Skip to main content

Yuri Yoshizumi and Ryunosuke Omi Win Again at 77th Fuji Mountain Race, Salt Lake City Olympics Gold Medalist Hoffman 2nd

 

The 77th running of the Fuji Mountain Race took place on July 26. In the long course summit race, 21 km with around 3000 m of climb from Fuji Yoshida city hall to the peak of Mount Fuji, Yuri Yoshizumi won the women's race in 3:13:08 and Ryunosuke Omi the men's race in 2:42:24.;

In the women's race, last year's 2nd-placer Rieko Koshi led Yoshizumi by 19 seconds at the end of the road section at around 11.5 km. But on the trail section after that Yoshizumi passed her and built a winning lead to score her sixth Fuji Mountain Race title since 2017. 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016 winner Mina Ogawa was 2nd in 3:21:44, with Koshi hanging on to make the podium again in 3:25:02 for 3rd.

Having won in his summit course debut last year, Omi was in the lead at the 11.5 km checkpoint. But by the Fifth Stage checkpoint he had been overtaken by Ruy Ueda and dropped two minutes behind. But Ueda, running the summit course for the first time, faded after hitting the steepest trail section and was caught by both Omi and Austrian Christian Hoffman. 49 years old, Hoffman was the cross-country skiing 30 km gold medalist at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and bronze medalist in the 50 km at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.

From the Fifth Stage to the Eighth Stage checkpoint Hoffman was a minute and a half faster than Omi, splitting an excellent 58:37, and closed to within two minutes. In the last kilometer from the Eighth Stage to the summit Hoffman outran Omi by 67 seconds, but Omi hung on to make it two in a row, even though his time was 53 seconds slower than last year's. Hoffman was only 52 seconds behind in 2:43:16, with Tatsuya Itagaki running down Ueda for 3rd in 2:49:59.

In the Fifth Stage short course race, 15 km with 1480 m elevation gain, Takako Takamura won the women's race in 1:41:44 with Sho Matsumoto winning the men's race in 1:26:53. Past women's summit course winner Yuri Kanbara was 10th in the Fifth Stage race in 1:58:06.

77th Fuji Mountain Race

26 July, 2024

Women's Summit Course
1. Yuri Yoshizumi - 3:13:08
2. Mina Ogawa - 3:21:44
3. Rieko Koshi - 3:25:02
4. Honoka Akiyama - 3:29:13
5. Chihiro Aibara - 3:32:33
6. Airi Sawada - 3:44:02
7. Mari Fujimoto - 3:52:01
8. Mami Saito - 3:54:43
9. Mai Funakoda - 3:55:23
10. Adeline Smirnova - 3:56:15

Men's Summit Course
1. Ryunosuke Omi - 2:42:24
2. Christian Hoffman - 2:43:16
3. Tatsuya Itagaki - 2:49:59
4. Kei Ikushima - 2:50:39
5. Taiga Yamaguchi - 2:51:02
6. Ruy Ueda - 2:51:32
7. Naoki Satani - 2:57:31
8. Toshiaki Murata - 2:57:40
9. Tsubasa Fuji - 2:59:37
10. Kensuke Yoshimura - 3:00:55

Women's Fifth Stage Course
1. Takako Takamura - 1:41:44
2. Yoshimi Tanaka - 1:44:01
3. Ryoko Tanabe - 1:46:47
4. Hiyori Hirata - 1:48:50
5. Yui Kamiya - 1:50:49
-----
10. Yuri Kanbara - 1:58:06

Men's Fifth Stage Course
1. Sho Matsumoto - 1:26:53
2. Shosei Habu - 1:28:01
3. Takamaru Kawasaki - 1:28:24
4. Hirotoshi Saito - 1:28:54
5. Hiroya Funamizu - 1:29:09

source article:
translated and edited by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee

Comments

Most-Read This Week

'CAS Clears Japan’s Olympic Silver Medallist Ikeda of Doping, Overturns Ban'

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/10/23/cas-clears-japans-olympic-silver-medallist-ikeda-of-doping-overturns-ban The AIU's missteps in this case cost Tokyo Olympics and Oregon World Championships 20 km race walk silver medalist Koki Ikeda , a Toyo University graduate who competes for the Asahi Kasei corporate team, the chance to represent Japan at a home soil World Championships last year. It is almost unheard of for an athlete to successfully fight a biological passport suspension as Ikeda did, making this a highly significant case. The CAS' press release about its decision stated: "The Panel stressed that the Athlete did not merely assert his position on the ABP abnormalities but adduced very extensive evidence in support of his explanations. In this highly complex case, the evidence brought during the CAS proceedings was far more abundant and specific than during the first instance proceedings with the WA Disciplinary Tribunal, implying the CAS Panel had further ...

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...

Morinomiyako Ekiden Preview

The university men's ekiden circuit is 100% dominated by schools from the Tokyo-area Kanto Region, but for women it's more geographically diverse, the last two big dynasty schools being the Tokai Region's Meijo University and the Kansai Region's Ritsumeikan University with Kanto's Daito Bunka University a perpetual close 2nd at both of the main races, Sunday's Morinomiyako Ekiden and December's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden . Last year Kanto's Josai University scored upset wins at both Morinomiyako and Mt. Fuji , to make it a rare Kanto sweep. At Morinomiyako DBU was 2nd yet again with Meijo 3rd and Tohoku region local Tohoku Fukushi University a surprise 4th to hold 2024 winner and top Kansai team Ritsumeikan back to 5th. At Mt. Fuji Tohoku Fukushi almost pulled off a shock win on the anchor stage before Josai came back on the final climb, bumping DBU down to 3rd and Meijo to 4th, with Ritsumeikan 5th there too. Fresh names at the top of the list a...