Weekend Track Preview

Things have been in a bit of a lull the last week or two with the Tokyo Olympics test event, university and corporate regional championship meets and more out of the way and everyone getting ready for the National Track and Field Championships in Osaka near the end of the month. But there is a lot going on this weekend, even if the leading edge of rainy season means conditions will not exactly be ideal.

Friday through Sunday the National University Individual Track and Field Championships happen in Kanagawa, the lesser cousin of September's National University Track and Field Championships without the team scoring. National record holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) is entered in the 3000 mSC, but with a place at the Olympics already guaranteed there doesn't look to be much reason for him to run except as a training run. 13:40 is the new sub-14, with the entire men's 5000 m A-heat field of 31 having bests under 14 minutes, 15 of them plus another 3 in the B-heat from Aoyama Gakuin University. Lawrence Ngure (Sapporo Gakuin Univ.) and Shotaro Ishihara (Tokai Univ.) lead the way with bests of 13:30.57 and 13:30.98.

First-year Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.) leads the women's 5000 m field with a best of 15:37.44, the only one under 15:40 but with four others including 2021 National University Half Marathon champion Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) under 15:45. Reimi Yoshimura (Daito Bunka Univ.), the top-ranked of the two Japanese women currently in the quota to make the Tokyo Olympics in the 3000 mSC at 37th of 45, leads the steeple field. With her three world ranking performances all coming in high-scoring meets she'll have a hard time improving her position here.

On Saturday and Sunday the Nittai University Time Trials also happen in Kanagawa, with the usual program spanning 800 m to 10000 m on Saturday and Sunday devoted to heats of men's 5000 m. Also Saturday, the Heisei Kokusai University Time Trials meet happens in Saitama.

But the best racing will probably be at Niigata's Denka Athletics Challenge Cup. From 200 m to 10000 m, most of the races feature big names getting near the end of hitting Olympic qualifying standards. The men's 10000 m has three Kenyan pacers lined up to try to get Daiji Kawai (Toenec) or Ren Tazawa (Komazawa Univ.), the #3-ranked Japanese man but still 11 seconds and 3 spots outside Olympic qualification, to the starting line in Tokyo. #1-ranked Japanese man Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu), 37th in the men's 5000 m quota of 42, and #3-ranked Yuta Bando (Fujitsu), currently #48, are entered in the 5000 m and will be trying to get closer to the standard or further up the rankings. The men's 1500 m has one particularly interesting entrant, South Sudanese NR holder Abraham Guem, stuck in Japan throughout the pandemic but benefitting from the environment.

The women's 10000 m squad is already full up for Tokyo, meaning a race for its own sake in Niigata where Ayumi Hagiwara (Toyota Jidoshokki) is the only woman to have gone under 32 minutes. Amateur club runner Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto) plans to run the 5000 m at Nittai on Saturday, then head up to Niigata for Sunday's 10000 m. Apart from sub-15:10 Kenyans Naomi Muthoni Kariuki (Univ. Ent.) and Tabitha Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) the women's 5000 m is low-key, Miku Moribayashi (Denso) the only Japanese women in it to have gone under 15:40. The women's 1500 m could be pretty good, with Kenyans Helen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) and Margaret Akidor (Comody) trying to help drag all the main Japanese contenders trying to snag spots in the Olympic quota to fast times.

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...

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