It's the last big racing weekend of the year in Japan, with three big road races at home and one marathon abroad featuring a familiar face under a new name. Biggest of the big is the National High School Ekiden Sunday in Kyoto. Despite rapidly rising COVID-19 numbers across the country organizers have managed to pull off staging the race, which brings together five-runner girls' teams and seven-runner boys' teams from the top high school in each of Japan's 47 prefectures. The whole thing is broadcast live nationwide commercial-free on NHK, with the girls' race broadcast starting at 10:05 and the boys' at 12:15. JRN will also be covering it on @JRNLive. We'll tweet live stream info as it becomes available.
With weather conditions looking good serious shots at the course records are expected in both races. In the girls' race, a half marathon distance in five stages, Kagoshima's Kamimura Gakuen H.S. is the favorite, running 1:06:04 in its prefectural qualifying race, 22 seconds up on the Nationals course record set way back in 1996. Defending champ Sendai Ikuei H.S. is also back strong, winning the Miyagi prefecture qualifier in 1:06:59, one second better than its Nationals winning time last year. Next-best among the qualifiers is Fukuoka's Kitakyushu Municipal H.S. at 1:07:45, with Hyogo's Suma Gakuen H.S. and Okayama's Kojokan H.S. the only other teams under 1:09. If it goes slow any of them could factor in, but expect the two favorites to push each other close to the record.
The boys' race, a marathon distance in seven stages, has what is probably its best-ever field, bringing together 23 boys who have broken 14 minutes for 5000 m. Hiroshima's Sera H.S. has four of them led by 2nd-year Cosmas Mwangi at 13:38.14, putting it in position to go for the 2:01:18 CR it set six years ago. But Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S., which holds the 2:02:18 record for an all-Japanese team, has three boys under 14, with 3rd-year Taishi Ito actually faster than Mwangi at 13:36.57. And with last year's winner Sendai Ikuei H.S. standing strong with two boys sub-14 it's hard to see the record(s) live to see another year. Expect to see stellar racing on the 10.0 km First Stage, where we're most likely to see 5000 m high school national record holder Kosuke Ishida of Tokyo Nogyo Daini H.S. take on other teams' best Japanese athletes, and the 8.1075 km Third Stage, where another generation of Kenyans will take a stab at the still-standing 22:40 CR set in 2004 by the late great Samuel Wanjiru during his days at Sendai Ikuei.
Further west in Okayama, the Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon and 10 km brings together some of the country's best for one last post-ekiden season blowout. As per the entry lists released last week, Tokyo Olympics marathon team members Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) and Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) are both entered to run, with support from sub-70 talents Rei Ohara (Tenmaya), Kaena Takeyama (Daihatsu), Sara Miyake (Tenmaya), Yuka Ando (Wacoal) and Reia Iwade (Chiba T&F Assoc.) and debuts from Ethiopian Zeyituna Husan (Denso), Kenyan Joan Chepkemoi (Kyudenko) and National Championships 10000 m 5th-placer Mikuni Yada (Denso) it should be a great race.
Ichiyama already has the second-fastest Japanese half marathon time of the year, 1:08:56 from Marugame in February, and with a 25 km national record and PBs for 5000 m, 10000 m and the marathon since then she should take a big chunk off that in Sanyo. Likewise for Olympic trials winner Maeda, who broke Mizuki Noguchi's pre-Athens Olympics 30 km national record in February running in regular shoes and followed up with 5000 m and 10000 m PBs in the summer.
The 10 km looks likely to be a race between Kenyans Rebecca Njeri Mwangi (Denso), Grace Kimanzi (Starts), Naomi Muthoni (Universal Entertainment), and Winnie Jerotich (Kyudenko), and Ethiopian newcomer Desta Burka (Denso). With a 14:55.32 win in the National Corporate Championships 5000 m in September only for her team to scratch from the National Corporate Women's Ekiden last month, Mwangi's 10 km debut could be one of the weekend's highlights.
In marathon action, the biggest race of the weekend is the Taipei Marathon. Keen to show that its strict but responsible protocols have made it the world leader in COVID-19 response, the Taiwanese government has given the Taipei organizers the go-ahead to put on a full-scale race with fields of 9,000 runners in the full marathon and 19,000 in the half, plus an invited international elite field. The only catch was that all international elites had to undergo a 14-day quarantine in their hotel rooms, which organizers had equipped with pro-quality treadmills.
How that's going to play out remains to be seen, but the international fields of six men and six women are quality all the same. Kenyans Elisha Kipchirchir Rotich and Paul Kipchumba Lonyangata lead the men's race at 2:05:18 and 2:06:10 with company from Ethiopian Chala Dechasa Beyene at 2:06:25. Ethiopians Askale Merachi Wegi and Zinash Mekonen Lema are the fastest in the women's field at 2:23:29 and 2:24:55. Japan's original high-volume marathoner Hiroko Baino (Memolead), previously Yoshitomi, is also in the mix as just the second Japan-based Japanese athlete to compete overseas during the COVID-19 era. Fresh from breaking the 10000 m national record on Dec. 4, Taiwan's marathon national record holder Chun-yu Tsao will also be going for the 2:29:30 Olympic qualifying standard.
The Taipei Marathon will be streamed live on the race website starting at 6:00 a.m. local time Sunday, with the race set to start at 6:30.
Back in Japan, its last marathon of the year is the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon, featuring elite men's and women's fields and a mass-participation field limited to locals only. The men's race looks likely to be in the 2:11 range, with the heaviest contenders being New Year Ekiden champion Asahi Kasei teammates Taiki Yoshimura and Shuji Matsuo, Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta) and Japan-based Kenyans James Gitahi Rungaru (Chuo Hatsujo) and Patrick Muendo Mwaka (Asia Univ. Staff).
On the women's side, club runners Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) and Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto) have the top two bibs. But with Yamaguchi scheduled to run as a guide runner for a blind athlete it'll be up to Kaneshige, who has focused on the 5000 m this season and ran a PB fo 15:39.63 at the National Championships two weeks ago, to duel with top corporate league entrant Yomogi Akasaka (Starts). Hofu is only broadcast locally, but we'll tweet streaming details if one turns up on race day.
© 2020 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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