Big Japanese Results in Berlin

Results at this year's Berlin Marathon were big overall, with 6 women under 2:21 and 14 men under 2:07, and in both the women's and men's races multiple Japanese athletes had great days. In the women's race Paris Olympics marathon alternate Ai Hosoda (Edion) and Tokyo Olympics marathon alternate Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) ran the entire way together, 1:10:13 through halfway and 2:13:09 at 40 km. Hosoda had the better closing speed, finishing in an all-time Japanese #7 2:20:31 for 5th.

Matsuda, who had previously broken 2:21 in her win at the 2022 Osaka International Women's Marathon, took 10 seconds off her time in that race for an all-time Japanese #8 2:20:42 for 6th. Having floated retirement after missing the Paris team, it was a great payoff for Matsuda's decision to give it one more go. Hosoda's 2:20 was a major breakthrough, but as her 5th time going under 2:22 Matsuda's performance solidified her position as one of Japan's best ever.

After a 2:06:53 debut for 7th in Osaka last year the Toshinari Takaoka-coached Yohei Ikeda (Kao) was sent to the Asian Games instead of being named to the Budapest World Championships team. In Berlin he, Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu) went out together on 2:05:45 pace with another group including Kento Kikutani (Toyota Boshoku) and Hideyuki Tanaka (Toyota) a short distance back.

Ikeda accelerated to NR pace after 10 km, hitting halfway in 1:02:25, leaving Tamura and Urano to drop back to the following group at 1:02:35. At 30 km Ikeda was on 2:05:06 pace, Tamura, Urano and Tanaka all dead on 2:06-flat pace. By 40 km Ikeda had jumped up to 7th overall, and with a strong last kick overtook Ethiopian Tadese Takele right before the finish to take 6th in 2:05:12, the 2nd-fastest time ever by a Japanese man and only 16 seconds off the NR.

Tamura was next at 19th in a PB 2:07:38, another big step by one of the more interesting people in Japanese athletics. Urano blew up hard, dropping to 46th in 2:16:27 after being overtaken by Kikutani, 30th in 2:11:17, Tanaka, 31st in 2:11:21, and amateur Yuji Shibukawa (Gunma United AC), who wasn't far off his 2:15:40 best from Tokyo this year with a 2:16:26 for 45th to edge Urano at the line.

Up front, Ethiopian athletes pulled off the double. In the women's race they took the top 4 spots, with Tigist Ketema running a solid 2:16:42 for the win by just over 2 minutes. Milkesa Mingesha won the men's race, leading 4 men under 2:04 with a 2:03:17.

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

Long Time Coming - Akira Akasaki and Haruka Onodera's Road to the 2022 United Airlines NYC Half

Back in pre-pandemic days Akira Akasaki and Haruka Onodera were still in college, Akasaki at Takushoku University and Onodera at Teikyo University . At the 2019 Ageo City Half Marathon they frontran most of the race together, dead set on finishing in the top two Japanese collegiate spots to win invitations to the 2020 United Airlines NYC Half. For Akasaki it had already been a year and a half wait. Inspired by Kenta Murayama 's 1:00:57 5th place in finish in New York in 2017 and Kei Katanishi 's 7th-place in 2018, Akasaki went for it his junior year in his debut at the 2018 Ageo Half . "Coming up to 10 km I was in the lead pack and feeling good, so I knew I had a shot at going to New York and got pretty excited," he said. But right after the 10 km turnaround point he tripped and fell, and by the time he was back up the lead group was out of range. He finished 20th in 1:03:07, over a minute and a half behind top Japanese university man Ken Nakayama . "I was f...

My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...

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