Skip to main content

UTMF Returns


Spanning three days beginning Friday, Apr. 22, the Ultra-Trail Mt. Fuji returned this weekend after cancelations the last two years during the pandemic, with great weather across the course around the foot of Mt. Fuji through Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures. 1,808 people ran the UTMF 165 km long course, with another 489 in the KAI 69 km short course, all of them enjoying spectacular views of Mt. Fuji as they ran its trails. Among them were some of the country's best trail athletes, making for the first elite-level trail race in Japan in a long time.

Covering 157.9 km with 6388 km total elevation gain, the UTMF 165 km division race started at Fujisan Kodomonokuni park in Fuji, Shizuoka and finished at the Fujikyu Highlands amusement park in Yamanashi in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi. With a course change announced on Apr. 20 that cut out some of the hilliest sections and kept runners on shorter and flatter forest roads, 2019 4th-placer Masatoshi Obara took the lead in the early stages. But after leaving the U2 checkpoint at 43.2 km Obara slowed as he hit the true mountain trails.

Hirokazu Nishimura was quick to overtake him for the lead. After the U4 checkpoint at 65.6 km and the paved roads of the Fuji Panorama Line section, Nishimura moved into 1st near Narusawa Ice Cave and never looked back, reaching the finish in a total time of 18:15:32. It was his first Ultra-Trail Mt. Fuji victory.

Dueling for 2nd were Takashi Doi and Hajime Mamba. Mamba overtook Doi at one point, but just before the U9 checkpoint at 142.4 km he took a wrong turn, giving Doi the chance to retake 2nd before Mamba could get back on course. Doi crossed the finish line 2nd in 18:45:45, Mamba a short distance back in 18:52:02. Former elite-level marathoners Tomonori Onitsuka and Seiji Kobayashi were 4th and 5th.

2018 women's 8th-placer Kimino Miyazaki was 19th overall in 22:14:15 to take the win in the women's race. After starting slow, Miyazaki picked up her pace aggressively after the U2 checkpoint and held 1st the rest of the way, running down male competitors one by one en route to victory. Shunko Yano ran conservatively over the 2nd half to take 2nd in 23:35:55, with Yukari Hoshino taking 3rd in 23:55:15 in her 8th UTMF appearance. Yukiko Sawada and Makiko Imada were 4th and 5th.


A new addition to the event this year, the KAI 69 km short course covered 69.4 km over the 2nd half of the UTMF 165 km course, with a total elevation gain of 3675 m. In the men's race Hiroki Kai and Yutaro Yokouchi battled head-to-head the entire way until the final climb up Mt. Shimo. Kai proved the stronger, taking the win in 7:32:00 as Yokouchi faded to 7:43:48 for 2nd. 3rd-placer Miki Ushida was close behind in 7:53:13, with Kazuhisa Muneishi 4th and Shintaro Hirasawa 5th. 

National team member Yuri Yoshizumi beat both Muneishi and Hirasawa to cross the finish line 4th, winning the women's race in an outstanding 8:12:29. 2nd-place woman Maria Nakazono was over 2 hours behind in 10:13:13, 3rd-placer Natsumi Yamauchi another 35 minutes back in 10:48:39. Nami Ishihara and Yukari Tanaka took 4th and 5th.


source article:
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more