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JRN's 10 Most-Read Stories of 2022

Like you'd expect, marathons and ekidens were the main stories of 2022 on JRN. But 2 of the 3 most-read this year were about track 10000 m, one that speaks to another area of the incredible depth here, and another that organizers would probably like to forget about. This was 2022 as JRN readers saw it. Thanks for reading, and please consider subscribing in 2023.

After opening a lead of almost a kilometer on the first day of Japan's biggest race, Aoyama Gakuin University turned that into a margin of over 3 km to win the 98th Hakone Ekiden in course record time. 3 of the 10 stages saw new course records, with incredible depth on almost every one of them. Preview.

After an oblivious camera crew walked onto the track as the race was still happening, clotheslining Shinji Mita of the Sunbelx corporate team with a power cable and interfering with four other athletes, the JAAF and broadcaster NHK apologized for disrupting the men's 10000 m National Championships.

Emmanuel Kiplagat of the Mitsubishi Juko corporate team ran a meet record to lead the deepest-ever men's 10000 m, with 24 men going sub-28 in the fast heat at the Hachioji Long Distance meet in Kanagawa. Including two other meets in Kanagawa the same weekend, a total of 199 men ran sub-29 track 10000 m in about 48 hours.

2019 world champion Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya ran solo almost the entire way to win the biggest women-only marathon in the world and biggest 1st-place prize money in the sport. Further back in the field, a week after running 3:04:16 at the Tokyo Marathon, the fastest-ever by a 63-year-old, 60+ world record holder Mariko Yugeta bettered that with a 2:58:40 to push the age range for a sub-3 even further. Preview.

It seems like a long time ago now, but when news broke that world record holder Eliud Kipchoge was scheduled to run the Tokyo Marathon the omicron variant was in full swing and Japan was still closed to almost all inbound non-resident travel. Kipchoge did run, of course, running the fastest time ever on Japanese soil, as did women's winner Brigid Kosgei. Preview.

Japan had the 3rd-largest number of qualifiers for the 2022 Oregon World Championships marathon after Kenya and Ethiopia, but its ratio of female to male qualifiers was one of the lowest in the world. We looked at how this might be related to gender equality as a whole in Japanese society and what it means for equal opportunity for Japanese women in the sport.

7. Fukuoka to Return - Mar. 14
Three months after the final edition of Japan's most famous marathon, the Fukuoka prefectural government and others announced that the Fukuoka International Marathon would return in 2022 with new sponsors. When the race happened not much else about it seemed new except for its logo, but it still produced new Israeli and Australian national records from winner Maru Teferi and 4th-place Brett Robinson.

With a young team all aged from 20 to 25 but including two Olympians and a 2:06:26 marathoner, the Honda corporate men's team won its first-ever New Year Ekiden national title Jan. 1 in Gunma. Preview.

A profile on one of the good guys of the sport, 2019 Fukuoka International Marathon winner and single father Taku Fujimoto, on his struggle to balance raising two young girls by himself with keeping a career in athletics going. JRN's favorite story of 2022. Glad to see enough people felt the same way for it to make the top 10.
Panasonic corporate women's team anchor Sora Shinozakura pulled off a brilliant last-second come-from-behind win to take 1st at the qualifying race for November's National Corporate Women's Ekiden, making up a 24-second deficit to leader Kyudenko in just over 6 km and turning it into a 6-second margin of victory.

© 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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