Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon Entry List (updated)

Entry lists are out for the Feb. 4 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. There's no separate women's entry list, but last year's 2nd and 3rd-placers Rieko Koshi and Hisae Yoshimatsu are both back and will probably go 1-2. The men's race has a small international contingent of Moroccans Mohamed Reda El Aaraby and Ayoub Dardar, Ethiopians Aychew Bantie and Workneh Derese, and Canadian Ben Preisner, with El Aaraby and Bantie setting up a potential 2:07 race for the Japanese crowd.

Six Japanese men at the 2:07 to 2:08 level who have a realistic view of their chances of hitting the 2:05:50 standard to steal the 3rd spot on the Paris Olympic team in Osaka or Tokyo are on the list for Beppu-Oita, where a good run will earn them a trip to October's Chicago Marathon. Fumihiro Maruyama (Asahi Kasei) and Yuta Koyama (Toenec) are the fastest at 2:07:55 and 2:07:57 in Osaka the last two years, with Yuta Shimoda (GMO) leading the 2:08 quartet in 2:08:00 from Lake Biwa 2021.

Sub-62 half marathoners Yuki Muta (Logisteed) and Kosuke Yamada (Toyota Boshoku) are both set to run their first serious half marathons, but the name that will get all the attention is Aoi Ota, Third Stage runner for 2024 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University. Ota ran the equivalent of a 58:57 half marathon to put AGU into the lead on his 21.4 km leg at Hakone, and here he'll be joined by teammates Kosei Shiraishi and Ninth Stage winner Genta Kuramoto, and AGU alum Hironori Kishimoto (GMO). Ota, Shiraishi and Kuramoto will be looking to follow up on AGU's Shungo Yokota's 2:07:47 collegiate record run for 4th in Beppu-Oita last year.

Update: On Jan. 15 the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon organizers announced that Ota had withdrawn from the race due to not feeling well. On Jan. 22 they added Ryo Hashimoto (Chuo Hatsujo) to the withdrawal list due to an injury.

72nd Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon Entry List Highlights

Beppu, Oita, 4 Feb. 2024

complete entry list

times listed are athletes' best in last 3 years except where noted

Men

Mohamed Reda El Aaraby (Morocco) - 2:06:55 (Paris 2022)

Hicham Laqouahi (Morocco) - 2:07:02 (Seoul 2023) - added Jan. 16

Aychew Bantie (Ethiopia) - 2:07:19 (Kosice 2022)

Fumihiro Maruyama (Asahi Kasei) - 2:07:55 (Osaka 2022)

Yuta Koyama (Toenec) - 2:07:57 (Osaka 2023)

Yuta Shimoda (GMO) - 2:08:00 (Lake Biwa 2021)

Kazuya Azegami (Toyota) - 2:08:29 (Osaka 2023)

Ryo Osaki (Komori Corp.) - 2:08:30 (Osaka 2023)

Yuichi Yasui (Toyota) - 2:08:48 (Beppu-Oita 2023)

Ryo Hashimoto (Chuo Hatsujo) - 2:09:12 (Beppu-Oita 2022) - scratch on Jan. 22

Reo Kuniyuki (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:09:21 (Hofu 2022)

Shogo Kanezane (Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:10:02 (Beppu-Oita 2022)

Takuma Kumagai (Sumitomo Denko) - 2:10:41 (Fukuoka Int'l 2021)

Workneh Derese (Ethiopia/Hiramatsu Byoin) - 2:10:52 (Fukuoka Int'l 2019)

Asuka Tanaka (Runlife) - 2:11:09 (Tokyo 2022)

Ben Preisner (Canada) - 2:11:47 (Eugene World Championships 2022)

Ayoub Dardar (Morocco) - 2:13:38 (Kobe 2023)

Debut / Do-Over

Aoi Ota (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 58:57 (Hakone Ekiden 3rd leg 2024) - scratch on Jan. 15

Yuki Muta (Logisteed) - 1:01:10 (National Corporate Half 2022)

Kosuke Yamada (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:01:34 (National Corporate Half 2022)

Kosei Shiraishi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:52 (Setagaya 246 Half 2023) - scratch on Feb. 4

Genta Kuramoto (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:01 (Setagaya 246 Half 2023)

Hironori Kishimoto (GMO) - 27:54.91 (Hachioji Long Distance 2023)

Women

Rieko Koshi (Emoto Juku) - 2:43:07 (Tokyo 2023)

Hisae Yoshimatsu (Shunan City Hall) - 2:47:51 (Beppu-Oita 2023)

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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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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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