Weekend Road Racing Roundup

Another busy weekend in Japan as its road races and marathons continue to return from pandemic-era hiatuses, with two 30 km races, four big marathons, and a post-season university ekiden.

In Kumamoto, Yuki Sato (SGH), 36, put in a hard last 5 km to pull away from the massive leading pack and win the Kumanichi 30 km in 1:30:57, the oldest athlete to win Kumanichi to date. Kira Migita (Toyota Kyushu) was 2nd in 1:31:13, just beating Sato's teammate Kazuto Kawabata (SGH) by 1 second. Rui Nishida (Higo Ginko) won the women's race by over 2 minutes in 1:46:58. Sato, who ran a 1:00:35 PB at last weekend's National Corporate Half Marathon, said post-race that he'd done a 30 km training run on Thursday and that Kumanichi had been only a workout effort.

In western Tokyo, 2018 Ome 30 km Road Race men's winner Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Danryoku), 38, led almost start to finish in pursuit of a second win on the hilly Ome course, but in the home straight he fell victim to a harder last kick from Ryota Natori (Konica Minolta). Natori, a former teammate of Kumanichi 3rd-place Kawabata, got the win in 1:31:57 with Okamoto just 4 seconds back. Naoto Hashimoto (Otsuka Seiyaku) was a distant 3rd in 1:32:29.

In a tuneup for next month's Nagoya Women's Marathon, Saki Tokoro (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) ran in a trio with Yuki Nakamura (Panasonic) and Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) over the first half of the race before pulling away to win in 1:44:48. Yamaguchi initially followed when Tokoro surged, but over the last 5 km Nakamura ran her down to take 2nd in 1:46:47 to Yamaguchi's 1:47:45. Nakamura's teammate Sora Shinozakura (Panasonic) won the 10 km in 33:53, with Hayato Oguma (Tokyo Jitsugyo H.S.) taking the men's 10 km in 30:30.

Held alongside Kumanichi, the Kumamoto Castle Marathon saw a close men's race with Hiroaki Furukawa (Tokyo Univ.) beating Jo Fukuda (NN) by 3 seconds, 2:18:51 to 2:18:54, to win for the 3rd time. Defending women's champ Michiru Kato took a second-straight win in 2:48:57, winning by nearly 5 minutes. With 9,707 finishers Kumamoto Castle was the biggest of the weekend's four marathons.

Next-biggest with 9,011 finishers was the Kitakyushu Marathon in Fukuoka, which saw an even closer men's race. Yuji Shibukawa started several rows behind Shuji Tsukamoto but outran him for the win 2:21:25 to 2:21:26. Manaka Yamashita (Canon) won the women's race in 2:48:26, with amateur Chika Tawara 2nd in 2:49:55.

The Kyoto Marathon saw almost identical winning times in the women's race, with Mikiko Ota taking the top spot in 2:48:57 and 2nd-placer Fuka Hirokawa running 2:49:39. Yudai Fukuda won the men's race by over 2 minutes in 2:19:39.

Kochi Ryoma Marathon winner Shumpei Oda almost tied Fukuda's winning time in Kyoto, running 2:19:40. Amateur Takemaru Yamazaki was 2nd in 2:20:44, with 2022 100 km World Championships silver medalist Jumpei Yamaguchi (Eldoreso) running 2:24:00 for 3rd in a training run effort for next month's Tokyo Marathon. Hisayo Kakinuma took the women's title in 2:56:58. A total of 6,621 people finished in Kochi.

Japan didn't field a mixed-gender relay team for Saturday's World Cross Country Championships, but in Osaka the National University Mixed-Gender Ekiden, a 20 km race divided into 6 legs with men and women alternating on stages from 2 to 5 km in length, saw a new course record in its 3rd edition. Juntendo University took the lead from Nittai University on the men's 5.0 km 3rd leg and held on until the women's 5.0 km anchor stage. But when Nittai anchor Yuiri Ogata and 3 other women ran stage record-breaking times Juntendo fell to 4th.

Nittai took the win in a CR 1:00:50, with anchors Miku Isono and Hikaru Hamano putting both Kansai University and Chuo University under the old CR in 1:01:12 for 2nd and 1:01:17 for 3rd. Juntendo anchor Mizuki Kakiuchi just managed to hold off Josai University's Koharu Kaneko, both teams clocking 1:01:35 but Juntendo getting 4th.

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...

Route Inn Hotels Win National Corporate Women's Ekiden Qualifier for First Time

After Saturday's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race in Tokyo, 2nd-tier corporate women's teams were in Fukuoka for their own national championships qualifying race, the Princess Ekiden . With Queens Ekiden 19-placer Otsuka Seiyaku a DNS, 30 teams lined up for the 6-stage, 42.195 km race where the top 16 would go on to join the top 8 from last year's Queens Ekiden at next month's national race. Coming right in the middle of the international fall marathon season several teams had people still tired from Berlin and Chicago, with Daihatsu fielding Rika Kaseda and Natsuki Omori from Berlin, Tokyo Metro sending out its own Berlin duo of Mao Uesugi and Ayumi Morita , and Kraftia not playing its top member Yuka Akasaki after her solid run in Chicago last week. After a fast start from eventual 9th-placer Denso 's Rio Matsutani , Daihatsu took over on the Second Stage and held it until the Fifth, where a tired Omori dropped to 3rd. Mayuka Fujita from Route Inn H...

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