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Connor Mantz (U.S.A.) - 1:00:55 (Hardeeville 2021) - withdrawn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

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...
8 comments
Read more

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...
1 comment
Read more

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...
2 comments
Read more