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

complete field listing

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Connor Mantz (U.S.A.) - 1:00:55 (Hardeeville 2021) - withdrawn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)

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

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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