The Kasumigaura Marathon and 10-Miler took place Apr. 16 in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki. In the most competitive race of the day, Yushin Akatsu kept 2023 Hakone Ekiden winner Komazawa University's streak of road race domination this season going with a win by 15 seconds in 48:07. Komazawa's Shura Miyagi was the second collegiate finisher at 4th overall in 48:45. Considering that neither Akatsu nor Miyagi made Komazawa's entry roster of ten starters and six alternates for Hakone in January, their success at Kasumigaura showed just how hard other schools are going to have to work this fall to stop Komazawa from becoming the first program ever to sweep all three major university ekidens in a single season two years in a row.
© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
In the women's 10-miler, Takushoku University took the top two places, Yuko Umeki getting the win in 58:02 and teammate Mayuko Ii 2nd in 58:57.
In the men's marathon, former Nihon University Hakone runner Benjamin Ngandu won by nearly 5 minutes over Takuma Shibata (Komori Corp.), running 2:14:56 to Shibata's 2:19:50. Ultramarathoner Takehiko Gyoba was 4th in 2:21:07.
Women's winner Yukie Matsumura (Comodi Iida) had almost as big a margin of victory, running 2:39:17 for 1st with high-volume club runner Mai Fujisawa (Excel AC) 2nd in 2:43:19.
In the blind marathon division, Tokyo Paralympics triathlon bronze medalist Satoru Yoneoka (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) won the B-1 category in 2:40:21, with marathon bronze medalist Tadashi Horikoshi (NTT Nishi Nihon) taking the B-2 category in 2:26:21 and Shigeo Akiba the B-3 category in 3:52:41.
Rio Paralympian Hiroko Kondo (Shiga Ginko) won the B-1 women's category in 3:50:02, and her teammate in Rio and Tokyo Paralympics gold medalist Misato Michishita (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) took the B-2 category in 3:09:00.
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