Post-ekiden road season is up to full speed in Japan with two major races this Sunday. First up, the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon kicks off its 75th anniversary edition at 10:35 a.m. with an Aussie-heavy field and the usual domestic depth. Kenyan Nancy Jelagat is the class of the women's field on paper with a 1:05:21 in Berlin 2021, but without any race results in 2022 it's a question how she'll fare against Japan-based Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels), the Aussie trio of Sinead Diver, Eloise Wellings and Isobel Batt-Doyle, Brit Charlotte Purdue, American Sarah Pagano, and top-ranked domestic woman Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu).
Sub-58 man Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) fronts the men's field, with Aussies Jack Rayner and Riley Cocks set to mix it up with debuting 27:20.34 man Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko) and a million domestic men including sub-61 half marathoners Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) Takashi Namba (Toenec) and Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota). BS-Fuji has the live TV broadcast starting at 10:30.
Nishiyama won the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon last year, but this year he's swapped places with half marathon NR holder Yusuke Ogura (GMO), who has opted for Beppu instead of a return trip to the place he set his NR. The international field is tiny, with just three 2:07-level Africans, Hamza Sahli (Morocco), Ibrahim Hassan (Djibouti) and Daniel Kipchumba (Kenya), a pretty clear sign of what kind of time the powers that be hope the race will end up delivering. Alongside Ogura are 2:07 men Shin Kimura (Honda), Kento Kikutani (Toyota Boshoku), Kazuki Muramoto (Sumitomo Denko), Tsubasa Ichiyama (Komori Corp.) and Tatsuya Maruyama (Toyota), another 4 men at the 2:08 level, and 2022 Hokkaido Marathon winner Luka Musembi (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.). With conditions looking good expect to see a few more names join the list of qualifiers for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials.
TBS will be broadcasting Beppu-Oita live starting at 11:50 a.m. Sunday local time. Partial streaming will be on local broadcaster RKB's site, so check there for more info. JRN will be on-site locally and will have limited coverage on @JRNLive.
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