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JRN's 10 Most-Read Articles of 2023


After winning the first day of the 2023 Hakone Ekiden, Komazawa University joined the exclusive club of teams to pull off the triple crown of wins at the Izumo Ekiden, National University Ekiden and Hakone, dominating the second day to win by just under two minutes over Chuo University. Both teams and 3rd-place Aoyama Gakuin University made the all-time top 10 fastest times, and five men ran the equivalent of a sub-1:01 half marathon. TV viewership was high, with ratings of 35.0%. JRN's pre-race preview.

At the Marathon Grand Championship race, Japan's trials for the Paris Olympics and the most difficult marathon ever to qualify for, Yuka Suzuki, Mao Ichiyama, Naoki Koyama and Akira Akasaki all scored places on the Olympic team by finishing in the top two. Ai Hosoda and Suguru Osako were 3rd, leaving them vulnerable to being knocked off the team by someone running a fast time during the winter 2023-24 marathon season. JRN picked the 50th-ranked Akasaki to make the team in our pre-race preview.

The top three women and top eleven men went under the course record at the Osaka Marathon, with Ethiopians Helen Bekele Tola and Hailemaryam Kiros taking the top spots in 2:22:16 and 2:06:01. Top Japanese placing went to Momoko Watanabe at 3rd in 2:23:08 and Kazuya Nishiyama with a marathon debut NR 2:06:45 for 6th. 2nd and 3rd Japanese men Yohei Ikeda and Shohei Otsuka also went under 2:07, with another seven Japanese men under 2:08. JRN's pre-race preview.

Less than three weeks after an incredible 9:02 for 3 km at the National Women's Ekiden made a big enough splash that national media started turning up in her neighborhood to try to interview her friends and neighbors to get information about her, 9th-grader Sherry Drury scratched from the Biwako Cross Country Meet to avoid the attention, issuing a statement through a lawyer saying, "I'd like to ask media and fans to leave me alone."




Longtime Japanese resident Rosemary Wanjiru ran a world-leading 2:16:28 to win the Tokyo Marathon women's race, giving a teary-eyed interview in Japanese after the race. Runner-up Tsehay Gemechu ran 2:16:56 but was later stripped of the result as part of a doping suspension. Ethiopians went 1-3 in a sprint finish in the men's race, with Deso Gelmisa taking the win in 2:05:22. Canadian Cam Levins ran an Area Record 2:05:36 for 5th, with Komazawa University alum Ichitaka Yamashita and Kenya Sonota both sub-2:06 for 7th and 8th. Original field listing. JRN's pre-race preview here.

2022 CR breaker Ruth Chepngetich ran alone almost start to finish to win the Nagoya Women's Marathon for the second year in a row in 2:18:08, picking up her second $250,000 check for 1st. In a race to qualify for the MGC Race, 2021 Tokyo Olympians Ayuko Suzuki and Honami Maeda ran PBs of 2:21:52 and 2:22:32 for 2nd and 3rd, with Deshun Zhang running a PB 2:24:05, the fastest time by a Chinese woman since 2012, for 4th. JRN's pre-race preview.

Kazuya Shiojiri ran a 27:09.80 to take almost 10 seconds off the Japanese 10000 m NR, with the next three finishers coming in at all-time Japanese #2, #3 and #4 and the 5th-placer at #7. Ririka Hironaka won a four-way sprint finish in the women's race in 30:55.29 that saw 2nd through 4th all go under 31 minutes for the first time with the all-time Japanese #6, #7 and #8 marks.


Eleven Japanese men ran the Ottawa Marathon in Canada, the last race worldwide where people could qualify for the MGC Race Olympic marathon trials. But with rising temperatures all came up short of the marks they needed. Ryoma Takeuchi was the top finisher at 7th in 2:14:04, almost 6 minutes behind winner Yihunilign Adane of Ethiopia. JRN's pre-race preview.

A 40-year-old man in Yamanashi was arrested after showing up at a local track meet and allegedly shooting video of a teenaged female athlete in a tight uniform waiting for her race. The man admitted to police that that was what he had been doing.

After crawling down the home straight feet-first only to collapse onto his back centimeters from the line at February's Bathurst World Cross Country Championships, H.S. boys' 5000 m NR holder Hiroto Yoshioka talked about the experience and said he was recovering as he prepared to enter Juntendo University. in April where he would train alongside 3000 m steeplechase NR holder Ryuji Miura.

photos © 2023 Mika Tokairin, all rights reserved
text © 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
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Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
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