Ageo and Kobe Return, and More

Ageo and Kobe Return, and More - Weekend Preview

The world's deepest half marathon returns Sunday in Ageo, Saitama for the first time since 2019 as Hakone Ekiden-bound universities line up at the Ageo City Half Marathon. Coaches of the teams set to run Hakone use Ageo to narrow down their rosters of contenders for their 16-member Hakone entry list, and the result of that is hundreds of people turning in times that would win most other races. Since 2012 the top two Japanese collegiate finishers have also earned invitations to the United Airlines NYC Half. People like former national record holder Yuta Shitara and the top placer in the marathon at this summer's Oregon World Championships Yusuke Nishiyama have gone from Ageo to NYC and on to bigger things, and with big names like 2019 winner Joseph Razini Lemeteki (Takushoku Univ.), 1:00:40 half marathoner Chikara Yamano (Komazawa Univ.) and former 5000 m H.S. NR holder Kosuke Ishida (Toyo Univ.) on the entry list this time the front end of the race should be fast and competitive.

Also coming back Sunday is the Kobe Marathon, with a field of 20,000 one of Japan's biggest. A budget crunch forced it to drop its World Athletics label this year, but even so Kobe still has a small international elite field lined up. The women's race is led by CR holder Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita), fresh off wins in Hokkaido in August and Chiba two weeks ago. She's up against Immaculate Chemutai (Uganda), 1st at the Bali Marathon in August, and debuting 1:07:28 half marathoner Sharon Kemboi (Kenya). Junichi Tsubouchi (Kurosaki Harima) is the top Japanese man at 2:08:35 last year at Lake Biwa, up against 2:07~2:08 Kenyans Elkanah Langat and Clement Langat and 1:00:00 half marathoner Benard Kimani (Comodi Iida).

Hakone is the main event for schools in the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, but for the Osaka-centered Kansai Region Saturday's Tango University Ekiden is the season-ender. 22 teams face off over the 8-stage, 84.5 km course through northwestern Kyoto, with streaming starting at 7:20 a.m. local time. Ritsumeikan University has won Tango the last four years, but this season it looks vulnerable to Kwansei Gakuin University, the top non-Kanto team at October's Izumo Ekiden and at the National University Ekiden earlier this month.

Along with Ageo, Kanto Region runners will also be at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic stadium where the Kanto Region University 10000 m Time Trials meet returns Saturday after demolition and reconstruction-era exile to Kanagawa's beautiful Keio University field. With 10 men's heats and 1 women's heat on the menu anyone who clears 29:20 or 34:20 is set to pick up scholarship money from regional collegiate federation KGRR. Other track time trial meets are also set for Saturday at Heisei Kokusai University in Saitama and in Hiroshima at the Chugoku Corporate Time Trials meet.

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...

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...

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