The Tokyo Marathon Foundation announced today that it's launching a new elite and mass-participation half marathon on Oct. 16, The Tokyo Legacy Half, with a field of 15,000 and a price tag to match, 20,700 yen for the privilege of starting and finishing in the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. The course follows a scaled-back version of the MGC and Paralympic marathon courses, downhill at the start, turning around at Nihonbashi and the Imperial Palace, then back up the hill to the stadium. Entries for the first year will be restricted to Japan-only, at least for the mass-participation field, with the note that they might open it up to international tour groups later. More info including course map and elevation here.
While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...
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