Golden Games in Nobeoka Preview and Streaming

Eugene, Oregon is the United States' Nobeoka, a small, isolated city with a local powerhouse of running, but in the case of Athlete Town Nobeoka it's not a university but old school corporate team Asahi Kasei that makes the town's name. Thursday's Golden Games in Nobeoka is its big home meet, and it always produces some of the fastest domestic times of the year. The atmosphere at the GGN is like nothing else, with local fans lining the track pounding on metal sponsor boards with batons and local marathon legend Shigeru Soh on the infield calling out support to each athlete by name over a mic like an MC.

Streaming starts at 14:15 local time Thursday, with the main event races starting at 19:05. Meet schedule, start lists and live results are here. JRN will be on-site in Nobeoka. The program is pretty simple: kids' 800 m, 1000 m and 3000 m races in the afternoon, then 10 heats of men's 5000 m, 3 heats of women's 5000 m, and one heat each of 10000 m for women and men.

The men's 5000 m C-heat at 19:05 is the first big race, all Japan-based Kenyan including Emmanuel Kipchirchir (SGH), Benard Langat (Komori Corp.), Dan Kiplangat (JFE Steel) and Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko).

The B-heat at 19:25 is more of the same, but along with people like 10000 m all-comers record holder Richard Kimunyan (Logisteed), collegiate 10000 m record holder Richard Etir (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) and Hakone Ekiden 2nd through 4th leg record holder Vincent Yegon (Honda) are a handful of the most ambitious Japanese runners, including Komazawa University's Mebuki Suzuki and Kotaro Shinohara, indoor 5000 m NR holder Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko), Olympian Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) and Hakone Ekiden 1st leg record holder Yamato Yoshii (Chuo Univ.).

The women's 5000 m A-heat is at 19:45, led by Kenyans Dolphine Omare (U.S.E.), Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) and Agnes Mwikali (Kyudenko) and featuring Japanese athletes like Meijo University's Nanaka Yonezawa and Nanase Tanimoto, Sairi Maeda (Daihatsu),Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko) and Minami Yamanouchi (Shimamura).

The level drops down a bit for the men's 5000 m A-heat at 20:10, with Gideon Ronoh (Logisteed) pacing the top tier of Japanese men who weren't up for something really ambitious in the B-heat. Sonata Nagashima (Asahi Kasei), Hazuma Hattori (NTT Nishi Nihon), Shunsuke Yoshii (Chuo Univ.) Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu), Shoya Kawase (Honda), Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and Taishi Ito (Waseda Univ.) are some of the most notable names here.

The women's 10000 m at 20:35 is small, with only 9 athletes entered. But a lot of Japan's current best on the track are in it, including 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post), women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima (Shiseido) and teammates Yuka Takashima and Tomoka Kimura, and Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu).

Starting at 21:15, the men's 10000 m is the last event of the night. Sub-27 man Rodgers Kwemoi (Aisan Kogyo) is set to pace a field full of Olympic marathon trials-qualified athletes like Tetsuya Yoroizuka (Asahi Kasei), Yohei Ikeda (Kao), Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima), Daiji Kawai (Toenec) and Tatsuya Maruyama (Toyota), sub-61 half marathoners Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) and Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei), track specialists Tomoki Ota (Toyota) and Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) and many more. But the one most people will be watching is 2023 Komazawa grad Ren Tazawa, the fastest-ever Japanese-born collegian over 10000 m, in his debut with the Toyota corporate team.

Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...

Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...

Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...

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