10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance

10000 m NR Attempt In the Works Saturday at Hachioji Long Distance - Streaming and Preview

There are a bunch of other time trial meets this weekend and next, but Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance is the last big meet for Japanese men, 8 heats of Wavelight-paced 10000 m finely graded from target times of 28:50 down to 26:59 for the fastest heat. Heat 6 at 17:55 local time is effectively the B-race, with 35 Japan-based Kenyans targeting 27:10 at the front end, and in a lot of cases a spot on their teams at the New Year Ekiden national championship on Jan. 1. Corporate teams are only allowed to field one non-Japanese athlete in the New Year Ekiden, and only on its shortest stage, and getting to that has a big impact on African athletes' contracts and renewal prospects. Toyota Boshoku, Yasukawa Denki, Chugoku Denryoku, Aisan Kogyo, JR Higashi Nihon, Subaru and 2024 national champion Toyota are all fielding two Kenyans, and Aichi Seiko three. For people like Toyota's Felix Korir and Samuel Kibathi, getting as close to the 27:10 target time as they can and getting there ahead of their teammate has a real impact on their futures.

A lot of the top Japanese people will be targeting 27:50 in Heat 7 at 18:30, but the main event is Heat 8 at 19:05. It's being set up to try to deliver Tokyo World Championships standard performances, Japan's first sub-27, or at least a new NR. The withdrawal of current 27:09.80 NR holder Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu), all-time #4 Jun Kasai (Asahi Kasei) and #6 Ren Tazawa (Toyota) doesn't help the chances of that happening, leaving Mebuki Suzuki (Toyota), #8 at 27:26.67, Takuya Hanyu (Toyota Boshoku), #9 at 27:27.49, and Ayumu Kobayashi (NTT Nishi Nihon), #10 at 27:28.13, as the top people on the list. Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa University), 27:35.05, Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima), 27:43.11, and Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko), 13:10.69 for 5000 m, are the only other Japanese men in the race, getting a boost from another seven Japan-based Kenyans led by 26:54.76 man Richard Kimunyan Yator (Logisteed).

A special addition is Indian record holder Gulveer Singh, who beat Suzuki and Shinohara while setting a new 5000 m NR of 13:11.82 in Niigata in September. Hiroaki Oyagi, coach of both Suzuki and Shinohara, told JRN, "Suzuki's training in the U.S. went well, and he's ready to do something special. Shinohara is interesting too." In the Niigata 5000 m Shinohara ran a PB of 13:15.70, the fastest outdoor time ever by a Japanese-born collegiate runner that matched his 1:00:11 half marathon best, also the fastest time ever by a Japanese-born collegian. 27:21.51 or better would be enough to add the 10000 m to that list, giving him a solid case for the title of Japan's best-ever collegiate runner.

The entire meet will be streamed live on Youtube starting at 15:00 local time Saturday. Full meet schedule and entries are here. JRN will be on-site to cover the meet live.

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer. These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly. I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes. As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway. That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...

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