Takashi Doi Wins Trans Japan Alps Race in Course Record Time

by Koichi Iwasa for DogsorCaravan.com

photos by Sho Fujimaki and Hao Moda

Five days after it began, the Trans Japan Alps Race 2022 (TJAR) welcomed its first finisher to Ohama Beach in Shizuoka on the Thursday, Aug. 11 Mountain Day public holiday. That first finisher this year was Takashi Doi, arriving at the finish line amid heavy rain 4 days, 17 hours and 33 minutes after he started. Doi beat the previous course record of 4 days, 23 hours and 52 minutes set in 2016 by Shogo Mochizuki by 6 hours and 19 minutes.

Doi arrived at the Chosugoya checkpoint marking the beginning of the descent out of the Southern Alps 301 km from the starting point at 12:45 a.m. on the 11th. At around 5:20 a.m. he crossed the Hatanagi Otsuri bridge at 307 km, emerging onto a paved forest road with 88 km to go. Even though he'd been skipping long naps up to then, Doi still looked fresh and light when he arrived at the Ikawa Auto Camp checkpoint with 69 km to go at 8:04 a.m. From there on out he continued on without any major breaks. The rain started to come down as he entered the outskirts of Shizuoka, but crowds still turned out to cheer Doi on as he became the 2022 race's first finisher.

Doi first took part in the TJAR last year. He led on the first day, but with an approaching typhoon looming ominously the race was canceled at the end of the day. It only took his second attempt for him to finish it and rewrite the record book. Doi's trail resume includes an 11th-place finish at the 2015 UTMB, and more recently a runner-up finish at UTMF this past April. In 2020 he was 4th in the 298 km Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge in 56:25. It's safe to say that he's one of Japan's top athletes on the ultra distance and trail running scene.

Behind Doi, Kazuki Ishio, Naomasa Kimura and Makoto Baba all made it to the Sanpuku Pass Shelter checkpoint at 268 km before midnight Wednesday night. Four-time winner and previous course record holder Mochizuki was also high up in the standings. Ishio got to the Chosugoya checkpoint at 301 km at around 5:00 p.m., Kimura arriving at 6:50 p.m. and Baba and Mochizuki both coming in around 10:40 p.m. Ishio passed the 69 km to go point at around 10:00 p.m., putting him on track to reach the finish at Ohama Beach Friday morning. A finish on the morning of the sixth day is an excellent performance that stands up against past years' winning runs.

The deadline at the Ichinose checkpoint was noon Thursday, but apart from three athletes who had dropped out everyone in the race made it through and advanced on into the Southern Alps. The Sanpuku Pass checkpoint at 268 km was the next cutoff, the deadline falling at 5:00 p.m. on the 12th. But again this year there are worries about the weather. The forecast calls for a low-pressure tropical storm south of Japan to strengthen into a typhoon as it heads north. Rain on the 12th is expected to grow heavier in the area of the race as time goes on. That seems likely to impact the event continuing to go forward.

In Yamanaka in the Southern Alps where we are online athlete tracking has a delay, but as of the end of the fifth day the standings look like this according to GPS data:

Finish: Takashi Doi - 4:17:33 - CR

69 km to go: Kazuki Ishio

83 km to go: Naomasa Kimura

~302 km: Shingo Mochizuki

~301 km: Makoto Baba

~294 km: Atsushi Kaise

~293 km: Yoshihiro Ide

~292 km: Masashi Noyori

~288 km: Masataka Ohata

~287 km: Yusuke Hayashida

~286 km: Takahiro Makino

~275 km: Soki Sato

~271 km: Kaname Sago

~268 km: Akihiro Suruya, Naohiro Hoda

~265 km: Haruo Ozaki

~263 km: Hidesuke Yokoi, Atsushi Seki

~255 km: Kenichi Yoshikawa

~254 km: Hironori Nakajima

~248 km: Kengo Noda

~247 km: Kenichi Ijima

~243 km: Kazunori Kubo, Mitsuru Mikami

~241 km: Kenichiro Inasaki, Takahiro Matsumoto

~240 km: Hideki Kawata

DNF, evening, Day 4: Shinichi Tsuboi

DNF, night, Day 3: Atsuhiro Nishida

DNF, morning, Day 3: Masaaki Takeuchi

Thanks to Sho Fujimaki, Hao Moda, and the other great trail photographers who contributed to making our coverage possible.

https://dogsorcaravan.com/2022/08/12/day5-2022-tjar-digest/

translated by Brett Larner

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