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.

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku , Yasukawa Denki , Chugoku Denryoku , Aisan Kogyo , JR Higashi Nihon , Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi , getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and

japan running news

Search This Blog