Kenyans Sweep Kumamoto Kosa Road Race

Japan-based Kenyans dominated at the revamped and improved Kumamoto Kosa Road Race across all three of its main distances. Agnes Ngetich from the Canon team got things started in the women's 5 km, blasting a 14:48 that left Japanese NR holder Nozomi Tanaka almost 40 seconds behind. Tanaka, whose 15:25 was technically a NR, was only 10 seconds up on Nanami Watanabe, who continued a good season with a 15:35 for 3rd only 1 second off Tanaka's previous NR iteration.

Kosa's 10 km race has historically been for high school boys, but this year's race had an excellent field of corporate league runners. Triple Hakone Ekiden CR breaker Vincent Yegon, now with the Honda corporate team, won in 28:05 by 1 second over Festus Kiprono. Mangata Kibet was 3rd in 28:13, with Kenyans taking the top 6 spots. Top high schooler Mahiro Kubo from local Omuta H.S. ran a solid 29:58, good enough for the win a lot of years but only 14th against his older competition.

Kosa is the site of the fastest 10-miler ever run, and even though it wasn't especially fast this year it had another close race in its premier distance. Anthony Maina from the Koichi Morishita-coached Toyota Kyushu team outkicked Senshu University's Duncan Maina by 1 second for the win in 46:07, with Cleophas Kandie from Mitsubishi Juko making it a Kenyan top 3. Collegiate runner Riku Kodama was the top-placing Japanese man at 4th in 46:21.

49th Kumamoto Kosa Road Race

1 Dec. 2024

complete results

Men's 10 Miles

1. Anthony Maina (Kenya/Toyota Kyushu) - 46:07

2. Duncan Maina (Kenya/Senshu Univ.) - 46:08

3. Cleophas Kandie (Kenya/Mitsubishi Juko) - 46:12

4. Riku Kodama (Juntendo Univ.) - 46:21

5. Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 46:25

6. Kosei Machida (Chuo Hatsujo) - 46:27

7. Benuel Mogeni Magoma (Kenya/Yasukawa Denki) - 46:30

8. Yuta Shitara (Nishitetsu) - 46:34

9. Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda) - 46:35

10. Keito Makise (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:37

11. Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko) - 46:40

12. Tatsuya Furukawa (Juntando) - 46:48

13. Naoto Hashimoto (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 46:49

14. Kento Nishi (Osaka Gas) - 46:51

15. Yoshiki Oshiro (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:51

16. Hidekazu Hijikata (Asahi Kasei) - 46:53

17. Kyosuke Hanao (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:54

18. Wataru Tochigi (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 46:57

19. Kazuki Moriya (Mitsubishi Juko) - 46:57

20. Keita Sakamoto (Aichi Seiko) - 46:58

21. Takanori Ogata (Toyota Kyushu) - 46:59

22. Shun Sadakata (Mazda) - 47:03

23. Shota Nishimura (Aichi Seiko) - 47:04

24. Ryoto Yoshioka (Mitsubishi Juko) - 47:07

25. Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko) - 47:07

Men's 10 km

1. Vincent Yegon (Kenya/Honda) - 28:05

2. Festus Kiprono (Kenya) - 28:06

3. Mangata Kibet (Kenya/Mazda) - 28:13

4. Jonathan Ndiku (Kenya/YKK) - 28:25

5. Richard Kimayat (Kenya) - 28:34

6. Joseph Mutwanthei (Kenya) - 28:42

7. Nagiya Mori (Honda) - 28:51

8. Ryoma Aoki (Honda) - 28:53

9. Ken Nakayama (Honda) - 28:59

10. Victor Kipkirui Mutai (Kenya/Honda) - 29:04

Women's 5 km

1. Agnes Ngetich (Kenya/Canon) - 14:48

2. Nozomi Tanaka (New Balance) - 15:25 - NR

3. Nanami Watanabe (Panasonic) - 15:35

4. Diana Cherotich (Higo Ginko) - 15:44

5. Martha Mokaya (Kenya/Canon) - 15:52

On the Loss of the ARRS Database

At some point in the last few months I discovered that both versions of the ARRS database, the static one and the searchable version , are gone. Last week David Monti posted a link to the ARRS history of an event he covered in Race Results Weekly, I guess copying and pasting a link from last year without looking at it, and that reminded me to write something about the loss of the database. The Association of Road Racing Statisticians was basically a one-man show operated from the remote Northern California shores by Ken Young . When the site existed its intro read: The Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS) is an independent, non-profit organization that collects, analyses and publishes results and statistics regarding elite distance running at distances 3000m and longer...The data of ARRS is stored in the ARRS database, which has more than 1.3 million performances from more than 240,000 races by more than 95,000 elite and sub-elite distance runners worldwide...This website ...

Multiple National Records This Weekend

Olympic and World champion Haruka Kitaguchi got the biggest headlines among Japanese athletes this weekend, overcoming a rough last year and a half that included injury and a coaching change to break her own javelin throw NR by over a meter and a half to win the inaugural WA Ultimate Championship in Budapest. U20 WR and Asian AR holder Ziyi Yan opened with a big 68.05, 0.67 m further than Kitaguchi's best-ever from back in 2023. That could have been the end, but Kitaguchi came back from a 61.15 m first attempt to throw a massive 68.92 m NR on her next one, ultimately enough for the win. She still has a long way to go to match the 18-year-old Yan's 71.74 m from May, but it was a clear statement that Kitaguchi is back. Back home at the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Kyoto, women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota continued a solid comeback season of her own, bettering her NR from May by 1 cm with a 4.51 m on her first attempt. Morota took another 3...

Keita Satoh Running New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile

1500 m U20 NR holder Keita Satoh (Nike Swoosh TC) is running this weekend's New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile , the first time that a Japanese man has been invited in the race's 45-year history. In university Sato had to change focus away from middle distance to the half marathon-scale lengths of the Hakone Ekiden stages, but since graduating in March and relocating to Flagstaff he has refocused on the 1500 m, going from 3:43.19 in April in his first 1500 m in almost 4 years to 3:38.30 over the course of 5 races. Fifth Avenue will be his last race before heading back to Japan for one more track 1500 m and some down time. Men's entries with best 1500 m times in last 3 years: Stefan Nillessen (NED) - 3:29.23 (2025) Flavien Szot (FRA) - 3:30.74 (2025) Oliver Hoare (AUS) - 3:31.07 (2024) Jake Heyward (GBR) - 3:31.18 (2026) Titouan Le Grix (FRA) - 3:31.46 (2026) Romain Mornet (FRA) - 3:31.62 (2025) Adam Spencer (AUS) - 3:31.83 (2026) Pieter Sisk (BEL) - 3:31.85 (2025) Gary Martin (...

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