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

Rui Aoki and Shunsuke Kuwata Making U.S. Debut at United Airlines NYC Half

When the National University Half Marathon was canceled in 2011 after the massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan 2 days before the race, JRN talked to the New York Road Runners about bringing 2 collegiate runners to the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon the next weekend as a show of support. It wasn't possible to pull it together in the immediate aftermath of the disasters, but a year later we brought 2 young 2nd-years from Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Toyo University , Kento Otsu and Yuta Shitara , who had been the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers at the Ageo City Half Marathon in November before Hakone. Shitara ran 1:01:48, at the time the fastest-ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, with Otsu running a solid 1:03:15. Thanks to that great start the Ageo-NYC partnership became a regular thing, and except for the pandemic it's continued every year since, expanding this year to June's New York Mini 10 km when 2 runners from Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden runne...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...
2 comments
Read more

16 Women and 26 Men on the Current Olympic Trials Qualifier List

Last weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon and the Tokyo Marathon the weekend before brought the main part of the first year of qualification for the Marathon Grand Championship Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials to be held in Nagoya in October, 2027, to an end. There are still a few races like the Nagano Marathon and overseas World Athletics platinum label races this season where people might qualify, but for the most part we're not likely to see many new additions until August's Hokkaido Marathon, where the qualifying period opened last year. As of right now 16 women and 26 men have qualified, although the first woman to make the cut, Ai Hosoda , announced that she was retiring after Tokyo earlier this month. Out of the 16 women to have qualified so far, Mikuni Yada is the fastest with her 2:19:57 debut at Osaka Women's in January. Including Hosoda that makes 2 qualifiers for the Edion corporate team, but Daihatsu has the biggest share of the field so ...
Post a Comment
Read more