Former NR Holder Shitara Runs Best Half in 5 Years, Ando Repeats at Osaka Half

In parallel with the Osaka International Women's Marathon, Sunday's Osaka Half Marathon had some big names come out on top in both the women's and men's races. Last year Yuka Ando outran Ethiopian Desta Burka by 2 seconds to set a CR of 1:08:18. Running with a personal male pacers this time Ando went out to better that, on track for 1:08:00 at 5 km and dipping into sub-68 territory over the next 5 km. But after that she started to fade, and especially from 20 km to the finish at least a half dozen other women split faster. Still, she was far enough out front to take the win in 1:08:57, with corporate leaguers Sakiho Tsutsui and Mizuki Nishimura taking 2nd and 3rd in 1:09:29 and 1:09:49.

Osaka also served as the Kansai Region collegiate half marathon championships, and the winner of this season's Morinomiyako Ekiden and Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University, came out strong. The back half of its Mt. Fuji national title-winning lineup took 4th through 6th, with uphill anchor stage winner Kokoro Nakachi setting a Kansai Region record of 1:09:58 for 4th, Sixth Stage CR breaker Fuka Fukunaga next in 1:10:17, and Fifth Stage runner Makoto Tsuchiya making up for a subpar performance at Mt. Fuji with a 1:10:44 for 6th.

The men's race had a surprise from enigmatic former half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara. Sitting in the massive lead pack through 10 km in 29:15, Shitara took off just before 15 km. Taishi Yamada was the only one to try to go with him, but by 20 km Shitara was all alone 15 seconds out front and Yamada had been reabsorbed by the pack. An 11-way sprint finish on the track brought its front end within 3 seconds of Shitara, but he hung on to take the win in 1:01:47 over Kosei Machida, 2nd in 1:01:50, and Ryuto Urushibata, 3rd in 1:01:51. The top 12 all made it under 1:02.

His fastest half marathon since 2020, Shitara's time was 1 second better than what he ran as a 20-year-old at the 2012 NYC Half where he outkicked American great Dathan Ritzenhein to score what at that point the fastest-ever half marathon by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, 1:01:48. It was still far off his best, but with Shitara entered in March's Tokyo Marathon it was enough to get fans excited about the prospect of seeing him pull it back together in time for the Tokyo World Championships.

The men's race also saw the end of an era. Now 40, ekiden great Naoki Okamoto chose the Osaka Half as the last race of his career. A legend at the National Men's Ekiden where he holds the all-time passing record over his decades-long string of appearances there, Okamoto ended things with a 1:03:27, his fastest time in the last 2 years. Post-race he wrote on Twitter, "It doesn't really feel like it, but I'm retiring. I want to thank everyone I met and everyone who supported me, because you're all the reason that I was able to last this long. I think a lot about a line in a Ketsumeishi song that says, 'Encounters are the seeds of growth.' Everyone I encountered has helped me grow, and I think that's still going to keep being true. Thank you all."

18th Osaka Half Marathon

Osaka, 26 Jan. 2025

complete results

Women

1. Yuka Ando (Shimamura) - 1:08:57

2. Sakiho Tsutsui (Universal Entertainment) - 1:09:29

3. Mizuki Nishimura (Tenmaya) - 1:09:49

4. Kokoro Nakachi (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1:09:58

5. Fuka Fukunaga (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1:10:17

6. Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 1:10:44

7. Nana Matsumoto (Daiichi Seimei) - 1:10:52

8. Tara Palm (Australia) - 1:10:55

9. Mizuki Kakiuchi (Daiso) - 1:10:56

10. Ayaka Maeda (Kansai Univ.) - 1:11:03

11. Mio Kuroda (Kyocera) - 1:11:14

12. Erina Yasui (Iwatani Sangyo) - 1:11:17

13. Miu Yagi (Iwatani Sangyo) - 1:11:30

14. Kyungsun Choi (South Korea) - 1:11:30

15. Yumeno Yamazaki (Universal Entertainment) - 1:12:02

16. Koto Hiramura (Daiso) - 1:12:33

17. Yume Miyake (Takushoku Univ.) - 1:12:49

18. Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh (Mongolia) - 1:13:08

19. Anna Suzuki (Shimamura) - 1:13:09

20. Ayana Yamashita (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 1:13:22

21. Ami Furunishi (Meiji Kokusai Iryo Univ.) - 1:13:47

22. Chisato Kagaya (Tokyo Metro) - 1:13:52

23. Ayu Inden (Takushoku Univ.) - 1:14:03

24. Ayami Hirano (North) - 1:14:19

25. Misaki Matsumoto (Chukyo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:14:21

Men

1. Yuta Shitara (Nishitetsu) - 1:01:47

2. Kosei Machida (Chuo Hatsujo) - 1:01:50

3. Ryuto Urushibara (Yasukawa Denki) - 1:01:51

4. Hiroto Fujimagari (Toyota Kyushu) - 1:01:52

5. Kazuki Moriya (Mitsubishi Juko) - 1:01:53

6. Yuma Nozawa (Soka Univ.) - 1:01:54

7. Akihiro Kaneko (Comodi Iida) - 1:0:1:54

8. Masanori Sumida (Aichi Seiko) - 1:01:55

9. Kento Kikutani (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:01:57

10. Yuki Osaka (Osaka Police) - 1:01:57

11. Taishi Yamada (Aichi Seiko) - 1:01:57

12. Naoki Tomita (Chuo Hatsujo) - 1:01:59

13. Torazo Kai (Suzuki) - 1:02:07

14. Sota Ueda (Sumitomo Denko) - 1:02:07

15. Go Kiriyama (Suzuki) - 1:02:07

16. Daisuke Higuchi (Chuo Hatsujo) - 1:02:08

17. Ryota Omori (JFE Steel) - 1:02:15

18. Sho Fukuda (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:22

19. Keita Sakamoto (Aichi Seiko) - 1:02:28

20. Hitoshi Okahara (Chudenko) - 1:02:39

21. Takuya Kumashiro (Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 1:02:40

22. Kosei Matsunami (Kurosaki Harima) - 1:02:49

23. Takaki Iwamuro (Togami Denki) - 1:02:52

24. Riku Makita (Kao) - 1:02:53

25. Genki Nakanishi (Aisan Kogyo) - 1:02:57

-----

DNF - Mizuki Higashi (Aisan Kogyo)

Takeshi Soh Reflects on 54 Years in the Sport on His Retirement as Asahi Kasei Head Coach

After 54 years at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, first as athlete and then as coach, Takeshi Soh will retire at the end of this month. Together with his twin brother Shigeru Soh they formed a duo who were icons of the Japanese marathoning world and went all the way to the Olympics. After retiring from competition Takeshi devoted himself to coaching young athletes and came to play a primary role in the leadership of Japanese long distance. His list of achievements is long, and so is the list of those he influenced and inspired. His twin Shigeru was chosen for three Olympic teams in the marathon, Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Takeshi was named to the Moscow and Los Angeles teams, placing 4th in L.A. to confirm his position as one of the greatest names in the sport in that era. After becoming a coach the twins helped lead Hiromi Taniguchi to gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Koichi Morishita to silver a year later at the Barcelona Olympics, and o...

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