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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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Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...
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Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...
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How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
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