Ichiyama and Hironaka Make Top 8 - Tokyo Olympics Athletics Day Nine Japanese Results

Bumped up an hour on short notice, the women's marathon was one of the events at the Tokyo Olympics where Japan hoped to get onto the podium, or at least into the top eight for the first time since national record holder Mizuki Noguchi's gold medal in Athens in 2004.

All three Japanese women, Honami Maeda, Ayuko Suzuki and Mao Ichiyama, were up in it early, Maeda doing her share of frontrunning in the earliest stages, but when the race really got moving only Ichiyama was left. After 32 km she lost steam and started to drop back, falling as low as 9th, but a lucky break with Kenyan-born Israeli Lonah Salpeter stopping and walking at 38 km while battling American Molly Seidel for bronze put Ichiyama back into 8th, where she stayed until she crossed the finish line in 2:30:13. "I've got no regrets about finishing 8th," she said post-race. "Thanks for cheering from so early in the morning."

Suzuki was 19th in 2:33:14 and Maeda 33rd in 2:35:28. Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir took gold in 2:27:20, knocking world record holder Brigid Kosgei back to silver in 2:27:36 and keeping Kosgei out of the exclusive club of people to both break a marathon world record and win Olympic marathon gold. Seidel hung on for bronze in 2:27:46 almost a minute up on 4th-placer Roze Dereje.

In the women's 10000 m, 5000 m national record holder Ririka Hironaka, 20, ran big again. In only her third time running 10000 m Hironaka was 7th in 31:00.71, making her the 4th-fastest Japanese woman ever and first in 25 years to make top 8 at the Olympics. Hironaka just outkicked Germany's Konstanze Klosterhalfen to finish as the top woman born outside Africa. The 10000 m national record is sure to be on her list of targets next. Hitomi Niiya and Yuka Ando were 21st and 22nd out of 24 finishers in 32:23.87 and 32:40.77.

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

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