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 Goes For the Triple Crown - 2025 Hakone Ekiden Preview

The biggest road race of the year is days away, with the Hakone Ekiden entering its second century on Jan. 2 and 3. 20 university teams and one select team race 217.1 km in 10 legs from central Tokyo to the mountains near Mt. Fuji and back, with Nippon TV broadcasting the whole thing live and nationwide to an audience in the tens of millions. TVer is streaming Day One here starting at 7:50 a.m. local time on Jan. 2, and Day Two here at 7:50 a.m. again. If you've got a VPN you should be good to go. JRN will be on-site at the Day One finish line and Day Two start line and will be doing some coverage on @JRNLive . At October's Izumo Ekiden and November's National University Ekiden Koku Gakuin University , Komazawa University and Aoyama Gakuin University went 1-2-3, and the main question at Hakone is whether it'll be the same order again. Komazawa is the heavyweight legacy school of the three, with 8 wins and 18 top 3 finishes at Hakone in the last 25 years under ex...

Defending Champ Aoyama Gakuin Takes Hakone Ekiden Day One By a Kilometer

Chuo University came out hard on Day One of the 2025 Hakone Ekiden , leading from the gun until partway through Hakone's great equalizer, the uphill Fifth Stage. Gunning for his older brother Yamato Yoshii 's 1:00:40 CR for the 21.3 km opening leg, Chuo's Shunsuke Yoshii went it alone, coming up short of the the record at 1:01:07, 1:00:33 half marathon pace, but almost a minute and a half ahead of nearest competitor Yudai Kiyama from Komazawa University . Itta Tameike ran what would normally be a great time on the 23.1 km Second Stage, 1:06:39, but behind him collegiate 5000 m, 10000 m and half marathon record holder Richard Etir of Tokyo Kokusai University , Soka University 's top man Hibiki Yoshida and last year's Second Stage winner Asahi Kuroda of defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University all broke the 1:05:49 course record to cut Chuo's lead down to 40 seconds. In Hakone's first 100 years only two runners had ever broken 66 minutes on the Secon...

Asahi Kasei Outkicks Honda to Win New Year Ekiden

No big surprises at the New Year Ekiden , where 2025 kicked off with a battle between favorites Toyota , Honda and Asahi Kasei that came down to a sprint finish in the last 800 m of the 7-leg, 100 km race. 2017-2020 New Year Ekiden winner Asahi Kasei took the lead from the start with an opening leg win by Sonata Nagashima . On the longest leg, the 21.9 km Second Stage, Yuto Imae from the team most expected to challenge the big three, GMO , made it to the front, but with a great run from Tomoki Ota the defending champs Toyota took the lead on the Third Stage. Samuel Kibathi held on over the short Fourth Leg, but on the Fifth Leg Yusuke Nishiyama showed fatigue from his 2:06:54 at Fukuoka a month ago and was run down by Olympic steepler Ryoma Aoki from 2022-2023 New Year winner Honda and Asahi Kasei's Shuho Dairokuno . Looking very strong over a longer distance than he'd usually run, Aoki opened a 10-second lead on Dairokuno that Honda's 6th runner Toru Kubota turned...

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