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.

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...

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