Oga Ekiden, Hakodate Half and Lake Saroma 100 km

Oga Ekiden, Hakodate Half and Lake Saroma 100 km - Weekend Road Race Roundup

The National Track and Field Championships in Niigata were the main event this weekend, but up north where it's cooler there were three important road races.

Chuo University won the 7-stage, 66.2 km university men's race at Saturday's 71st Oga Ekiden in Akita. Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University led on the first two stages, but on the 7.5 km Third Stage Chuo's Rei Yamahira took over the top spot and never let go. Chuo won in 3:22:42, with Aoyama Gakuin ultimately a minute and a half back in 3:24:12. Tokyo Kokusai University was a close 3rd in 3:24:53.

Running the same distance, the Shingenden corporate team was the top placer in the open division in 3:31:06, well back from 4th-place university team Toyo University. Omuta H.S. won the 7-stage, 49.5 km high school boys' division in 2:30:10, with Sendai Ikuei H.S. taking the top 2 spots in the 5-stage, 21.3 km high school girls' race, its A-team winning in 1:08:56. Complete results here.

At the Hakodate Half Marathon and Marathon Sunday in Hokkaido, Hibiki Yoshida of Soka University set a course record 1:01:45 to win the men's half marathon, the only person to go under 63 minutes. 2:06 marathoner Hiroto Inoue was next in 1:03:00 just one second ahead of 2017 World University Games half marathon gold medalist Kei Katanishi, and in 4th came 2:05 marathoner Ichitaka Yamashita. Olympic team alternate Ai Hosoda won the women's race in 1:09:31, 2:23 marathoner Mao Kiyota was 2nd in 1:12:50 and, Shiori Yoshizono and Reia Iwade were 3-4 in 1:13:04 and 1:13:15, both finishing just ahead of Yuki Kawauchi who was 84th among men in 1:13:37.

Japan-resident Kenyan Benjamin Ngandu won the marathon division in Hakodate in 2:17:36, the only runner to clear 2:20. The women's race went to high-volume amateur Tomomi Sawahata, 1st by almost 15 minutes in 2:42:27. Complete results for both races here.

Also in Hokkaido Sunday, after setting a national record of 6:06:08 at the Lake Saroma 100 km Ultramarathon, Jumpei Yamaguchi was back to win again win 6:10:04. Last year Yamaguchi went through the marathon in 2:31:39 and slipped off sub-6 hour pace just before 60 km, which he hit in 3:37:09. This time he was even more aggressive, going through the marathon in 2:26:21, 50 km in 2:54:46 and 60 km in 3:32:15, well on track for sub-6. At 70 km he was on pace for 6:00:17, still over 5 minutes under world record pace, but a 41:55 split from 70 to 80 km cost him the record. Always strong in the final stages, Yamaguchi rallied with a 38:34 from 80 to 90 km and a 37:23 from there to the finish, but the record was out of reach for another year.

Tomoya Watanabe was with Yamaguchi through halfway before backing off to hold steady at around 4:00/km the rest of the way, taking 2nd in 6:14:57. World champion Haruki Okayama started slower, 2:27:54 at the marathon and 2:56:41 at 50 km, less steady than Watanabe over the second half but taking 3rd in 6:16:32.

In the women's race, last year's runner-up Mai Fujisawa took it out hard, 3:11 ahead of last year's winner Mikiko Ota at halfway in 3:41:20 and over 6 minutes up just 10 km later. But from there Ota started to close, and right before 80 km she passed Fujisawa for the lead, going on to win in 7:45:12. 24-hour world record breaker Miho Nakata, 4th at Lake Saroma last year, started a lot more conservatively, 4:11:45 at halfway, but held her pace better than either Ota or Fujisawa, clocking the fastest splits at every 10 km checkpoint from 60 km to the end. 8 minutes back from Fujisawa with 10 km to go, Nakata ran her down for 2nd in 7:54:39, Fujisawa staggering in 4 minutes later in 7:58:48 for 3rd.

Ryu Arai took the men's 50 km in 3:20:58 and Hina Shiozaki the women's 50 km in 4:09:59, but it was a sign of the difference in the level of the two distances at Lake Saroma that both were far behind the 50 km splits of the top people in the 100 km. Complete results here.

Koku Gakuin's Hirabayashi Holds Off Komazawa and Aoyama Gakuin in Anchor Stage Showdown at Izumo Ekiden

There was a lot of action at the 36th running of the Izumo Ekiden Monday in Shimane, but it really came down to an anchor stage showdown between three of the biggest names on the university men's collegiate circuit. For the first five legs it was mostly between two-time defending champ Komazawa University and the top four-ranked Ivy League Select Team , Aoyama Gakuin University , Koku Gakuin University and Soka University . All of them except the Ivy League alternate stages up front with the Ivies in the mix in 2nd thanks to excellent runs from its two lead-off runners Kieran Tuntivate and Will Battershill . AGU's Masaya Tsurukawa took the 8.0 km First Stage, Soka's Hibiki Yoshida put them into 1st on the 5.8 km Second Stage, AGU's Asahi Kuroda retook the lead on the 8.5 km Third Stage, Izumo native Aoi Ito put Komazawa out front on the 6.2 km Fourth Stage, and KGU's Ryuto Uehara went to the front on the 6.4 km Fifth Stage. That set up an incredible matchup

101st Hakone Ekiden Qualifier Half Marathon Preview

Ekiden season rolls on, and for everyone who didn't make the top 10 at the Hakone Ekiden's 100th running this past January that means a trip to western Tokyo's Showa Linen Park this Saturday to line up on the runway of the air defense base next door to try to qualify for the 101st Hakone Ekiden . The 43 Tokyo-area universities at the Hakone Ekiden Qualifier Half Marathon , the Yosenkai, each run 10-12 athletes and are scored on the total times of their first 10 finishers. The 10 fastest teams go to Hakone, and the rest go home except for the 10 fastest individuals from non-qualifying universities, who get the privilege of running as part of a select team. NTV will broadcast the Yosenkai and its dramatic announcement ceremony live starting at 9:25 a.m. local time Saturday. If you've got a VPN you should be all set. If not, try mov3.co/ntv . JRN will be on-site at the Yosenkai to cover it live. Chuo University , Tokai University and Tokyo Kokusai University look sure

Rikkyo University Wins Hot and Humid Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai Qualifying Race

With high humidity, mostly sunny skies and temps reported as high as 30˚ it was just too hot for fast times at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon qualifying race for January's 101st Hakone Ekiden. Individual winner and last year's 1:00:16 CR setter Shadrack Kipkemei from Nihon University and runner-up Brian Kipyegon of Yamanashi Gakuin University lasting the whole way on sub-1:01 pace and going 1:00:59 and 1:01:02 was really exceptional given the weather, but you could see how tough it was given that only five people went under 1:02 and seven under 1:03 compared to 11 and 38 last year. Top Japanese finisher and 1:00:31 half marathoner Reishi Yoshida of Chuo Gakuin University was only 10th in 1:03:29 and collegiate record holder Richard Etir of Tokyo Kokusai University 11th in 1:03:35. But ultimately the Yosenkai is about team scoring based on the total times of each school's first ten finishers, so while the unseasonal summertime conditions held times b

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