Tokyo Legacy Half Streaming and Preview

One of the three big races happening this weekend in Japan, the Tokyo Legacy Half is a preview of the course for next year's Tokyo World Championships marathon, starting at the National Stadium, downhill in the first 5 km, flat in the middle, and then back up to the stadium for the finish. TBS-BS is broadcasting the race live starting at 8:00 a.m., with streaming of the finish line on YouTube and a tape delayed regular TV broadcast at 1:35 a.m. on Oct. 30.

Fresh off a 30:13 road 10 km and with a 1:05:58 best Loice Chemnung is the heavy-duty favorite in the women's race, 4:34 up on her nearest competition, Mongolian NR holder Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh. The Tokyo Legacy Half reduces appearance fees by 20% for anyone who finishes over 5 minutes behind the winner, so for Galbadrakh and sub-1:11 Japanese women Yuki Nakamura and Mao Kiyota it's not just a race for 2nd but against whatever Chemnung brings to Tokyo.

Amos Kurgat is the top man in the field at 58:47, and he's got tough competition from sub-60 men Cleophas Kandie and Andrew Lorot and last year's top three Evans Keitany, Benard Kimeli and Bedan Karoki. The fastest Japanese man in the race at 1:00:08 and one of the best candidates to deliver Japan's first sub-60, although maybe not on this course, is Tomoki Ota, with veteran Yuki Sato the only other Japanese man with a sub-61 in the last three years with a 1:00:35 at last year's National Corporate Championships.

Straight from Paris, Paralympians Misato Michishita, Tsubasa Kina, Tomoki Suzuki, Kenya Karasawa and more lead the para half field. JRN will be on-site at the National Stadium to cover the races live.

Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon

Elite Field Highlights

Tokyo, 20 Oct. 2024

complete field listing

times listed are athletes' best in last 3 years except where noted

Women

Loice Chemnung (Kenya) - 1:05:58 (2024 Malaga Half)

Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh (Mongolia) - 1:10:32 (2023 Ageo City Half)

Yuki Nakamura (Panasonic) - 1:10:48 (2023 Matsue Ladies Half)

Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) - 1:10:56 (2024 Osaka Half)

Sairi Maeda (Daihatsu) - 1:11:56 (2023 Osaka Int'l Marathon halfway)

Kanako Takemoto (Daihatsu) - 1:12:33 (2023 National Corporate Half)

Sasha Gollish (Canada) - 1:12:51 (2023 Vancouver Half)

Ayaka Murao (Daihatsu) - 1:13:15 (2022 Sanyo Ladies Half)

Arisa Nakao (Nihon Wellness Sports Univ.) - 1:14:33 (2022 Sanyo Ladies Half)

Natsuki Ogawa (Suzuki) - 1:14:34 (2023 Tokyo Legacy Half)

Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Yamaguchi) - 1:14:47 (2024 National Corporate Half)

Yuki Shibata (Daihatsu) - 1:14:58 (2024 Hakodate Half)

Men

Amos Kurgat (Kenya/Chudenko) - 58:47 (2024 Copenhagen Half)

Cleophas Kandie (Kenya/Mitsubishi Juko) - 59:18 (2023 Marugame Half)

Bedan Karoki (Kenya/Toyota) - 59:37 (2023 Buenos Aires Half)

Andrew Lorot (Kenya/YKK) - 59:54 (2023 Marugame Half)

Tomoki Ota (Toyota) - 1:00:08 (2023 Marugame Half)

Yuki Sato (SG Holdings) - 1:00:35 (2023 National Corporate Half)

Benard Kimeli (Kenya/Fujitsu) - 1:00:36 (2022 Tokyo Legacy Half)

Paul Kuira (Kenya/JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:00:47 (2023 Ageo City Half)

Vincent Raimoi (Kenya/Suzuki) - 1:00:56 (2022 Tokyo Legacy Half)

Daisuke Hosomori (YKK) - 1:01:01 (2024 National Corporate Half)

Evans Keitany (Kenya/Toyota Boshoku) - 1:01:10 (2023 Tokyo Legacy Half)

Boniface Mulwa (Kenya/ND Software) - 1:01:17 (2022 Ageo City Half)

Vincent Yegon (Kenya/Honda) - 1:01:18 (2022 Paris Half)

Kotaro Kondo (SG Holdings) - 1:01:26 (2023 Tokyo Legacy Half)

Ryu Takaku (Yakult) - 1:01:39 (2023 Marugame Half)

Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 1:01:41 (2022 National Corporate Half)

Simon Kariuki (Kenya/Togami Denki) - 1:01:43 (2023 Osaka Half)

Kento Otsu (Chuo Hatsujo) - 1:01:43 (2024 Marugame Half)

Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Kenya/Track Tokyo) - 1:01:56 (2022 Ageo City Half)

Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) - 1:01:56 (2023 Marugame Half)

Women's Para Half

Wakako Tsuchida (T54) - 47:55 (2022 Oita)

Tsubasa Kina (T54) - 47:55 (2022 Oita)

Kazumi Takimura (T53) - 1:01:34 (2024 Nagano)

Misato Michishita (T12) - 1:24:48 (2023 Tokyo Legacy Half

Natsumi Inouchi (T11) - 1:31:41 (2022 Tokyo Legacy Half

Men's Para Half

Tomoki Suzuki (T54) - 38:32 (2021 Oita)

Ryota Yoshida (T54) - 41:03 (2015 Hamanasu)

Tadashi Horikoshi (T12) - 1:08:19 (2013 National Corporate Half)

Kenya Karasawa (T11) - 1:08:30 (2022 Tokyo Legacy Half)

Yutaka Kumagai (T12) - 1:11:09 (2019 Chiba)

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...

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...

japan running news

Search This Blog