250,000 Reasons to Run Nagoya, the National University Men's Half Marathon, and More - Weekend Preview

It's the last big weekend of road racing on the Japanese calendar this season. But even before it kicks off, there's a bit of track action Saturday. Tokyo Olympics steepler Kosei Yamaguchi and a few other Japanese athletes are taking advantage of Australia's borders opening up two weeks ago to run the Sydney Track Classic. Yamaguchi is running in the men's 3000 m national championships, a tuneup for the 3000 mSC at next week's Melbourne Track Classic, both with support from JRN. Streaming and live results here.

Back at home on Sunday, the Nagoya Women's Marathon wraps up three straight weekends of big city marathon action in Japan. Kenyan-born Israeli Lonah Chemtai Salpeter wisely avoided defending her 2:17:45 CR at the Tokyo Marathon last weekend, where world record holder Brigid Kosgei won in 2:16:02, opting instead to go after the biggest winning payout in the sport, Nagoya's $250,000 USD. It's great to see the biggest women-only marathon in the world stepping up with the biggest payday, especially as most other races worldwide cut their prize purses back over COVID-era budget issues. Last year Nagoya was the first major race in Japan to go ahead with both an elite and mass-participation field, and it's still leading the way.

Heat could be a factor, with sunny skies and temps forecast to hit 20˚C by the end of the race. But unless Salpeter blows up there's not really anyone else in the race who matches her on recent time. 2019 world champion Ruth Chepngetich is the next-best in the field, but her best time in the last 3 years is almost 4 and a half minutes slower than Salpeter's and it would take a return to past form to be in the race for the win. Japan's Yuka Ando is next in line, and with one of the fastest-ever Japanese women's half marathons behind her at last month's National Corporate Half Marathon Ando looks fit enough to give her teammate Mao Ichiyama's women-only NR of 2:20:29 a serious shot. Former middle-distance runner Kaena Takeyama, a training partner of Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Mizuki Matsuda, is a high-potential first-timer with a 1:09:12 half marathon last year, but the most interesting debut comes from Yuka Suzuki. The gold medalist in the half marathon at the 2019 Napoli World University Games, Suzuki's goal is to break the 2:26:46 collegiate record in her last race before graduating from Daito Bunka University this month.

Nagoya factors into both selection for the Oregon World Championships team and qualification for the 2024 Olympic trials. For Oregon, there's pretty much no chance anyone in Nagoya will be able to replace Ichiyama at the top of the JMC rankings, but a good run from Ando or an even better run by someone else should be enough to join Ichiyama and Matsuda on the team. And that would be a pretty solid lineup. For the Olympic trials, anyone in the top 3 Japanese and under 2:28, 4th-6th Japanese and under 2:27, under 2:24 regardless of place, averaging under 2:28 between their performance in Nagoya and a previous marathon in the window, or in the JMC top 8 post-Nagoya will qualify for the trials race in September next year. 34 men and 15 women qualified for the 2020 trials, and as of right now 28 men and 9 women have qualified this time around. Looking at the entry list, a full slate of 6 qualifiers seems realistic if the weather is good.

Official streaming of Fuji TV's broadcast will be on Locipo, with the race starting at 9:10 a.m. No word on whether it will be geoblocked, but if you have a VPN it shouldn't be a problem. A separate stream from five fixed cameras including at the start and finish will be streamed here starting at 8:45. We'll also be covering the race on @JRNLive. 

Also Sunday morning is the National University Men's Half Marathon in Tokyo. The women's race, held separately in Matsue, has been canceled this year, but the men's race is back to its usual course through the streets of Tachikawa and ending in Showa Kinen Park. Both it and Nagoya will also feature their usual mass-participation half marathons. Sub-61 is the new sub-62 for the top Japanese university men these days, and while the second half of the Nationals course is tough enough that a winning time that fast isn't likely, the entry list is extremely deep with a lot of top-tier talent. The actual start list is always another story, but A-listers on the entry list include:

• Kazuki Matsuyama (Toyo Univ.) - 1:00:43 half PB
• Ayumu Yamamoto (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:00:43 half PB
• Yusaku Nomura (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:01:51 half PB
• Ryuto Igawa (Waseda Univ.) - 27:59.74 10000m best
• Ken Tansho (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1st, '22 Hakone Ekiden 3rd Stage
• Hironori Kishimoto (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1st, '22 Hakone Ekiden 7th Stage
• Yuito Nakamura (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1st, '22 Hakone Ekiden 9th Stage
• Hironobu Nakakura (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1st, '22 Hakone Ekiden 10th Stage
• Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 2nd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 3rd Stage
• Kazuki Ishii (Juntendo Univ.) - 2nd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 4th Stage
• Kazuma Takeda (Hosei Univ.) - 2nd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 6th Stage
• Shunpei Tomita (Meiji Univ.) - 2nd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 7th Stage
• Issei Sato (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 2nd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 8th Stage
• Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 2nd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 9th Stage
• Taiga Seino (Toyo Univ.) - 2nd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 10th Stage
• Tatsuya Iyoda (Juntendo Univ.) - 3rd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 3rd Stage
• Takayuki Iida (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 3rd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 4th Stage
• Hiroki Wakabayashi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 3rd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 5th Stage
• Takumu Kudo (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 3rd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 6th Stage
• Haruta Koshi (Tokai Univ.) - 3rd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 7th Stage
• Yudai Nakazawa (Chuo Univ.) - 3rd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 8th Stage
• Jin Yuasa (Chuo Univ.) - 3rd, '22 Hakone Ekiden 9th Stage

If even half of them start we'll have a race on our hands. Live streaming will be here starting at 9:20 a.m. local time.

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