Skip to main content

UTMF, Gifu Half, Hyogo Relay Carnival and More - Weekend Preview


It's a busy weekend ahead, with a major trail race, a half marathon, and at least three high-level track meets going on across the country.

The Ultra-Trail Mt. Fuji is already underway, 100 miles around the foothills of Japan's most recognizable landmark in the long course race. It doesn't factor into national team selection for next year's World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, but UTMF is still the most prestigious trail race in the country. Catch streaming here and on the UTMF Youtube channel. Leaderboard and athlete tracking here.

Sunday is the Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, in normal years Japan's only WA gold label half marathon and still one of its most competitive in this still not normal year. 2022 National Corporate Half Marathon champ Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (U.S.E.) leads the women's field with her 1:07:56 CR at that race, her main competition on paper coming from Aussie veteran Sinead Diver, 1:08:50 at Marugame two years ago but a DNF at last month's Nagoya Women's Marathon.

World all-time #4 Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) leads the men's field with a best of 57:59, with five other sub-60 Japan-based Kenyans and sub-61 JPN men Yuki Sato (SG Holdings), Yuta Shitara (Honda) and Takahiro Nakamura (Kyocera Kagoshima) also in the race. The race is being streamed live on Youtube this year starting at 8:30 a.m. Sunday local time.

On the track, the Spring Nobeoka Time Trials get things moving Saturday in Miyazaki. The Asahi Kasei team will be tuning up for hosting the Golden Games in Nobeoka meet on the same track a week and a half later, with most of its best runners and those from local rival teams Kyudenko, Toyota Kyushu, Kurosaki Harima and Mitsubishi Juko also on the entry list.

In Kanagawa, the Nittai University Time Trials series holds its first edition of the new academic year. As usual, everything from 800 m to 10000 m except the men's 5000 m happens Saturday, with a relatively conservative 22 heats of men's 5000 m on Sunday. Marathoner Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) will be doubling, running 3000 m at Nittai Saturday afternoon before going for a PB in Gifu the next morning.

But most of the biggest names including multiple members of the Tokyo Olympics team will be in Kobe for the 70th edition of the Hyogo Relay Carnival. The women's 5000 m and men's 10000 m B-races will be on Saturday night, with the grand prix women's and men's 800, 1500 m, 2000 mSC and 10000 m capping Sunday's action. Live results will be posted here. Local broadcaster Sun TV has streamed the meet live in the past, so check its Youtube channel for info as the meet goes on.

JRN will be on-site at the Gifu Seiryu Half throughout the weekend.

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Saku Chosei H.S. Makes It 2 In a Row - National High School Ekiden Boys' Race

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Japan Post Holds Off Sekisui Kagaku to Win Queens Ekiden National Title

  Japan Post  was back on top at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships Sunday in Sendai, holding off last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku  over the second half of a race that came as close as 1 second to take 1st with a final margin of victory of 27 seconds. Sekisui Kagaku was out fast with a win on the 7.0 km opening leg by Erika Tanoura  and a new CR for the 12:56 second leg by Yuma Yamamoto , 17 seconds better than her own CR from last year. Last year's 4th-placer Shiseido  briefly led on the 10.6 km third leg with an excellent 33:17 stage win from Rino Goshima , but behind her Japan Post's Ririka Hironaka  returned from her latest injury problems to pass Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  and hand off 6 seconds ahead. New recruit Caroline Kariba  ran Shiseido down on the 3.6 km fourth leg and put Japan Post 22 seconds ahead of Sekisui Kagaku, but a duel of marathoners between JP's  Ayuko Suzuki  and Sekisui's Hitomi Niiy...
1 comment
Read more

Nagano Higashi Girls Lead Start to Finish to Win National High School Ekiden

2022 National High School Ekiden girls' champion Nagano Higashi H.S. was back in force after a 5th-place finish last year, leading start to finish to win this year's national title Sunday in Kyoto. Lead runner Airi Mashiba kicked it off with a 19:30 stage win on the 6.0 km opening leg, something that head coach Fumio Yokouchi said later that he hadn't been expecting. That ended up being Nagano Higashi's only individual stage win in the 5-leg, 21.0975 km race, but the rest of its team ran well enough to hold a lead that was never less than 11 seconds but never more than 21. Last year's 4th-placer Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. spent most of the race in 2nd, but over the second half of the race Sendai Ikuei H.S. , 2nd last year by just 1 second, came from further back to run Kunei down on the anchor stage thanks in big part to a critical stage win on the 4th leg by Tsubomi Tezuka that put anchor Aoi Hosokawa in position to catch Kunei's Mizuki Oda . Nagano Higashi ...
Post a Comment
Read more