Nagoya and the National University Half

Nagoya and the National University Half - Weekend Preview

Two big races cap Sunday's road racing action in Japan. First up is the Nagoya Women's Marathon, where last year's winner Ruth Chepngetich is back saying at the pre-race press conference that she's ready to break the course record. Although she's still listed in the field on the English section of the Nagoya site, oddly she has been dropped from the Japanese section's field listing. She wasn't included in yesterday's announcement of the withdrawal of Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Molly Seidel and Germany's Katharina Steinruck, either language version, so it's possible her absence from the field listing on the Japanese site is a mistake. But it's very odd.

Either way, the world's largest women-only marathon has a relatively thin elite field, even thinner with Seidel and Steinruck out. 2021 Valencia winner Nancy Jelagat is the only sub-2:20 runner in the field apart from Chepngetich, with the next tier solidly at the 2:22-2:23 and occupied by Japan's Ayuko Suzuki, Mao Uesugi, Mizuki Tanimoto and Honami Maeda. Maeda won the last Olympic marathon trials and has had setback after setback ever since. The main story line here will be whether she can qualify here for October's trials ahead of the May 31 deadline. Hopes are high too for a big follow-up from 2019 World. University Games half marathon gold medalist Yuka Suzuki on her 2:25:02 debut in Nagoya last year. And, if Chepngetich doesn't cut it for whatever reason, whether any of the Japanese women can outrun Jelagat to score the $250,000 prize money for the win.

Fuji TV has the live broadcast starting at 9:00 a.m. local time. The broadcast will be streamed in 34 countries on the Nagoya website, and mov3.co is always an option if you're not in one of them. JRN will be covering Nagoya live on @JRNLive.

The other big race is the National University Men's Half Marathon in Tokyo's western suburb Tachikawa. It's always one of the deepest half marathons in the world, and as the selection race for the twice-postponed Chengdu World University Games this summer it's pretty likely some of the bigger names on the entry list will actually run.

2022-23 university ekiden season triple crown winner Komazawa University has some of its best runners training for the University Half in Albuquerque last month, so you'll probably see the likes of Kotaro Shinohara, the fastest-ever Japanese-born collegiate half marathoner at 1:00:11, 27:41.68 track 10000 m man Mebuki Suzuki, Hakone Ekiden anchor stage winner Hibiki Aogaki, star 1st-years Aoi Ito and Takuma Yamakawa, and more on the starting line.

Other top talent includes last year's winner Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Koku Gakuin Univ.), sub-61 half marathoners Ayumu Yamamoto (Koku Gakuin Univ.) and Kazuki Matsuyama (Toyo Univ.), sub-28 runner Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), Hakone Fifth Stage winner Yuito Yamamoto (Josai Univ.), and many more. The top 3 finishers will be named to the Chengdu team, so it's possible Japan could send a squad entirely made up of collegiate runners who've broke 61 for the half. Streaming can be found here starting at 9:45 a.m. local time, with the race kicking off at 10:00.

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

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