Fukuoka, Hofu, Kosa 10-Miler and More - Weekend Preview

It's a massive weekend of racing in Japan, so let's get to it.

Fukuoka International Marathon

Right now only four Japanese men have qualified for next year's Tokyo World Championships, and with recent times between 2:05:59 and 2:06:54 the main domestic group up front, Kenya Sonota, Yusuke Nishiyama, Yuya Yoshida, Kazuya Nishiyama and Daisuke Doi, will be aiming to add to that list. It's been a while since there's been this good a Japanese field in Fukuoka.

There was a near-miss on China scoring its first Fukuoka win last year, and there's a strong Chinese contingent back this time including NR holder Jie He, 2:06:57, Shaohui Yang, 2:07:09, Jianhua Peng, 2:09:59, and Bo Li, 2:11:23. Israel has a small crew of three, Tesema Moges, Tadesse Getahon and Yitayew Abuhay, and the main Kenyan group including two-time winner Michael Githae, Bidan Karoki, Bethwel Yegon, Lemeck Too and Vincent Raimoi, is pretty well-positioned to help make it a race under the 2:06:30 Tokyo World Championships standard. Complete field listing.

Hofu Yomiuri Marathon

Head to head with Fukuoka is Hofu, which is positioned as a 2:08 race. Top entrant Simon Kariuki, 2:06:29 this year in Tokyo, is said to be out with injury, so it's a wide-open race between Yuki Nakamura, 2:08:29 in Hofu two years ago, Ryoma Takeuchi, 2:08:40 there last year, Riki Nakanishi, 2:08:51 in Beppu-Oita two years ago, Naoya Sakuda, 2:09:06 in Beppu-Oita last year, and Shoma Yamamoto, 2:08:52, and Reo Kuniyuki, 2:09:21, both in Hofu 2022. Complete men's field listing.

What's really notable in Hofu this year is that they have a full-on women's field with some very good Japanese women. With the end of the Tokyo International Women's Marathon and its successors in Yokohama and Saitama there's been a gap in the calendar with no elite-level women's marathon in Japan for the last few years. Hofu is bridging that gap this year with six elite-level women on top of its usual high-level amateur women's field. Mao Uesugi and Natsumi Matsushita have both run under the 2:23:30 Tokyo Worlds standard before, Uesugi with a 2:22:29 and Matsushita with a 2:23:05 at the 2022 Osaka International Women's Marathon, and in Hofu they'll take a shot at joining the eight Japanese women who've already qualified for Tokyo. Complete women's field listing.

Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler

Kosa is the world's #1 10-miler, the home of the men's world best for the distance and the deepest elite fields anywhere, a key tune-up for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden and Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden. The Japan-based Kenyan field is led by Cleophas Kandie and Benuel Mogeni, and at the top end of the home team are Paris Olympian Naoki Koyama, 2:06 marathoner Hidekazu Hijikata, and 2:07 man Tsubasa Ichiyama, the fastest-ever Japanese man on the Beppu-Oita course. It's being streamed live starting at 11:20 local time Sunday, the start and finish being here and the rest of the race on the Youtube channel at the top.

Kosa's 10 km race has usually been for high school boys only, but this year it's got a massive group of Kenyan corporate leaguers who would normally be in the 10-miler, and a small group of top-tier Japanese runners including Olympic steeple Masaru Aoki, 13:16.76 5000 m runner Nagiya Mori, and 1:00:38 half marathoner Ken Nakayama. It doesn't look like they've really done the math that they can qualify for the 10000 m at the Tokyo World Championships on the road too yet, but this is a big step toward getting to that awareness.

The women's 5 km has some pretty good people too, including Japan-based Kenyans Agnes Ngetich, Diana Cherotich and Martha Mokaya, and Nozomi Tanaka and Nanami Watanabe at the top of the Japanese entrant list.

Nittai University Time Trials

The last full-on edition of the Nittai University Time Trials meet, partially rebranded as the Nittaidai Challenge Games for the top-end heats that count in World Athletics rankings, also has a lot of good names on its entry lists, with Saturday dedicated to 40 heats of men's 5000 m, and everything else on Sunday. The fastest men's 5000 m heat includes the top Japanese man in the Paris Olympics marathon, Akira Akasaki, but adding some ooh-la-la is the presence of 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura, who says he hopes to get close to the 13:08.40 NR for 5000 m.

10000 m NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri and marathon NR holder Kengo Suzuki are both in the 10000 m fast heat, with lots of other sub-28 men like Tatsuhiko Ito, Takashi Ichida, Shoya Kawase and Sonata Nagashima. Fresh off a great comeback run at the Queens Ekiden last weekend, Ririka Hironaka is in the women's 5000 m fast heat against some of the best Japan-based Kenyans including Hellen Ekarare, Caroline Kariba, Agnes Mwikali and Sarah Wanjiru. The women's 3000 m fast heat is pretty much a showdown between the best Kenyans at Japanese high schools ahead of December's National High School Ekiden, including Lucy Nduta, Jecinta Nyokabi, Margaret Muthoni and Mirriam Njeri.

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