Skip to main content

Khishigsaikhan and Kuira Break Ageo City Half Marathon CRs (updated)


Stellar conditions and a solid fields meant times were going to be fast at the Ageo City Half Marathon, and in both the women's and men's races the front end took full advantage of the day. In the midst of the super-deep men's field Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh, the top Mongolian in this summer's Budapest World Championships marathon and in last month's Hangzhou Asian Games marathon, ran steady and strong, splitting 33:29 at 10 km, 1:10:38 pace, before pushing the 2nd half. Khishigsaikhan crossed the finish line 1:10:32, 1:22 under the old course record, 3:35 ahead of 2nd-place Kana Kobayashi, and a massive 4:16 off the Mongolian women's national record. Khishigsaikhan is currently training in Japan and ran Ageo in prep for next month's Taipei City Marathon, where she was 3rd last year.




The men's race went out hard, with Kenyan Brian Kipyegon (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.), NR holder Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) and the ambitious Rei Matsunaga (Hosei) leading the main pack out just over 60-minute pace. Sub-60 Marugame Half winner Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) pulled up next to Kipyego and together they started to edge away from the pack, which boiled down to around 15 behind them. Kuira and Kipyegon stayed side-by-side on track for around 1:00:50 until around 19 km when Kuira surged to drop the younger Kipyegon and sustained the attack all the way to the end.




Kuira broke the tape in 1:00:47, 30 seconds under last year's 1:01:17 CR. Kipyegon was next in 1:01:07, also under the CR. Behind him, Waseda University 2nd-year Tomonori Yamaguchi closed hard over the last 5 km to come rapidly back into range of the fading Kipyego. He came up 9 seconds short, but his 1:01:16 was also under last year's CR and took 31 seconds off 5000 m NR holder Suguru Osako's Waseda school record from the 2010 Ageo. Matsunaga held on for 3rd in a PB of 1:01:56, joining Yamaguchi in scoring invitations to next March's United Airline NYC Half in an ongoing program curated by JRN. The New York Road Runners' Sam Grotewold was on-hand to present the duo with their invitations at the post-race award ceremony.




Not far behind, Mongolian men's NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Shin Nihon Jusetsu), now 42, improbably ran the 2nd-fastest time of his career, 1:02:37, to finish 14th overall in a tuneup for the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon in 2 weeks. En route he broke his own Mongolian road 5 km NR, splitting 14:23. "I loved the course," he told JRN post-race. "It had the perfect mix of flat and undulations. And so many fast guys! It was like getting on a shinkansen." After serial setbacks since a good run at last year's Oregon World Championships Ser-Od's hopes of becoming the first person to ever run 6 Olympic marathons look to still be alive.

And like always, the numbers just kept coming in. Ageo is ideally timed for the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound universities to run most of their rosters and thin down the numbers of contenders for their final Hakone lineups. Depth was incredible as always, even with direct conflict with the simultaneous 10-heat Kanto Region University 10000 m Time Trials meet going on at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo:

sub-61: 1
sub-62: 4
sub-63: 26
sub-64: 66
sub-65: 119
sub-66: 179
sub-67: 215
sub-68: 276
sub-69: 321
sub-70: 362

Ageo's claim to the title of the world's deepest half marathon is still as strong as ever, even in the face of challenges from other Japanese races like the National University Half Marathon and Hakone Ekiden Qualifier Half Marathon.

Update: Australian Matthew Fox (Sweat Elite) was disqualified and given a lifetime ban from the Ageo City Half Marathon after running 1:06:54 with another runner's bib in the JAAF-registered men's division. The finisher totals above have been adjusted to reflect his DQ.

36th Ageo City Half Marathon

Ageo, Saitama, 19 Nov. 2023

Women
1. Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh (Mongolia) - 1:10:32 - NR, CR
2. Kana Kobayashi (unattached) - 1:14:07
3. Aoi Makara (unattached) - 1:17:14
4. Kyoko Matsumoto (Chiba T&F Assoc.) - 1:18:58
5. Chisa Endo (PTC) - 1:19:33
6. Ruriko Ozawa (PTC) - 1:20:00
7. Seika Iwamura (Y&I) - 1:20:00
8. Makie Nakajima (Kanagawa T&F Assoc.) - 1:20:27
9. Chiaki Morikawa (ED Trucks) - 1:21:39
10. Chang Chih Hsuan (Taiwan) - 1:21:47

