Four Big Races This Weekend

Four big races happen Sunday, and it's looking like only one of them might escape the cold rain that's forecast to hit most of the country that morning. That would be Kyoto's Biwako Cross Country meet, the lesser cousin of Fukuoka's National Cross Country Championships three weeks later but still filling an important hole in the calendar left by the demise of the Chiba Cross Country meet. Biwako attracts a few corporate teams and top high schools like Wacoal and Toyokawa H.S., but its main claim to fame is as the National Junior High School Cross Country Championships. Complete entry lists here.

In the heart of Yokohama's industrial zone Sunday is one of two big half marathons, the Kanagawa Half Marathon and 10 km. Top-tier collegiate runners will be headed for Marugame, on which more later, but a lot of the schools that ran last month's Hakone Ekiden will send big contingents from their rosters of alternates and B-tier runners, and that always makes it one of the super-deep races of the season. Expect to see heavy representation by Hakone top two Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University, Tokai University, Meiji University, Nihon University and more,

The Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon in Kagawa will be the bigger deal, the home of the Japanese men's national record and always with one of the best half marathon fields of the year in Japan. Sheila Chepkirui, Pauline Kamulu and Dolphine Omare lead the women's race this time, where the most exciting storyline might be the debuts of 5000m/10000m all-time JPN #2 Ririka Hironaka and #1 high schooler Caroline Kariba (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.).

Alexander Mutiso vs. Charles Langat vs. Cleophas Kandie is another good race waiting to happen in the men's race, and despite the expected rain hopes are high that Komazawa's Kotaro Shinohara will come through with Japan's first-ever sub-60 half marathon after running 1:00:11 last year. Sondre Moen and Brett Robinson are both in the race too, and 42-year-old Ser-Od Bat-Ochir will be trying to better his 1:02:10 Mongolian NR after a 1:02:53 tuneup last weekend in Osaka. BS-Fuji will have the live broadcast starting at 10:30 a.m. local time. Entry list info here.

Last up is the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in Oita. Beppu-Oita doesn't factor into consideration for the Paris Olympic team, but while that means there isn't a lot of top-tier talent it's still got a good field at the 2:06-2:08 level, with internationals Mohamed Reda El Aaraby, Hicham Laqouahi and Aychew Bantie leading domestic men Fumihiro Maruyama, Yuta Koyama, Yuta Shimoda, Kazuya Azegami, Ryo Osaki and Yuichi Yasui. Canadian Ben Preisner is also in the field, hoping to ride the deep pack to something a tier up from his 2:11:47 at the Oregon World Championships, and Hakone Ekiden Ninth Stage winner Genta Kuramoto of overall champ Aoyama Gakuin will be making his marathon debut. TBS has the live TV broadcast starting at 11:50 a.m. local time Sunday, with streaming above. Entry lists here.

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...

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...

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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