Shinya Wada's T11 marathon world record, 24-year-old duo Kazuya Nishiyama and Yohei Ikeda running the two fastest Japanese debut marathons ever, and South African Stephen Mokoka and Mongolian Jamsran Olonbayar each coming within 10 seconds of their NR made the Osaka Marathon something special this year. But they weren't the only records and near-misses on the Japanese scene this weekend.
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In Spain, women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima of 2022 National Corporate Women's Ekiden champ team Shiseido ran a 30:55 road 10 km NR for 3rd in the Maraton de Castellon's mixed-gender 10 km race. With the previous record having stood at just 31:44 for a women-only race and 31:49 for a mixed race it was a pretty soft record to break, but given how often top-level Japanese women run under that, even under 31 minutes, on the long stages at ekidens it was good to see someone take a serious swing at putting a quality mark in the books.
Her teammates Tomoka Kimura and Yuka Takashima were 4th and 8th, Kimura under the old record too in 31:01 and Takashima just off in 32:05. Goshima's split at 5 km was 15:20, also under the official NR of 15:34 for women-only and 15:52 for a mixed race, so here's to more of these coming soon.
Back in Japan at the Soja Kibiji Half Marathon in Okayama, Yuta Minamisaka, the First Leg runner for CR-breaking National High School Boys' Ekiden champion Kurashiki H.S. in December, took almost a minute off the high school half marathon NR, winning in 1:03:15. Teammate Shunta Uetsuki, who ran the Second Leg at Nationals, wasn't far off the old 1:04:08 H.S. NR either, taking 2nd in 1:04:55, with Sixth Leg runner Hiroto Hishida 3rd in 1:05:57. Minamisaka, who has a 5000 m PB of 13:54.90, will start the new school year at Tokai University in April.
Kurashiki's alternate Emmanuel Kipchirchir won the 10 km in Soja in 28:07, with Fourth Leg runner Shunsuke Kuwata 2nd in 28:56. Local high school Okayama Shoka H.S. assistant coach Kodai Toyoda was 3rd in 29:38. Kurashiki's Janet Nyiva won the women's race in 31:36, the only runner under 38 minutes.
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