Men
1. Paul Kuira (Kenya/JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:00:47 - CR
2. Brian Kipyegon (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:07 (CR)
3. Tomonori Yamaguchi (Waseda Univ.) - 1:01:16 (CR)
4. Rei Matsunaga (Hosei Univ.) - 1:01:56
5. Peter Wanjiru (Kenya/Daito Bunka Univ.) - 1:02:00
6. Goki Takayama (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:05
7. Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) - 1:02:07
8. Tetta Shiratori (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:14
9. Shunki Niwase (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:15
10. Kenta Uchida (S.I.D. Group) - 1:02:23
11. Kuranosuke Yoshida (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:29
12. Hibiki Kikkawa (Meiji Univ.) - 1:02:31
13. Taiyo Yasuhara (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:34
14. Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/Shin Nihon Jusetsu) - 1:02:37
15. Hikaru Tsujihara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:38
16. Kyosuke Hanao (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:39
17. Shumon Rohoman (Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:40
18. Yudai Katakawa (Asia Univ.) - 1:02:40
19. Masaki Kodama (Meiji Univ.) - 1:02:42 
20. Shun Inami (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:46
21. Kazuma Takeda (Hosei Univ.) - 1:02:48
22. Shoma Kamada (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:49
23. Shuto Ominato (Meiji Univ.) - 1:02:54
24. Ko Yamada (Tokyo Police Dept.) - 1:02:56
25. Shusuke Seo (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:57
26. Shoya Koyama (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:59
-----
50. Ryotaro Tomita (Suzuki AC) - 1:03:35
66. Ryota Fujiwara (Takushoku Univ.) - 1:03:59
100. Ryo Tsujikawa (RFA) - 1:04:45
119. Kakeru Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:57
150. Yuta Kamikariya (Hosei Univ.) - 1:05:38
179. Soma Sugitani (Asia Univ.) - 1:05:57
200. Takeshi Yoshida (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 1:06:40
216. Ryuki Nii (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:06:59
250. Yuichiro Kozai (Nihon Yakka Univ.) - 1:07:31
277. Kyota Kikuchi (Takushoku Univ.) - 1:07:59
300. Yuki Ishiguro (Nihon Yakka Univ.) - 1:08:27
320. Daichi Hirayama (Ushiku R.C.) - 1:08:57
350. Kohei Oshima (Saitama Univ. Grad School) - 1:09:36
363. Toshiki Koga (unattached) - 1:09:58
-----
DQ - Matthew Fox (Australia) - running with another athlete's bib

text and photos © 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Brett Larner said…
To the anonymous person who posted hourly identical demands for deeper results throughout the night while I was sleeping: That is a great way to ensure that I stop doing JRN altogether. I'm a person with a life outside JRN. I dedicate all of my available time and energy to JRN, and if I had the time and energy to post more you would see them. Relentlessly hounding me is only going to see me focus that time and energy somewhere else.
November 22, 2023 at 9:14 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Osaka Marathon Elite Field

With 3 weeks to go the elite fields for the Feb. 22 Osaka Marathon are out. Given Osaka's history as the elite men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon the women's field is small, with only one entrant, Sinhala Kureshi , having broken 2:21 with her 2:19:53 in Hamburg last spring. Afera Godfay , Mare Dibaba and Rose Chelimo have all run 2:21 to 2:22 in recent races, and Esther Chemtai is an interesting debut off a 1:08:09 at last fall's Cardiff Half. Kaede Kawamura is the highest-level Japanese woman in the field with a 2:25:44 in Osaka 2 years ago. Last year's men's champ and CR breaker Yihunilign Adane is back, his main competition being fellow Ethiopians Bute Gemechu , Mulugeta Asefa Uma and South Africa's Elroy Gelant . 4th last year in 2:05:58, Kyohei Hosoya leads the front of the super deep Japanese field along with Ichitaka Yamashita , Kenta Sonota , Kiyoto Hirabayashi , Yuhei Urano , Yusuke Nishiyama and Daisuke Doi . But where Osaka excels is in deb...
1 comment
Read more

Matsuo Breaks High School Half Marathon Record in 1:02:47

At the 48th Kanagawa Half Marathon at Yokohama's Nissin Olio Group's Isogo Plant, Jinya Ozaki (Teikyo Univ.) outran tough competition from National University Ekiden champion Komazawa University and Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University to take 1st in the men's race in 1:02:04. AGU's Sho Fukutomi was 2nd in 1:02:07, with Komazawa's Rinta Muta 3rd in 1:02:08. High schooler Nichika Maeda (Miura Gakuen H.S.) took the women's race in 1:16:30. But it was another high schooler who made headlines. 3rd-year Koki Matsuo (Shiritsu Funabashi H.S.) ran 1:02:47, taking 28 seconds off the fastest half marathon time ever run by a Japanese-born high school student. Last summer Matsuo ran the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in November he went under 14 minutes for 5000 m, his time of 13:55.07 putting him into the top class of high school running. At last fall's Chiba Prefectural High School Ekiden Matsuo set a new CR of 2...
1 comment
Read more

Hirayama Strikes Again, Kabasawa Over Fuwa in Whiteout Conditions at National Corporate Half

With heavy snow hitting most of the country the National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km in Yamaguchi almost dodged a bullet. Almost. It was -2˚ and windy at the start, but with sunny skies it wasn't too bad. The men went out 15 minutes ahead of the women on sub-61 pace with a massive pack trailing early leader Daisuke Shimojo (ND Software). At times snow was in the air, but even right up to the end the sun was still breaking through. From a few km out a lead trio coalesced of last year's winner Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx), Kenyan Boniface Mulwa (ND Software) and Taiga Hirayama (Konica Minolta), CR-breaking winner at the Osaka Half Marathon 2 weeks ago. Ichiyama made a break for it with 500 m to go, but on the track at the end Muluwa reeled him back it. Entering the home straight Hirayama threw down and passed them both, bettering his Osaka time by 6 seconds to win in 1:00:44. Muluwa was next in 1:00:45, with Ichiyama, in training for the Tokyo Marathon in 3 weeks, 3rd in...
Post a Comment
Read more