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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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19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
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Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
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10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and
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