Weekend Track Roundup (updated)

The first meet in this year's Hokuren Distance Challenge in Hokkaido was the main meet of the weekend, but there was more action near Tokyo than in a normal year too as organizers sought to keep the number of people in one location down. At the HDC Shibetsu Meet the men's 3000 m was the highlight, with Yohei Ikeda (Kanebo) winning in 7:56.10 to lead the top eight under eight minutes. Even just five years ago it was rare to see more than one Japanese man break eight in an entire year, a sign of how much things have changed in both shoes and priorities.

Titus Wambua (SID Group) ran 13:22.49 for 1st in the men's 5000 m A-heat, Kenyans sweeping the top four spots. In 5th Kotaro Kondo set a new school record for ekiden power Aoyama Gakuin University, running 13:34.88. 34-year-old Yuki Sato (SGH Group) was 6th in 13:35.74, bettering the time he ran at Nationals less than two weeks ago by 3 seconds.

Women's results in Shibetsu were low-key, Sakiko Naito (Panasonic) taking the 3000 m A-heat in 9:15.57 and Aoi Nomura (Sekisui Kagaku) the 5000 m in 15:58.89. The Nittai University Time Trials in Kanagawa seemed to be more the meet of choice for women, Despite heavy rain, Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) took the 3000 m A-heat at Nittai in 8:56.50, Narumi Kobayashi (Meijo Univ.) next in 9:02.54 and the top five all bettering Naito's mark in Shibetsu.

Marathoner Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) won the women's 5000 m in 16:00.50. Taiyo Yasuhara (Komazawa Univ.) won the men's 5000 m A-heat in a PB 13:50.01 with teammate Yuto Akahoshi running 13:57.55 for 6th to give this year's Hakone Ekiden champs 18 men with sub-14 bests for 5000 m. Ethiopian great Imane Merga (Yachioyo Kogyo) continued his comeback with a 13:54.17 for 3rd.

At Chiba's Juntendo University Time Trials Keigo Kurihara turned in the fastest time in the men's 5000 m A-heat at 13:46.96, with eight Juntendo men breaking 14 minutes for 5000 m. Yusaku Nomura led the home team in 13:49.23. Juntendo first-year Mao Kogura won the women's 3000 m in 9:23.03, teammate Ryosuke Harada winning the men's 3000 m in 8:08.46.

Measuring Marathon Courses by Bicycle

http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2013&d=0110&f=column_0110_034.shtml translated by Brett Larner The full marathon is a sport where you compete over 42.195 km, but how do they go about measuring that distance? Today we're going to look a little bit at how they go about certifying the distance of a marathon. The reality is that major international marathons use a bicycle to measure the distance. This rule is an international standard, and the same method of measurement is used everywhere. It was put into place in 1986. In order to ensure that the same method is used everywhere, a bicycle that meets IAAF specifications must be used for measurement. In the case of Japan's major marathons, to be certain that the distance is correct a provisional measurement is first made. Before the course is certified using a bicycle the course is measured using a 50 m-long length of wire to determine that it is in fact 42.195 km. When a bicycle is u...

Ai Hosoda Announces Retirement

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

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