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Another Big Weekend on the Roads


It’s another busy weekend on the roads across Japan. Saturday is the 2nd edition of the Fst in Fukuoka road mile and 5 km, mostly unexplored distances in Japanese running. The road miles aren’t strong, with Australian Sarah Billings the only woman under 4:25 for 1500 m at 4:06.77 and Stewart McSweyn the only man under 3:35 for 1500 m at 3:29.51. McSweyn does have a little competition at least from Yusuke Takahashi, 3:38.69, and Masato Saiki, 3:39.58.

The women’s 5 km is probably the race of the day, with six Kenyan women who would probably beat the top Japanese woman by 1 to 2 minutes in an all-out race. Eva Cherono, 14:30.77, Teresiah Muthoni, 14:44.89, and Rebecca Mwangi, 14:55.32, lead the way. 10-mile world best holder Benard Koech is the fastest man in the 5 km at 13:00.38, with the next tier including former Japanese half marathon and marathon NR holder Yuta Shitara at the 13:20-30 level.

Sunday is a big ekiden day, with New Year Ekiden corporate men’s national championships regional qualifying races for the Chubu, Hokuriku, Chugoku and Kansai regions, and in Fukushima the East Japan Women’s Ekiden, a smaller-scale version of January’s National Women’s Ekiden featuring mixed teams of junior high school, high school, university and pro athletes representing their home prefectures. Streaming of the Kansai race will start above at 9:00 local time, and Fuji TV will be broadcasting the East Japan ekiden starting at noon.

Big mass-participation marathons will happen in Okayama and Fukuoka on Sunday, and in Tokyo there’s the Setagaya 246 Half Marathon, a race that usually features a good number of collegiate runners from top Hakone Ekiden schools like Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University. Nearby in Kanagawa there’s also an edition of the two-day Nittai University Time Trials meet on the track. A bit disappointingly, top Japan-based Kenyan woman Margaret Akidor is set to run there instead of Fukuoka.

© 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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