Weekend Preview - Nagoya and the National University Half

Looking at what's coming up Sunday it kind of almost sort of feels like things are starting to get back toward normalish. Down to the south you've got the Nagoya Women's Marathon stepping up as the first WA Platinum Label Race worldwide to go ahead with a combined elite and mass-participation race since the pandemic started. It's a much smaller field than usual with just 5,000 in the mass-participation race plus elites, but they're actually going to do it. Can you believe it? We're still having a hard time.

The elite race should be good, even with the withdrawal of Tokyo Olympics marathon team member Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) with another injury. You've still got Olympic team alternate Rei Ohara (Tenmaya), last year's Osaka International winner Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) and 25 km national record co-holder Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku), with Matsuda kicking around the possibility of a new NR. That sounds pretty good. There's even a chance of a new world record, with 62-year-old Mariko Yugeta trying to better the 2:52:13 60+ WR she set in Osaka in January.

Detailed entry lists can be had here. Fuji TV will be broadcasting Nagoya live starting at 9:00 a.m. Sunday local time, and we'll be covering the race @JRNLive. Streaming? Something will pop up. We'll tweet links when it does.

Making things seem even more almost normal, that's not even the only big road race happening Sunday. Both the men's and women's National University Half Marathon Championships will be on in Tokyo's western Tachikawa suburb on the same course around an air force base runway used for last fall's Hakone Ekiden qualifier. There won't be any kind of broadcast or streaming, which is a real shame because the men's race looks incredible.

Limited to collegiate runners who've gone sub-1:04 for the half or sub-29:10 for 10000 m on the track, it still has 204 entrants plus a couple dozen more high-potential people who haven't hit the qualifying standards. A lot won't show, but big names on the entry list include last year's #1 collegiate half marathoner Shoya Kawase (Kogakkan Univ.), 1:01:18, in his final race before joining the Honda corporate team, sub-28 runners Charles Kamau Wanjiku (Mushashino Univ.), James Bunuka (Surugadai Univ.), Ren Tazawa (Komazawa Univ.), Yuhi Nakaya (Waseda Univ.) and Naoki Ota (Waseda Univ.), and a whole lot of others you probably saw at Hakone.

Usually held in Matsue on the west coast, the women's race is a lot smaller with just 89 entrants total but still has good quality. 2019 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) and bronze medalist Yuki Tagawa (Matsuyama Univ.) lead the way, with competition from National University Women's Ekiden champion Meijo University teammates Narumi Kobayashi and Yuka Masubuchi. Both the women's and men's races count toward national team selection for the 2021 Chengdu World University Games team, assuming the Games go ahead. Whether or not they do, at least these races are.

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

Restaurant Owner Selected as Olympic Torchbearer Dies in Fire After Becoming Despondent Over Impact of Coronavirus Crisis (updated)

On the evening of Apr. 30, the 54-year-old male owner of a restaurant in Tokyo's Nerima ward specializing in tonkatsu deep fried pork cutlets died from full-body burns in a fire at the restaurant. The man had been one of the people chosen as a torchbearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics torch relay. With the coronavirus crisis causing both the postponement of the Olympics and a loss of business at the restaurant, the man had recently started talking pessimistically about the future to those around him. With evidence of the man's body having been doused in tonkatsu cooking oil, metropolitan police from the Hikarigaoka Police Station are carefully examining the cause of the fire. At around 10:00 p.m. on the 30th, the fire broke out in the tonkatsu restaurant on the first floor of a three-story building. A neighborhood resident who noticed smoke called the fire department. Firefighters found the floor and part of a wall burning, with the man lying on the floor in the customer seat...

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