Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships women's 5000 m team member Kaede Hagitani placed 3rd in the Mar. 31 Hasetsune 30K Trail Race, finishing in 4:06:01. Starting and finishing at the Akigawa Keikoku Rivertio campground and hotel, Hasetsune covers 30 km across the three Tokura peaks in western Tokyo's Okutama mountain range. Yuri Yoshizumi won the women's race in 3:40:49.
Hagitani graduated from Nagano Higashi H.S. where she was teammates with Narumi Kobayashi and others on the roads and track. In her 3rd year at Nagano Higashi she took 5th in the 1500 m at the National High School Championships and 7th in the National Sports Festival 3000 m. Along with Kobayashi she helped Nagano Higashi take the runner-up spot at the National High School Ekiden.
Entering the Edion corporate team after graduating, Hagitani ran 15:05.78 for 5000 m in 2020, at the time the 7th-best ever by a Japanese woman. In 2021 she was 4th at the National Championships, earning a spot on the Japanese team at the Tokyo Olympics. That September she ran 14:59.36 to become only the fourth Japanese woman to break 15 minutes for 5000 m. In 2022 she represented Japan at the Oregon World Championships.
Last May she abruptly announced that she was retiring. Later in the year she said on her social media that she was going to give trail running a try. In the fall she ran in an uphill race, and in February won the Taieimachi Seaside Trail Race women's division.
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