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.

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