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

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Silver two years ago , Japanese NR holder Jumpei Yamaguchi took gold at the IAU 100 km World Championships Saturday in Bengaluru, India. Defending gold medalist Haruki Okayama was bronze this time, with Toru Somiya just over 2 minutes behind Okayama in 4th. Japanese women were shut out of the medals, 24-hour world record holder Miho Nakata placing highest at 4th. Complete report and results here: https://www.irunfar.com/2024-iau-100k-world-championships-results photo © 2024 Tarzan Aqzawa, all rights reserved

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