Tasaki (Yamada Holdings) who ran an honest 15:34.52. Club runner Shiho Kaneshige (GR Lab) beat top collegiate and corporate league competition including National University Ekiden runner-up Daito Bunka University's top duo Natsuki Sekiya and Reimi Yoshimura to win the B-heat in 15:45.81, her last tune-up before December's Nationals. Yui Yabuta (Otsuka Seiyaku)) took the 3000 m A-heat in 9:13.16.

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

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

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

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