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

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...
3 comments
Read more

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...
1 comment
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...
Post a Comment
Read more