Skip to main content

Yamaguchi, Matsunaga and Ito to Run United Airlines NYC Half



Waseda University's Tomonori Yamaguchi, Hosei University's Rei Matsunaga and Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito are part of the men's field for the Mar. 17 United Airlines NYC Half announced today by the New York Road Runners. Yamaguchi and Matsunaga were the top two Japanese collegiate finishers at November's Ageo City Half Marathon, Yamaguchi running 1:01:16 for 3rd overall and Matsunaga 1:01:56 for 4th to score invitations to NYC. Since then Yamaguchi has run particularly well, placing 4th on the Hakone Ekiden's highly competitive 23.1 km Second Stage where he ran the equivalent of a 1:00:45 half marathon, and running a 28:17.87 PB for 10000 m.

Ito is also a sub-62 half marathoner, running 1:01:50 at last year's Marugame Half Marathon and setting a 28:37.34 PB for 10000 m in the same January race as Yamaguchi. All three have raced in other parts of Asia and both Yamaguchi and Ito in Europe, but for all of them it will be their first time racing in the U.S.

United Airlines NYC Half

Elite Men's Field Highlights
New York, 17 Mar. 2024
times listed are athletes' best within last 3 years except where noted

Abel Kipchumba (Kenya) - 58:07 (Valencia 2001)
Zerei Kbrom (Norway) - 1:00:01 (Copenhagen 2022)
Gabriel Geay (Tanzania) - 1:00:16 (Valencia 2001)
Connor Mantz (U.S.A.) - 1:00:55 (Hardeeville 2021) - withdrawn
Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) - 1:01:01 (Great North Run 2022)
Zouhair Talbi (Morocco) - 1:01:08 (Houston 2023)
Tomonori Yamaguchi (Japan) - 1:01:16 (Ageo 2023)
Clayton Young (U.S.A.) - 1:01:18 (Hardeeville 2021)
Yemane Haileselassie (Eritrea) - 1:01:24 (Houston 2024)
Taishi Ito (Japan) - 1:01:50 (Marugame 2023)
Reed Fischer (U.S.A.) - 1:01:52 (Herzogenaurach 2023)
Rei Matsunaga (Japan) - 1:01:56 (Ageo 2023)
David Nilsson (Sweden) - 1:01:56 (Berlin 2022)
Filmon Ande (Eritrea) - 1:02:20 (Philadelphia 2023)
Matt Baxter (New Zealand) - 1:02:38 (San Jose 2021)
Tristan Woodfine (Canada) - 1:02:40 (Boston 2023)
Yenew Alamirew Getahun (Ethiopia) - 1:03:05 (Brooklyn 2023)
Shadrack Biwott (U.S.A.) - 1:03:35 (Duluth 2023)
Tim McGowan (U.S.A.) - 1:03:54 (Philadelphia 2023)
Eduardo Garcia (Virgin Islands) - 1:03:59 (Houston 2024)
Hillary Bor (U.S.A.) - 1:09:24 (Las Vegas 2015)

text and photos © 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

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