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.
© 2024 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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