It was the busiest weekend so far this year in Japanese road racing. At the National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships, Joseph Karanja (Aichi Seiko) took the men's title in 1:00:25, leading 11 under 61 minutes. 3rd overall, Ryota Kondo (Mitsubishi Juko) was the top Japanese man in 1:00:32. Depth-wise it was pretty typical for a top-level Japanese half:
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sub-61: 11
sub-62: 26
sub-63: 46
sub-64: 78
sub-65: 93
sub-66: 106
After a CR and women-only NR last year the women's race was unexpectedly slow this time. 2022 champ Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (U.S.E.) made it two in a row with an easy solo win in 1:10:16, with Shiori Yoshizono (Tenmaya) 2nd in 1:10:48. Sora Shinozakura (Panasonic) won the women's 10 km title in 33:09.
At the Karatsu 10-Miler, marathoner Hiroto Fujimagari (Toyota Kyushu) held off Hideaki Sumiyoshi (Kyudenko) for the win 46:56 to 46:58. Naruha Sato (Shiseido) won the women's 10 km, bettering Shinozakura's time at the National Corporate Championships in 32:48. Kazu Matsui (Oita Tomei H.S.) led the top 5 under 30 minutes in the high school boys' 10 km, winning in 29:44. Fuka Kurimoto (Takakawa Gakuen H.S.) won the high school girls' race in 16:56.
In marathon action, Waseda University 3rd-year Koki Sato pulled an upset at the Nobeoka Nishi Nihon Marathon, winning his debut in 2:11:13 over corporate leaguers Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) and Ryota Ejima (Mitsubishi Juko). Murayama surged after 30 km to open a 16-second lead, but by 40 km Sato had reeled him back in and was 7 seconds out front. Sato's winning time was the second-fastest in Nobeoka history and the first time since 1966 that a college student has won it. In the end Murayama was 2nd in 2:11:26, Ejima another second behind in 3rd and 4th and 5th-placers Takashi Soma (Otsuka Seiyaku) and Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) just making it under 2:12. Amateur Yuka Adachi won the women's race in 2:51:14.
In Osaka, Mongolians Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh and Munkhbayar Narandulam were back at the Senshu International Marathon at the end of a 6-week training camp in Japan to win again. Galbadrakh led the women's race start to finish in pursuit of her first sub-2:30 but fell off pace slightly in the hilly last 10 km, winning in a PB of 2:30:41 for her fourth-straight Senshu victory. Kanon Suda (Kobe Gakuin Univ.) ran down Ugandan Priscilla Chelangat late in the race for 2nd in 2:40:49, Chelangat fading to 3rd in 2:49:15.
Narandulam, the 2018 Senshu men's winner, initially led a group of four including Ugandan Nathan Ayeko, but frustrated by the other's unwillingness to take turns leading he took off solo. Ayeko reeled him back in right at 31 km, and for the next 9 km they stayed side by side. But with 2 km to go Narandulam surged again to win in 2:16:28. Ayeko was 2nd in a PB of 2:17:09, the only other runner to go sub-2:20.
At the Ehime Marathon, Yoshiki Nakamura (Ehime Ginko) had a narrow win over 100 km world champion Haruki Okayama, Nakamura taking the men's title in 2:17:27 to Okayama's 2:17:56. Rui Nishida (Higo Ginko) won the women's race in 2:40:51, her nearest competitor Eri Suzuki a kilometer back in 2:44:40 for 2nd. A total of 8.895 people finished Ehime's 60th edition, making it the biggest of the three major domestic marathons this weekend.
Overseas, the Japanese team did well in unfamiliar indoor environment at the Asian Indoor Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, taking 6 gold medals, 4 silvers, 4 bronzes, and setting three NR and one U20 NR. In women's events, Masumi Aoki took 0.04 off her own 60 mH NR to win gold in 8.01. Sumire Hata won gold in the long jump with a 6.64 m NR. Mayu Nasu won gold in the pole vault, clearing everything up to 4.0 m on her first attempt. Yuki Yamasaki took bronze in the pentathlon, breaking the NR by 5 points with a final score of 4078. Yume Goto won silver in the 1500 m in 4:19.29, Ayano Shiomi matching that with a silver in the 800 m in 2:07.18. National champion Meijo University's Yuma Yamamoto took bronze in the 3000 m, running 9:09.29.
In men's events, fresh off an indoor mile NR last week, Kazuto Iizawa won 1500 m gold in 3:42.83. Yuma Maruyama and Keisuke Okuda went 1-2 in the heptathlon, Maruyama not far off the NR at 5801 for gold and Okuda scoring 5497 for silver. Ryoichi Akamatsu cleared 2.28 m on his second attempt to take high jump gold. Just 3 weeks after his 19th birthday, Hakone Ekiden champ Komazawa University's Keita Sato added a fourth U20 NR to his resume, running over 33 seconds under the old record dating back to 1999 with a 7:56.41 for silver in his first-ever indoor race. Ryota Suzuki won bronze in the 60 m, running 6.66, with Shuhei Ishikawa winning bronze in the 60 mH in 7.70.
Times in distance events were also good at the BU Valentine Invitational, with standout performances including sub-8 clocking in the men's 3000 m from Takato Suzuki, Kanta Shimizu and Shunsuke Yoshii, a 13:29.76 from Yoshii's older brother Yamato Yoshii in the 5000 m, and yet another NR from Nozomi Tanaka with an 8:45.64 for 4th in the women's 3000 m.
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