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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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Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...
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Nagoya Women's Marathon Elite Field

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...
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Osaka Marathon Preview

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...
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