Skip to main content

Weekend Road Race Roundup


There was too much going on this weekend to cover everything, but out of the major road race results the final regional qualifiers for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships led the way. In the Kansai region, new transfer Hazuma Hattori got things rolling for the NTT Nishi Nihon team with the top spot on the 12.6 km opening leg, and the rest of the team never looked back. NTT won in 3:56:46 for the full 80.45 km distance, 4th man Ayumu Kobayashi getting special recognition for the only new stage record of the day, 26:21 for the 9.5 km 4th leg. SGH, Otsuka Seiyaku, Sumitomo Denko and Osaka Gas picked up the remaining qualifying spots, with the Osaka Police Department missing out by 1:08 in 6th.

The Chubu and Hokuriku regions ran their qualifying races together, with the top 7 Chubu teams and winning Hokuriku team scoring New Year places. Like NTT, Toyota led start to finish to lead the qualifiers, first runner Tatsuya Maruyama getting things moving and anchor Hideyuki Tanaka bringing them home for the win by almost 2 minutes in 3:54:41 for the 80.5 km full course. Toyota's Chihiro Miyawaki, running as part of a non-scoring select team, broke the 12.2 km 5th leg CR with a solid 35:18. Almost 15 minutes separated 7th-place Chuo Hatsujo from 8th-place Infinity RC, making you wonder what the point really was. YKK took the top Hokuriku spot in 4:03:33 by less than a minute over Sekino Kyosan.

Now coached by former half marathon NR holder Atsushi Sato, the Chugoku Denryoku team was back on top in the Chugoku region, where four New Year spots were in contention. Chugoku Denryoku started in 3rd and didn't manage to run down leader Chudenko until the 5th leg with a stage best from Yuta Mikami. Over the last three stages he, Shunya Kikuchi and Shogo Kanezane managed to turn that into an almost 2-minute lead over Chudenko, winning in 4:00:20 for the 80.8 km course. 4th-placer JFE Steel was almost 16 minutes ahead of 5th-placer Takeda Yakuhin, making you wonder again, what's the point of mandatory qualifying races when everybody who could qualify is guaranteed to?

At the East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima, the Tokyo team came from exactly a minute behind at the start of the 10.0 km anchor stage to win by 1:01 over longtime leader Chiba with a 31:08 stage best from anchor Hitomi Niiya. Chiba anchor Nana Sato only managed a 33:09 for 5th on her stage but held on to 2nd overall. Continuing a great comeback season, Saitama anchor Minami Yamanouchi also went under 32 minutes, a rarity on the East Japan course, with a 31:48, moving up from 7th to take 3rd overall.. Kanagawa anchor Haruka Yamaguchi was 3rd on stage time in 32:42, moving Kanagawa up from 5th to 4th.

One of the main fall half marathons on the Kanto region university men's circuit, Tokyo's Setagaya 246 Half Marathon returned with a 1:02:43 win from Peter Kamau (Kokushikan Univ.). Last year's winner Yuto Tanaka of 2022 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University was 2nd in 1:03:04 and 2022 Izumo and National University Ekiden winner Komazawa University's Mahiro Yoshimoto 3rd in 1:03:31. Hiromi Masaki won the women's race in 1:25:37. AGU runners dominated at the Miyako Salmon Half Marathon, 2021 winner Aoi Ota making it two in a row with a 1:03:06 for 1st and women's winner Natsumi Nakashima also repeating in 1:26:52.

Road 5 km races aren't really a thing at the elite level in Japan, but at the new Fst in Fukuoka (not a typo) Ohori Park run on Saturday local corporate leaguer Benard Koech (Kyudenko) ran 13:21 for the win in the men's race over Sitonik Kiprono (Kurosaki Harima), 2nd in 13:26, and Isaac Ndiema (Kenya), 3rd in 13:30. Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) was 7th in 13:50, technically a new NR in the little-raced distance. Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) had an easy win in the women's race in 15:22, with Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) just holding off Rebecca Mwangi (Daiso) for 2nd, 15:34 to 15:39. Like Endo's time, Tanaka's was technically a new NR but still in easy range of any top-level Japanese woman who took a halfway serious stab at it. Australians Stewart McSweyn and Georgia Griffith won the road miles in 4:00 and 4:34.

Sunday in Fukuoka the mass-participation Fukuoka Marathon returned with a field of 11,000. Koichi Tsukamoto won the men's race in 2:28:24, Seika Iwamura taking the women's race in 2:51:34. 10,212 people finished the Okayama Marathon, where Daito Bunka University grad Hiroo Toyota took 1st in 2:18:31. Women's winner Natsuki Tomii set a new course record of 2:48:10. 4,446 people finished Nagano's Matsumoto Marathon, where local legend Junichi Ushiyama lost out to invited runner Yuki Kawauchi 2:20:25 to 2:27:17. Tomomi Sawahata followed up on her win at last week's Gunma Marathon with another win in 2:52:40. Another large marathon, the Tsukuba Marathon, also took place Sunday in Ibaraki, but as of this writing results are not yet available.

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

2026 Tokyo Marathon Elite Field

The Mar. 1 Tokyo Marathon has great fields this year, so let's get right to it. The women's field has 3 of last year's top 10, winner for the 2nd year in a row and Tokyo CR holder Sutume Asefa Kebede , 3rd-placer and 2025 Chicago winner Hawi Feysa , and 5th-placer and 2025 Berlin winner Rosemary Wanjiru , plus 2024 Valencia winner Megertu Alemu , 2025 Prague winner Bertukan Welde , 2024 Paris winner Mestawut Fikir , 2024 Osaka winner Waganesh Mekasha , former WR holder Brigid Kosgei , and a lot more. Japanese hopes pretty much go to all-time #7 Ai Hosoda , 2:20:31 in Berlin 2024 but who announced this month that she is retiring after Tokyo despite having qualified for the 2028 Olympic marathon trials with her 2:23:27 for 6th in Sydney last year. Other internationals include Canadian Malindi Elmore , American Sara Hall , a big Chinese group led by Yuyu Xia , Poland's Aleksandra Brzezińska and Australian Vanessa Wilson . The men's race has 5 of last year's top 1...
4 comments
Read more

Measuring Marathon Courses by Bicycle

http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2013&d=0110&f=column_0110_034.shtml translated by Brett Larner The full marathon is a sport where you compete over 42.195 km, but how do they go about measuring that distance?  Today we're going to look a little bit at how they go about certifying the distance of a marathon. The reality is that major international marathons use a bicycle to measure the distance.  This rule is an international standard, and the same method of measurement is used everywhere.  It was put into place in 1986.  In order to ensure that the same method is used everywhere, a bicycle that meets IAAF specifications must be used for measurement. In the case of Japan's major marathons, to be certain that the distance is correct a provisional measurement is first made.  Before the course is certified using a bicycle the course is measured using a 50 m-long length of wire to determine that it is in fact 42.195 km.  When a bicycle is u...
2 comments
Read more

Ai Hosoda Announces Retirement

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...
2 comments
Read more