Skip to main content

Yoshizumi Wins Fifth-Straight Fuji Mountain Race Title, Omi Takes Men's Race


The 76th edition of one of Japan's most iconic races happened Friday at the Fuji Mountain Race in Yamanashi. In the summit race, 21 km up the slopes of Mt. Fuji starting near 800 m and peaking around 3700 m, international-level mountain runner Yuri Yoshizumi won a fifth-straight women's title. Her time of 3:16:53 was the slowest of her wins by just over a minute but still put her almost 13 minutes ahead of runner-up Rieko Koshi, last year's short course winner making her debut at the longer, tougher distance.

Ryunosuke Omi won the men's summit title in 2:41:31, 5 minutes up on 2nd-placer Taiga Yamaguchi. Defending men's champ Hiroki Kai was only 6th in 2:55:50, with last year's short course runner-up Jumpei Yamaguchi doubling back from a 100 km NR last month at Lake Saroma to take 12th in 3:00:30. Post-race Yamaguchi said, "I think I want to stick to road racing." Two-time winner Shun Gorotani finished far down the field behind Yoshizumi in 3:26:03. Post-race he commented, "That was the best I could do right now."

In the 5th Stage Course, 16 km climbing from 800 m to just past 2200 m, last year's runner-up Remi Tanaka took 1st in the women's race in 1:47:02 instead of moving up in distance. 2022 5th Stage Course men's winner Takuya Saito also held steady in distance, winning again in 1:28:01 almost 7 minutes slower than last year.

76th Fuji Mountain Race

Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, 28 July, 2023

Women's Summit Course
1. Yuri Yoshizumi - 3:16:53
2. Rieko Koshi - 3:29:31
3. Suzuha Kusuda - 3:39:50
4. Ryoko Nihei - 3:42:41
5. Kana Numata - 3:44:52

Men's Summit Course
1. Ryunosuke Omi - 2:41:31
2. Taiga Yamaguchi - 2:46:28
3. Tsubasa Fuji - 2:50:03
4. Kei Kikushima - 2:51:59
5. Tomofumi Miyagawa - 2:54:49

Women's 5th Stage Course
1. Remi Tanaka - 1:47:02
2. Chika Yokota - 1:50:18
3. Mai Fushida - 1:50:21

Men's 5th Stage Course
1. Takuya Saito - 1:28:01
2. Hiro Ishida - 1:28:52
3. Masato Ueda - 1:31:22

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

'CAS Clears Japan’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ikeda of Doping, Overturns Ban'

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/10/23/cas-clears-japans-olympic-silver-medallist-ikeda-of-doping-overturns-ban The AIU's missteps in this case cost Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda , a Toyo University graduate who competes for the Asahi Kasei corporate team, the chance to represent Japan at a home soil World Championships last year. It is almost unheard of for an athlete to successfully fight a biological passport suspension as Ikeda did, making this a highly significant case. The CAS' press release about its decision stated: "The Panel stressed that the Athlete did not merely assert his position on the ABP abnormalities but adduced very extensive evidence in support of his explanations. In this highly complex case, the evidence brought during the CAS proceedings was far more abundant and specific than during the first instance proceedings with the WA Disciplinary Tribunal, implying the CAS Panel had further ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meijo Back With Morinomiyako Ekiden CR for National University Title

The last big dynasty school in Japanese women's distance running with 7-straight wins at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden from 2017 to 2023 and 6-straight titles at the season-ending Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden from 2018 to 2023, Meijo University came back from a 3rd-place finish last year to win the 44th Morinomiyako Ekiden again, leading almost start-to-finish to set a 2:02:21 CR for the 6-stage, 38.0 km course in Sendai. 12 second back in 2nd after the opening leg, collegiate 3000 mSC champ Nozomi Kondo put Meijo out front with a 12:36 CR for the 4.0 km Second Stage, and the rest of the team never looked back. The biggest threat to a Meijo win was on the 9.2 m Fifth Stage, where this year's collegiate 10000 m winner Sarah Wanjiru from last year's runner-up Daito Bunka University started 50 seconds back from Meijo 1st-year Mao Kimura . In taking the 10000 m title Wanjiru had outrun Kimura by over a minute, but today Kimura was a revelation, strong and smooth out fr...
1 comment
Read more

Morinomiyako Ekiden Preview

The university men's ekiden circuit is 100% dominated by schools from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, but for women it's more geographically diverse, the last two big dynasty schools being the Tokai Region's Meijo University and the Kansai Region's Ritsumeikan University with Kanto's Daito Bunka University a perpetual close 2nd at both of the main races, Sunday's Morinomiyako Ekiden and December's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden . Last year Kanto's Josai University scored upset wins at both Morinomiyako and Mt. Fuji , to make it a rare Kanto sweep. At Morinomiyako DBU was 2nd yet again with Meijo 3rd and Tohoku region local Tohoku Fukushi University a surprise 4th to hold 2024 winner and top Kansai team Ritsumeikan back to 5th. At Mt. Fuji Tohoku Fukushi almost pulled off a shock win on the anchor stage before Josai came back on the final climb, bumping DBU down to 3rd and Meijo to 4th, with Ritsumeikan 5th there too. Fresh names at the top of the list a...
1 comment
Read more