Osaka Half Marathon Elite Field

Along with yesterday's announcement of the Jan. 29 Osaka International Women's Marathon elite field, organizers have also announced the fields for the simultaneous Osaka Half Marathon. With athletes from 9 countries it's the most international field in the event's history, a welcome sign as other races like the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon a week later continue to restrict entries to residents of Japan.

Osaka Half Marathon

Elite Field Highlights

Osaka, 29 Jan. 2023

complete field listing

times listed are best in last 3 years except where noted

Women

Zeyituna Husan (Denso) - 1:09:24 (Sanyo 2020)

Desta Burka (Denso) - 1:09:31 (Sanyo 2021)

Kaede Kawamura (Iwatani Sangyo) - 1:10:17 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2022)

Shuri Ogasawara (Denso) - 1:10:25 (Sanyo 2020)

Mirai Waku (Univ. Ent.) - 1:10:26 (Sanyo 2020)

Yukina Ueda (Daihatsu) - 1:10:49 (Osaka 2020)

Wuga He (China) - 1:10:54 (Philadelphia 2022)

Hanae Tanaka (Daiichi Seimei) - 1:11:08 (Sanyo 2021)

Hina Yanagitani (Wacoal) - 1:11:26 (Osaka 2022)

Rui Aoyama (Univ. Ent.) - 1:11:36 (Marugame 2020)

Men

Patrick Mathenge Wambui (NTT Nishi Nihon) - 1:00:12 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2021)

Yohei Ikeda (Kao) - 1:00:59 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2022)

Shohei Otsuka (Kyudenko) - 1:01:09 (Marugame 2020)

Simon Kariuki (Togami Denki) - 1:01:11 (Olympic Test Event 2021)

Boniface Mulwa (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:17 (Ageo 2022)

Akira Tomiyasu (Aisan Kogyo) - 1:01:23 (Osaka 2022)

Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:01:25 (Osaka 2022)

Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) - 1:01:26 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2020)

Takumi Kiyotani (Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:01:27 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2020)

Daisuke Uekado (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:01:37 (Marugame 2020)

David Nilsson (Sweden) - 1:01:40 (World Half 2020)

Keita Sakamoto (Aichi Seiko) - 1:01:42 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2022)

Joseph Nganga Waweru (Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:01:44 (Osaka 2022)

Ryo Kuchimachi (Subaru) - 1:01:46 (Osaka 2022)

Tatsuya Sumide (Aichi Seiko) - 1:01:46 (Osaka 2022)

James Mwanzia Mutuku (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:49 (Shibetsu 2022)

Daisuke Momozawa (Sunbelx) - 1:01:50 (Houston 2020)

Hiroyuki Ishikawa (Aisan Kogyo) - 1:01:55 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2022)

Teruya Wada (Nishitetsu) - 1:01:57 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2022)

Kenji Yamamoto (Mazda) - 1:01:58 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2020)

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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