Skip to main content

Weekend Road Race Roundup



Both of the big 30 km races this weekend had some of the fastest winning times in their histories, with the Kumanichi 30 km the faster. Kotaro Kondo (SGH) pushed the pace to grind the competition, splitting 15:02-14:56-14:37-14:31 until only Kyuma Yokota (Toyota Kyushu) was left. Things slowed from 20 to 25 km but Kondo still pulled away, putting over a minute on Yokota over the last 10 km and just missing the CR by 2 seconds in 1:28:54. Yokota was 2nd in 1:30:01, with nobody else clearing 1:32. Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) had an even bigger margin of victory in the women's race, wining in 1:44:39 by nearly 2 minutes.

At the Ome 30 km and 10 km Road Race, Paris Olympics marathon team members Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Mao Ichiyama (Shiseido) took the top spots in solo performances. With a strong tailwind in the uphill first half and headwind in the mostly downhill second half Akasaki went out incredibly hard, splitting 28:45 at 10 km, on track to break the NR by 1:45, and 58:35 at 20 km, still 7 seconds under NR pace. But between the headwind and a couple of climbs between 20 and 23 km he couldn't stay on NR pace, and Akasaki had to settle for a 1:29:46 win. It's rare to see a sub-1:30 on the Ome course, and with a margin of victory of 4 1/2 minutes over Ibuki Kaneko (Komazawa Univ.) it showed how dominantly Akasaki ran.

Ichiyama had a similar pattern, 33:45 at 10 km and slowing from there to win in 1:45:21 by more than 8 minutes. Azusa Sumi (Universal Entertainment) won the women's 10 km in 33:57, with Nozomi Sugaya (Komazawa H.S.) running 30:01 to break the 1993-era high school boys' 10 km CR. Sugaya will start at Hakone Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University in April.


There weren't any top-tier marathons in Japan this weekend, but it was still one of the busiest marathon weekends of the year with mass-participation races across the country:
  • Local Yuma Morii ran the fastest time of the weekend, a PB 2:14:15 to win the Kyoto Marathon by more than 3 minutes over Yotaro Suzuki. Fuka Hirokawa had a closer race on her hands, winning 2:47:22 to 2:48:16 over Miyuki Nishimura.
  • Retired Olympians Hisanori Kitajima and Kentaro Nakamoto went 1-2 at the Kitakyushu Marathon, Kitajima winning in 2:15:36 and the 41-year-old Nakamoto, now head coach at the Yasukawa Denki corporate team, 2nd in 2:17:26. Yuma Kawatani took 3rd in 2:19:44. Kana Itai had the fastest women's time of the weekend, running 2:45:19 to win by more than 3 minutes over Asami Morino.
  • Held in parallel with the Kumanichi 30 km, the Kumamoto Castle Marathon saw Tokyo University grad student Hiroaki Furukawa win for the fourth time in a PB 2:16:14. Yuhi Takami was 2nd in 2:19:57. Like in Kyoto the women's race was closer, Michiru Kato getting the win in 2:48:05 with Manami Tanigawa close behind in 2:48:48.
  • The Kochi Ryoma Marathon looked like a duel between ultra runner Takehiko Gyoba and amateur Takemaru Yamasaki, side-by-side through a 1:08:31 first half and all the way past 35 km. Gyoba dropped Yamasaki with 5 km, but in the last km Shota Shiode of Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University came from over 2 1/2 minutes behind at halfway to run Gyoba down in the last km. Shiode took the win in 2:19:20, with Gyoba 2nd in 2:19:43 and Yamasaki 3rd in 2:20:52. Hong Kong's Leanne Szeto won the women's race in a PB 2:53:04.
  • In training for the Tokyo Marathon in two weeks, 2:08:55 marathoner Akira Tomiyasu won the Okinawa Marathon in 2:22:15, beating local Tatsunori Hamasaki by 58 seconds. Ayano Ikehara was the women's winner in 3:00:21.
In some races from last weekend that we didn't have time for while in New York:
  • Corporate leaguer Akihiro Kaneko won the Ehime Marathon in 2:14:33, with amateur Rinta Miyaoka 2nd in 2:19:02. Yuka Gito led five women under 2:48, winning 2:40:17.
  • Ayumi Yokota was faster than Gito in winning the Himeji Castle Marathon, running 2:39:16 to win by almost 9 minutes. Haruyuki Morikawa took the men's ran in 2:17:29 with the top 3 all getting under 2:20.
  • At the Karatsu 10-Miler, Keito Makise (Toyota Kyushu) took a close win in 47:16 over Junpei Maseda (Waseda Univ.). Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) was 5th in 47:30 after a long recovery from injury, saying afterward that he was happy with where that put him ahead of next weekend's Osaka Marathon. Fired as head coach of Rikkyo University last October days before the Hakone Ekiden qualifier in a scandal involving a female member of his team, Yuichiro Ueno resurfaced in the Hiramatsu Byoin corporate team uniform with a 48:17 for 8th. After overuse injuries in January resulted in rare DNS in his races since then, Yuki Kawauchi (ADHS) could only manage a 58:34 for 67th. Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko) won the women's 10 km in 33:13, Koshiro Tanimoto (Omuta H.S.) the high school boys' 10 km in 29:28, and Shiena Kanamori (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) the high school girls' 5 km in 16:24.
text and photos © 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Stefan said…
Brett, I re-read your article from February 16, 2020 regarding this race when Honami Maeda broke the 30km NR at the time.

https://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2020/02/honami-maeda-breaks-mizuki-noguchis-pre.html

I hope nothing happens between now and the Paris Olympics that de-rails her run there (assuming she secures that 3rd Olympic position!) It seems Honami Maeda is in similar form now as she was then. Even though there is still a while till the Olympics I don't get the feeling Mao Ichiyama has found her top form. Yet.
February 19, 2024 at 12:16 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...
3 comments
Read more

Long Time Coming - Akira Akasaki and Haruka Onodera's Road to the 2022 United Airlines NYC Half

Back in pre-pandemic days Akira Akasaki and Haruka Onodera  were still in college, Akasaki at Takushoku University and Onodera at Teikyo University . At the 2019 Ageo City Half Marathon they frontran most of the race together, dead set on finishing in the top two Japanese collegiate spots to win invitations to the 2020 United Airlines NYC Half. For Akasaki it had already been a year and a half wait. Inspired by Kenta Murayama 's 1:00:57 5th place in finish in New York in 2017 and Kei Katanishi 's 7th-place in 2018, Akasaki went for it his junior year in his debut at the 2018 Ageo Half . "Coming up to 10 km I was in the lead pack and feeling good, so I knew I had a shot at going to New York and got pretty excited," he said. But right after the 10 km turnaround point he tripped and fell, and by the time he was back up the lead group was out of range. He finished 20th in 1:03:07, over a minute and a half behind top Japanese university man Ken Nakayama . "I was f...
1 comment
Read more

My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...
2 comments
Read more