Sadakata and Ichiyama Win Hakodate Half, NR Holder Suzuki Back in First Race Since Tokyo '22

Sunday's other big race in Hokkaido was the Hakodate Half Marathon and Marathon, where members of Japan's marathon squad for August's Budapest World Championships and qualifiers for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials tune up for their races. In the men's half marathon, Shun Sadakata held off Evans Kipkemei to take the win by 2 seconds in a PB and CR 1:01:37. Hideyuki Tanaka took 3rd in 1:01:40, with Dan Kiplangat the only other runner under 62 in 1:01:54 for 4th.

Half marathon NR holder Yusuke Ogura was 6th in 1:02:38, and close behind him was marathon NR holder Kengo Suzuki, 7th in 1:02:46. For Suzuki it was the first time he'd made it to the starting line of a race since the March, 2022 Tokyo Marathon, and as the first MGC qualifier to finish in Hakodate his performance there was good enough to generate a collective sigh of relief. Budapest marathon team member Kazuya Nishiyama didn't have the same kind of day, only 15th in 1:03:58.

Women-only marathon NR holder Mao Ichiyama took the top spot in the women's half marathon, running 1:10:23. MGC qualifier Mizuki Tanimoto and track runner Yuka Takashima were 2nd and 3rd in 1:10:58 and 1:11:58, with 30 km NR holder Honami Maeda 6th in 1:12:32.

In the marathon, MGC qualifier Naoki Okamoto won by over two minutes in a training run effort 2:15:56, a CR by over 2 minutes. Club runner Yukie Matsumura won the women's marathon in 2:45:46.

Hakodate Half Marathon

Hakodate, Hokkaido, 25 June 2023

Women's Half Marathon

1. Mao Ichiyama (Shiseido) - 1:10:23

2. Mizuki Tanimoto (Tenmaya) - 1:10:58

3. Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) - 1:11:58

4. Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) - 1:12:01

5. Saki Tokoro (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:12:18

6. Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) - 1:12:32

7. Momoko Watanabe (Tenmaya) - 1:13:15

8. Hikaru Kitagawa (Osaka Geijutsu Univ.) - 1:13:37

9. Natsumi Matsushita (Tenmaya) - 1:15:12

10. Arisa Nakao (Universal Entertainment) - 1:15:54

Men's Half Marathon

1. Shun Sadakata (Mazda) - 1:01:37 - CR

2. Evans Kipkemei (JFE Steel) - 1:01:39

3. Hideyuki Tanaka (Toyota) - 1:01:40

4. Dan Kiplangat (JFE Steel) - 1:01:54

5. Ryuichi Hashimoto (Press Kogyo) - 1:02:31

6. Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) - 1:02:38

7. Kengo Suzuki (Fujitsu) - 1:02:46

8. Paul Onyiego (Fujisan no Meisui) - 1:02:54

9. Yudai Shimazu (GMO) - 1:03:02

10. Masaru Aoki (Kao) - 1:03:11

Women's Marathon

1. Sachie Matsumura (Nike) - 2:45:46

2. Kasumi Takahama (unattached) - 2:56:54

3. Emi Saito (unattached) - 2:58:26

Men's Marathon

1. Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:15:56 - CR

2. Takuma Shibata (Komori Corp.) - 2:18:08

3. Takuma Kumagai (Sumitomo Denko) - 2:22:39

2026 Tokyo Marathon Elite Field

The Mar. 1 Tokyo Marathon has great fields this year, so let's get right to it. The women's field has 3 of last year's top 10, winner for the 2nd year in a row and Tokyo CR holder Sutume Asefa Kebede , 3rd-placer and 2025 Chicago winner Hawi Feysa , and 5th-placer and 2025 Berlin winner Rosemary Wanjiru , plus 2024 Valencia winner Megertu Alemu , 2025 Prague winner Bertukan Welde , 2024 Paris winner Mestawut Fikir , 2024 Osaka winner Waganesh Mekasha , former WR holder Brigid Kosgei , and a lot more. Japanese hopes pretty much go to all-time #7 Ai Hosoda , 2:20:31 in Berlin 2024 but who announced this month that she is retiring after Tokyo despite having qualified for the 2028 Olympic marathon trials with her 2:23:27 for 6th in Sydney last year. Other internationals include Canadian Malindi Elmore , American Sara Hall , a big Chinese group led by Yuyu Xia , Poland's Aleksandra Brzezińska and Australian Vanessa Wilson . The men's race has 5 of last year's top 1...

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photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/Photo Run, all rights reserved On Jan. 8 the Edion women's corporate team announced that Ai Hosoda , 30, will retire at the end of March this year. The Tokyo Marathon will be her last race. At Nagano Higashi H.S. Hosoda ran in the National High School Ekiden her 2nd and 3rd years. During her 3rd year at Nittai University she won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, going on to win the bronze medal in the 10000 m at the World University Games in her 4th year at Nittai. After graduating she joined the Daihatsu corporate team, debuting at the 2019 Nagoya Women's Marathon in 2:29:27. 2 years later she transferred to Edion. She qualified for the Paris Olympics marathon trials at the 2022 Nagoya Women's Marathon and finished 3rd in the trials in the fall of 2023, but was later bumped down to Olympic alternate after another athlete ran a faster time. Instead of the Olympics, Hosoda ran the 2024 Ber...

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