National Sports Festival, Izumo, Chicago and More

National Sports Festival, Izumo, Chicago and More - Weekend Preview

It feels like old times again, with at least five big events on the Japanese calendar. The biggest is Monday's Izumo Ekiden, the season opener for the top university men's teams in the country. We'll have a separate Izumo preview out soon, but you can look forward to the race being broadcast live on Fuji TV starting at 13:00 local time Monday. We'll also cover it live on @JRNLive.

The other big ekiden is Sunday's Kurayoshi Women's Ekiden and Nihonkai Ekiden, the first major high school races of the season. They're really one thing billed with separate event names for the girls' and boys' races, five stages totaling 21.0975 km for girls and seven stages totaling 42.195 km for boys. Most of the top high school programs in the country will be there, with 2021 National High School Ekiden 2nd and 4th-placers Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. and Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. leading the 70 teams in the girls' race and 2021 Nationals winner Sera H.S., 2nd-place Rakunan H.S. and 5th-place Saku Chosei H.S. fronting the 96 team-deep boys' race.

Also on the roads, five Japanese men will be lining up Sunday at the Chicago Marathon. With ekiden season preventing there from being any high-level fall domestic marathons a lot of Japanese athletes have been going overseas this fall, some to try to pick up qualification for next year's MGC Race 2024 Olympic marathon trials, and for those already qualified, to get some experience running a high-level race where Japanese athletes are in the minority. Led by 2:06:26 guy Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima), all five in Chicago are in category B. No Japanese women are entered, but the wheelchair race also features male athletes Kota Hokinoue and Sho Watanabe.

On the track, the National Sports Festival has already gotten started in Tochigi, with the opening day on Thursday producing a great junior mens' 5000 m. Led by Hiroto Yoshioka (Saku Chosei H.S.) in 13:53.85, the top 8 all went under 14 minutes, with 9th through 14th all under 14:10. Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) also took the senior men's 3000 mSC in 8:45.18. Upcoming highlights include the junior women's 3000 m on Friday and the junior men's 3000 m and senior women's 5000 m on Sunday.

Last up is the Chubu Region Corporate Track and Field Championships in Gifu. Chubu is the only corporate region with both a spring and fall track championship meet, and coming right before ekiden season it's had some good performances in the past. For men most of the talent is concentrated in the 10000 m, especially Heat 3 where top Kenyans Rodgers Kwemoi (Aisan Kogyo), Charles Kamau (NTN) and Bedan Karoki (Toyota) face marathoners Yuma Hattori (Toyota) and Daiji Kawai (Toenec), 27:33.13 man Tomoki Ota (Toyota), steeplechase Olympian Kosei Yamaguchi (Aisan Kogyo) and more. 3000 m is the main distance for women, where Ethiopians Zeyituna Husan and Desta Burka lead the Denso corporate women's team. Streaming of the men's 10000 m will be here starting at 15:50 local time Saturday, and here for the women's 3000 m and other events starting 8:50 a.m. Sunday.

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...

2026 Izumo Ekiden Preview

We're at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii where JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin is making her debut here as an athlete after having come to Kona for years as a journalist. Next to Kona the most eyes worldwide will be on the Chicago Marathon , where a solid Japanese contingent is lining up including men's marathon NR holder Suguru Osako and half marathon NR holder Tomoki Ota , Kiyoshi Koga , and the other power couple in Japanese marathoning, last year's Berlin Marathon runner-up Akira Akasaki and Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Akasaki . Osako's manager told JRN that he is going for the Asian Record of 2:04:43 held by Moroccan-born Bahraini El-Hassan El-Abbassi who was served up a 4-year suspension not long after setting the record. Last year's Warsaw Marathon winner Ryoma Takeuchi is at the Perth Running Festival marathon in Australia where he hopes to add a CR win to his PB at July's Gold Coast Marathon. On the home front Keita Satoh i...

April's Kasumigaura Marathon Canceled

The organizing committee of the 31st Kasumigaura Marathon and International Blind Marathon has been working hard to develop safety and health protocols adequate to mitigate the risk of spreading the coronavirus at the event. But with increased case numbers in recent months and a number of prefectures remaining under an extended state of emergency declaration, the future outlook for the organizers' ability to hold the race safely remains uncertain. As a result, the decision has been made to cancel this year's race, originally scheduled for Apr. 18. The popular Kasumigaura Walking event held in tandem with the marathon has also been canceled due to the pandemic situation. We thank you for your understanding. Translator's note: The Kasumigaura Marathon had 10,096 finishers in its last running in 2019. Its cancelation follows those of March's Tokushima Marathon and April's Nagano Marathon earlier this week. The only major spring Japanese marathons still on the calen...

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