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.

Toyota Wins New Expo Ekiden

A new, nominally one-off event held as part of Osaka's hosting of Expo 2025, Sunday's ACN Expo Ekiden pit top top corporate and collegiate teams against each other on a 7-stage, 54.5 km course. The new race lost a bit of steam when New Year Ekiden runner-up Honda declined to participate, when winner Asahi Kasei pulled out days before the race, and when the top two teams at the Hakone Ekiden, Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University , didn't field A-list lineups. In their absence it was pretty much a blowout for New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Toyota , who led start-to-finsh off a great leading run by Yamato Yoshii and stage best titles on 4 of the 7 individual legs to win in 2:32:48. Fujitsu came on strong over the 2nd half with wins by 4th and 5th runners Daniel Kosen and Kazuya Shiojiri and strong runs on the final stages by Hiroki Matsueda and Kengo Suzuki to move into 2nd, finishing 1:14 behind Toyota in 2:34:02. Hakonen 3rd-placer Koku Gakuin University b...

Weekend Road Race Roundup

The ACN Expo Ekiden was the biggest race of the weekend domestically, but there was so much else going on domestically and internationally that it was hard to keep track. We'll do our best. Saturday in Fukuoka the Fst in Fukuoka road mile and 5 km moved from its usual fall date to a spring date for the first time. Ireland's Sophie O'Sullivan outran high school sensation Sherry Drury by 1 second for the win in the women's mile, 4:53 to 4:54. Drury's mark was a new U20 NR. The men's mile also came down to a 1-second win for Irishman Brian Fay over Japan's Jo Aoki , 4:12 to 4:13. Margaret Akidor had an easy win in the women's 5 km in 15:34, with veteran Yuichiro Ueno outrunning a doubling Fay in the men's 5 km to win in 14:07. Complete results here . The Matsue Ladies Half Marathon hosted the National University Women's Half Marathon Sunday. National champion Ritsumeikan University 's Makoto Tsuchiya outran Daito Bunka University 's...

Kiyama and Murakami Making International Debuts at United Airlines NYC Half

Since the start of JRN's collegiate development program in 2012, a partnership between the New York Road Runners and the Ageo City Half Marathon that brings two of the top male university half marathoners in the country to the United Airlines NYC Half every year, a total of 25 athletes have made the trip. For most of them it's been their first time racing outside Japan. 10 of the 25 have been from Komazawa University , including 4 of the 5 fastest times and 4 of the 5 best placings. Kenta Murayama 's 1:00:57 for 5th in 2017 leads both lists and still stands as the fastest half marathon ever run by a Japanese man on U.S. soil. This year two more Komazawa runners are in New York as numbers 24 and 25, Yudai Kiyama and Hibiki Murakami . At Ageo last November Kiyama and Murakami ran PBs of 1:01:59 and 1:02:04 for 2nd and 4th overall to pick up invites to the NYC Half. A 3rd-year, Kiyama was a national-level 1500 m runner in high school. At Komazawa he struggled to make its ...

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