Okayama and Maruichi Win Shibamata 100 km

2022 100 km World Championships gold medalist Haruki Okayama (Comodi Iida) and club runner Akiko Maruichi (GRlab) took the top spots in the Shibamata 100 km ultramarathon in Tokyo, Saitama and Ibaraki. The men's race was set up as an aggressive shot at the first-ever sub-6-hour time, with three pacers leading a group including Okayama, '22 silver medalist Jumpei Yamaguchi (Eldoreso), 5th-placer Guillaume Ruel (France), sub-2:10 marathoner Jo Fukuda (Hoka) and others out at a pace of around 3:34/km. Yamaguchi survived the longest at that pace, holding it until almost 70 km before starting to slow. Okayama, who had fallen off pace after 50 km, passed him not long past 80 km and pushed on to win in 6:23:16.

Yamaguchi, Ruel and Fukuda all DNFd, Fukuda after only 50 km, Ruel after 60 km, and Yamaguchi not making it to 90 km. Having ignored the early fast pace and stuck to a steady 4:00/km, Masato Takahashi (Track Tokyo) was 2nd in 6:43:01. Veteran Hideo Nojo (Mitsui Fudosan) went out at around 3:45/km and held it until almost 40 km before slowing, finishing 3rd just behind Takahashi in 6:43:53. Along with Okayama, Ryoya Takabayashi, Masato Tanaka and Masato Namai all survived the lead group's pace to finish, Takabayashi taking 4th, Tanaka 6th and Namai 7th.

Maruichi was alone from the gun, starting out at around 4:25/km and speeding up at fast as 4:18/km before slowing to finish 8th overall in 7:53:16 for the women's win and improving on her runner-up performance two years ago by over 20 minutes. Aiko Kanematsu (Team Oligol) and Yuka Adachi (Honjo RC) started off together closer to 4:30/km, Kanematsu ending up 2nd in 7:58:27 and Adachi 3rd in 8:40:31. 4th-placer Yuka Seki was the only other woman to go under 10 hours at 9:15:31.

Shibamata 100 km Ultramarathon

Tokyo, Saitama, Ibaraki, 21 May 2023

complete results

Men

1. Haruki Okayama (Comodi Iida) - 6:23:16

2. Masato Takahashi (Track Tokyo) - 6:43:01

3. Hideo Nojo (Mitsui Fudosan) - 6:43:53

4. Ryoya Takabayashi - 6:58:42

5. Naoki Kawashima - 7:16:43

6. Masato Tanaka - 7:18:54

7. Masato Namai - 7:28:17

-----

DNF - Jo Fukuda (Hoka)

DNF - Guillaume Ruel (France)

DNF - Jumpei Yamaguchi (Eldoreso)

Women

1. Akiko Maruichi (GRlab) - 7:53:16

2. Aiko Kanematsu (Team Algol) - 7:58:27

3. Yuka Adachi (Honjo RC) - 8:40:31

4. Yuka Seki - 9:15:31

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

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