National University Women's Half Marathon, The TEN, United Airlines NYC Half and More

National University Women's Half Marathon, The TEN, United Airlines NYC Half and More - Weekend Preview

There are a lot of Japanese athletes racing overseas this weekend, but at home the main action is the National University Women's Half Marathon Sunday in Matsue. Last year's runner-up Rio Einaga of Osaka Gakuin University and 3rd and 5th-placers Saki Harada and Nanase Tanimoto from six-time national champion Meijo University lead the entry list, with their top competition including Saki Arai of Daito Bunka University, the anchor stage winner at December's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national championship, Yuiri Ogata, Sakurako Yanai and Momoko Shimada from Mt. Fuji runner-up team Nittai University, and Yui Yoshii, Momona Yotsumoto and Mariya Noda from 3rd-place team Daito Bunka University. Complete entry list here.

Overseas, the biggest block of Japanese athletes will be at Sound Running's The TEN in California. With a best of 31:34.39 Mikuni Yada (Edion) is the only Japanese woman in the meet, running the 10000 m Paris section. Hibiki Obara (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) is in the men's 1500 m, and the men's 10000 m Early and Tracktown sections have Itta Tameike (Chuo Univ.), Takato Suzuki (SGH), Shu Hasegawa (Kao) and Shotaro Ishihara (Tokai Univ.). But the men's 10000 m Paris section is the main event from the Japanese point of view, with 7 men on the entry list of 40:

Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) - 27:09.80 - NR
Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 27:12.53 - all-time JPN #2
Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) - 27:25.73 - all-time JPN #5
Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.) - 27:28.50 - U20 AR, all-time JPN #8
Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) - 27:28.92 - all-time JPN #9
Mebuki Suzuki (Komazawa Univ.) - 27:30.69
Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ.) - 27:38.66

Hopes are high that the race will see Japan's first sub-27. Complete entry lists here. Streaming here.

In New York, three Japanese men are in the United Airlines NYC Half. 2024 national cross-country champ Tomonori Yamaguchi (Waseda Univ.) and Rei Matsunaga (Hosei Univ.) are running as part of JRN's collegiate development collaboration project between November's Ageo City Half Marathon and the United Airline NYC Half. Yamaguchi's Waseda teammate Taishi Ito is also running, all three of them holding sub-62 bests. Top entries in the field include 58:07 man Abel Kipchumba, the legend Kenenisa Bekele, and U.S. Olympic marathon trials runner-up Clayton Young. Complete entry lists here. Streaming here.

Lastly, 2:28:51 marathoner Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Yamaguchi) is the lone Japanese athlete lining up at the Sands China Macao International 10K in Macau. Kaneshige has a track 10000 m best of 32:41.46 and hopes to take a shot at the event's course record of 35:26.

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...

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...

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...

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