Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon, the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes.

Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University's Reishi Yoshida is the big boy in the field, with the 2nd-fastest 5000 m best, 13:30.30, and the fastest 10000 m and half marathon times, 27:47.01 and 1:00:31. Never having made it to NYC, CGU is coming in hot with two of its other best half marathoners on the list, Hiro Konda at 1:02:08 and Seia Hotta at 1:02:14.

2nd at the Izumo and National University Ekiden this season, Komazawa University has sent more people to New York than any other school, and its chances this time pretty much lie with 3rd-year Aoi Ito, 1:01:16 for the half marathon. The team that beat Komazawa at both ekidens, Koku Gakuin University has also never had a runner score one of the NYC Half tickets, but this time around it has A-lister Goki Takayama 1:01:42, and top-tier members Genta Tsuru, 1:02:15 and Kuranosuke Yoshida, 1:02:29, on its list.

Other top collegiate names include Sho Fukuda (Teikyo Univ.), 1:02:03, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.), 1:02:07, Kyohei Oda (Daito Bunka Univ.), 1:02:09, and Kazusa Nakanuma (Chuo Univ.), 1:02:19. Sub-28:30 10000 m runners Fumiya Oshima (Hosei Univ.), Kihiro Iriyama (Daito Bunka Univ.) and Ryota Shibako (Teikyo Univ.) will be looking to run half marathon times that match their track credentials. There's a noticeable shortage of Kenyan talent up front, but Duncan Kisaisa (Senshu Univ.), Evans Kiprop (Daito Bunka Univ.), Solomon Mutuku (Soka Univ.) and even visiting Australian Edward Goddard are all good enough to factor into the front pack.

Live streaming of the Ageo City Half Marathon will be posted on the race website shortly before the race. JRN will be on-site in the lead car to cover the race live.

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

Japan's Team Performance at World U20 Championships

There wasn't much surprise in the events where Japan did well at the Oregon World U20 Championships , with medals in the men's 110 mH, 400 mH and 3000 m, and top 5 finishes in the women's and men's 5000 m race walks, men's 4x100 m relay, men's pole vault and long jump, men's 200 m, women's 800 m and 3000 m, and women's javelin throw. Jeremy Koga ran a 12.95 (+0.3) Asian U20 AR in the men's 110 mH semifinals, then came back in the final with a 12.97 (+0.7) in the final to take silver behind a brilliant 12.72 U20 WR by American Le'Ezra Brown . Taiju Goto was expected to medal in the men's 400 mH, but after leading the semifinals the best he could do was silver in 49.23, gold going to the Czech Republic's Michal Rada with a 48.59 European U20 AR. Expected to do better in the 1500 m, Ojiro Honda ran a 7:48.49 U20 NR in the men's 3000 m final to score bronze, only to come in near the back of the field in the 1500 m final at 14th in...

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