Post-Hakone Aoyama Gakuin Half Marathon Action

In our post-Hakone Ekiden analysis of this year's record-breaking race we wrote that winner Aoyama Gakuin University head coach Susumu Hara excels at developing depth of quality and can usually fill gaps caused by graduation. It's a sign of how much depth he has that his B- and C-squad runners occupied podium places at two fast half marathons just a week after Hakone.

The Takanezawa Genki-Up Half Marathon in Tochigi is the usual destination for AGU benchwarmers and has seen some breakthrough performances from future A-squad stars. Local independent Ryuichi Yoshioka got the win in 1:03:00, but AGU runners took the next 6 spots, all under 1:03:40, led by Riku Anjima and Daiki Sasaki in 1:03:04 and 1:03:06. And they weren't even the fastest AGU people in action.

At the rebranded Tokyo New Year Half Marathon, previously the Hi-Tech Half, Kaito Nakamura and Kyosuke Hiramatsu went head-to-head with former 10000 m NR holder Kota Murayama from the GMO corporate team. Murayama, who announced that he will retire after running next month's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, got the win in a photo finish with Nakamura, both clocking 1:02:46. Hiramatsu was close behind in 1:02:49 for 3rd, with Toyo University's Koha Kuramoto 4th in 1:02:57 and independent Yudai Fukuda 5th in 1:02:58.

AGU is losing 6 of the 10 members of its Hakone-winning squad including 3 of its very best, but as the results here show there's plenty more coming down the pipeline, including Zen Kuroda, younger brother of Second Stage CR-breaker Asahi Kuroda, 6th in Takezawa in 1:03:16. It still won't be easy for Komazawa University and the other top-end competition to take AGU down come Jan. 2-3 next year.

Takanezawa Genki-Up Half Marathon

Takanezawa, Tochigi, 12 Jan. 2024

1. Ryuichi Yoshioka (Honda Tochigi) - 1:03:00

2. Riku Anjima (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:04

3. Daiki Sasaki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:06

4. Aito Sato (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:09

5. Taisei Endo (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:13

6. Zen Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:16

7. Kaito Iida (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:38

8. Shumon Rohomon (Tokai Univ.) - 1:04:02

9. Junpei Nakano (Tokai Univ.) - 1:04:12

10. Shunto Hamakawa (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:23

Tokyo New Year Half Marathon

Kita-ku, Tokyo, 12 Jan. 2024

1. Kota Murayama (GMO) - 1:02:46

2. Kaito Nakamura (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:46

3. Kyosuke Hiramatsu (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:49

4. Koha Kuramoto (Toyo Univ.) - 1:02:57

5. Yudai Fukuda (Ishikawa T&F Assoc.) - 1:02:58

6. Chihiro Ono (GMO) - 1:03:09

7. Shuto Sugiura (Tokai Univ.) - 1:03:12

8. Shusei Ohashi (Kodaira T&F Assoc.) - 1:03:16

9. Kotaro Ito (Waseda Univ.) - 1:03:18

10. Hibiki Sawanaka (Hosei Univ.) - 1:03:19

Tokyo Olympics Marathon Trials Winner Nakamura Enters Waseda Grad School

An Olympian in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) announced on his social media that he has entered Waseda University 's Graduate School of Sport Science with the start of the new academic year this week. A graduate of Mie's Ueno Kogyo H.S. , Nakamura went to Komazawa University before joining Fujitsu in 2015. His senior year of high school he was 3rd overall and 2nd Japanese in the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in the fall the same year he ran what was at the time the 7th-fastest high school mark ever, 13:50.38. At Komazawa he scored four individual stage wins across the three big university ekidens. In 2019 he won the MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the Tokyo Olympics, where he was 62nd in 2:22:23. Nakamura indicated that he would be studying "top sports management" under professor Takeo Hirata . "I'll be balancing competition and academics," Nakamura wrote. "I'm r...

Weekend Road and Track Roundup

A roundup of the main road and track action on the last weekend of Japan's 2024-25 academic and fiscal year: Doubling off a 2:07:06 PB at the Tokyo Marathon 4 weeks ago, Tatsuya Maruyama took bronze at the Asian Marathon Championships in Jiaxing, China in 2:11:56. Gold went to North Korea's Il Ryong Han in a breakaway 2:11:18, with silver medalist Tianyu Chen of China just ahead of Maruyama in 2:11:50. Japan's Shungo Yokota was a distant 4th in 2:14:00, with Japan-based Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir 6th in 2:15:14. Japanese women Kaede Kawamura and Natsumi Matsushita were 5th and 6th in 2:31:26 and 2:34:40, with medals going to China's Bing Wu , gold in 2:26:01, North Korea's Kwang-Ok Ri , silver right behind her in 2:26:07, and defending gold medalist Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh landing in bronze this time in 2:28:56, her third sub-2:29 performance so far in 2025. Back home, four men broke 2:20 at the Fukui Sakura Marathon . Ko Kobayashi from the Shi...

Japan Names Marathon Teams for Tokyo World Championships

On Mar. 26 the JAAF named its women's and men's marathon teams for September's Tokyo World Championships. On the women's side the team has veterans Sayaka Sato and Yuka Ando off the strength of a runner-up finish for Sato in Nagoya this year and a win in Nagoya last year by Ando, and newcomer Kana Kobayashi , 23, who has risen quickly from being a fun runner at Waseda University last year to a 2nd-place finish in Osaka Women's this year. Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki was named alternate after finishing 3rd behind Kobayashi in Osaka Women's. On the men's side the team is led by last year's Fukuoka International Marathon CR breaker Yuya Yoshida and this year's Osaka runner-up Ryota Kondo . The 3rd spot on the team is reserved for JMC Series winner Naoki Koyama , who hasn't cleared the 2:06:30 World Championships qualifying standard and has to wait for the May 4 qualifying deadline for confirmation that the 1184 points he has in the Roa...

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