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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.

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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