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.

Chepkirui Wins Nagoya Women's Marathon

Heavy-duty favorite Sheila Chepkirui took the win at Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , pulling away after 30 km to cruise in for 1st in 2:20:40. Erratic pacing early saw the first and second groups only seconds apart for much of the first half of the race, the top group slower than planned and the 2nd group a bit ahead of schedule. At halfway in 1:10:37 the front group included Chepkirui, #2-ranked Ruti Aga and last year's runner-up Eunice Chumba , and Japanese contingent Sayaka Sato , Rika Kaseda , Natsuki Omori and Mao Uesugi . Omori was the first to drop, then Uesugi, then Aga, who ultimately dropped out before 30 km. When the pacers stopped at 30 km Chepkirui made a move that dropped Kaseda and strung out Chumba and Sato behind her, but all four came back together once before another surge put Kaseda away for good. As Chepkirui inched away Sato and Chumba passed each other repeatedly, and Chumba could only watch as the top Japanese runner got away from her again thi...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview

The Nagoya Women's Marathon , the world's largest women-only marathon and the last race in the selection cycle for September's Tokyo World Championships, happens Sunday. Weather conditions are looking better than what they had in Tokyo and Osaka the last two weekends, 7˚ at the start and rising to 12˚ with sunny skies. The wind looks a bit stronger than ideal, but it could be worse. Fuji TV has the live broadcast starting at 9:00 a.m. Sunday local time, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch the TVer streaming . One option for a leaderboard is here , and another here . We'll have some coverage on @JRNLive . Just like last time around there are three Ethiopian and Kenyan-born athletes at the top list, this time it being sub-2:20 women Sheila Chepkirui , winner in NYC last year, and Ruti Aga , winner in Xiamen in January, and last year's Nagoya runner-up Eunice Chebichii Chumba . But last year Yuka Ando still pulled off the win, so there's a c...

Who's Running Tokyo Worlds?

The Japanese marathon teams will be the most prestigious ones to be on for September's Tokyo World Championships, and with Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon the window for Japanese athletes to get onto the JAAF's shortlist closed. Who's on it? The final decision won't be made until Mar. 26, but let's look through the selection criteria and see who's guaranteed, who's pretty likely, and who has a chance. 1. Marathon medalists at the Paris Olympics - There weren't any, so nobody makes the team this way. Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) were the top placers, both of them running PBs in the Olympics to finish 6th. You'd think that would count for something a year later, but you'd think wrong. 2. JMC Series IV Champions - The top point scorers in the Japan Marathon Championship Series IV, which ran from April, 2023 to March, 2025, earn places on the marathon teams along with cash prizes. For women that's Yuka ...

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