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Adane Leads Top 4 Under CR, Kondo 2:05:39 Debut, Mekasha Defends at Osaka Marathon





photos © 2025 Victor Sailer/PhotoRun, all rights reserved

It was a bit too cold and windy for really fast times and snow started falling over the last quarter of the race, but that didn't stop the top 4 men at the Osaka Marathon from going under the course record. A 1:02:29 first half kept at least 16 men together with the 2:04:56 Japanese national record in sight, among them NR holder Kengo Suzuki in what he hoped would be a comeback run. By 30 km in 1:28:56 the lead group was down to a dozen, still close to NR pace. At the turnaround point just past 30 km the motorcycle cops leading them too far past the turnaround cone, adding about 15 seconds that ended up burning 2 men worst. And just after that, the big uphill just after that really broke things up.

Ethiopian trio Yihunilign Adane, Abdisa Tola and Getaneh Molla broke away after the hill, but with 2:05 in sight debuting sub-61 half marathoner Ryota Kondo and 2:06 man Kyohei Hosoya closed hard. 8 seconds back at 40 km, Kondo ran Tola and Molla down and actually took the lead with a km to go, hammering to drop Molla and get a gap on Adanet. But with 200 m to go Adane had the final kick to take the win in a course record and PB 2:05:37, with Kondo taking almost 30 seconds off the 3-week-old debut marathon record with a 2:05:39 for 2nd and looking as happy as if he'd actually won. Tola and Hosoya were also under the old CR in 2:05:52 and 2:05:58, in Hosoya's case his first time cracking 2:06.

Molla hung on for 5th in 2:06:04, and just 1 second behind was debuting 20-year-old Asahi Kuroda of 2025 Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University, who broke his teammate Hiroki Wakabayashi's 2:06:07 debut and collegiate record at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon 3 weeks ago. Kuroda ran Osaka in memory of his teammate Sena Minawatari, an Osaka native who passed away from cancer on Wednesday, and drew 7 stars, the meaning of Sena’s name, on his shoes pre-race. Kuroda's run couldn't have been a better memorial to someone who had told him, “Don’t ever take the fact that you can run for granted.”

Shunya Kikuchi, NR holder Suzuki an Yugo Kashiwa took the next 3 spots, all of them clearing the 2:06:30 Tokyo World Championships qualifying standard. Without the cops' mistake at the 30 km things would have been 10-15 seconds faster, meaning it cost Kuroda and Kikuchi times in the 2:05 range. Which is not to say that 2:06:05 and 2:06:06 are bad.

With the Tokyo Marathon still to come next weekend it's safe to say Japan has nothing but options for the final team lineup for its home soil World Championships. Despite the less than ideal conditions, excluding the 3 debuts, 18 out of the top 33 ran PBs, all sub-2:10. The weekend's other big marathon, Seville, had a faster winning time than Osaka, 2:05:15, but only one man under 2:06 and 28 under 2:10. What will Tokyo bring?

The live-for-today-and-fear-not-what-tomorrow-may-bring award went to Ryuichi Hashimoto, a 2:18:18 marathoner who positioned himself at the very front of the pack from the start and stayed there. Way longer than he had any likelihood of doing, lasting past 30 km before starting to fade. Even through he dropped, Hashimoto stilled scored a 2:09:40, an almost 9-minute PB. It happens all the time in Japan that somebody relatively unknown has a big breakthrough, but even by the standards here Hashimoto was an all-in outlier. 




With no pacers provided for the women's race, a legacy of Osaka's origins as the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Argentina's Daiana Ocampo took it out solo with a 1:13:00 first half. Ethiopian trio Waganesh Mekasha, Afera Godfay and Kuba Alemu pretty much ignored Ocampo, keeping her in range with a 1:13:18 at halfway but in no hurry to run her down.

Making contact around 25 km, they said goodbye to her on the hill past 30 km and were content to sit it out for a 3-way sprint finish. 2024 champ Mekasha had the wheels to win in 2:26:33, Godfay next in 2:26:40 and Alemu 3rd in 2:26:43. Ocampo faded to 4th in 2:28:26, with Japan's Anna Matsuda running a 6-minute PB of 2:28:50 for 5th.

Oddly, former multiple NR holder Kayoko Fukushi, running Osaka as a fun run in 5:07:47, was disqualified after not registering any splits before 30 km. The same happened in the men's race with amateur Shinsuke Iwashita, who ran 2:21:58 but was disqualified after not clocking splits before 30 km.

Osaka Marathon

Osaka, 24 Feb. 2025

Men
1. Yihunlign Adane (Ethiopia) - 2:05:37 - CR, PB
2. Ryota Kondo (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:05:39 - debut record (CR)
3. Abdisa Tola (Ethiopia) - 2:05:52 (CR)
4. Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima) - 2:05:58 - PB (CR)
5. Getaneh Molla (Ethiopia) - 2:06:04
6. Asahi Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 2:06:05 - debut, collegiate record
7. Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:06:06 - PB
8. Kengo Suzuki (Fujitsu) - 2:06:18
9. Yugo Kashiwa (Konica Minolta) - 2:06:28 - PB
10. Benard Kimani (Kenya/Comodi Iida) - 2:07:28 - PB
11. Riki Nakanishi (Toenec) - 2:07:29 - PB
12. Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:07:34
13. Shoma Hosoya (Logisteed) - 2:07:48 - PB
14. Kento Kikutani (Toyota Boshoku) - 2:07:53
15. Koki Takada (Sumitomo Denko) - 2:07:57 - PB
16. Yuki Takei (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:08:06 - PB
17. Kosei Machida (Chuo Hatsujo) - 2:08:17 - PB
18. Shota Nishiwaki (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:08:19 - PB
19. Takumi Komatsu (NTT Nishi Nihon) - 2:08:24 - PB
20. Taiyo Iwasaki (JFE Steel) - 2:08:25 - debut
21. Yuta Koyama (Toenec) - 2:08:37
22. Masatoshi Sakata (NTN) - 2:09:08 - PB
23. Kento Nishi (Osaka Gas) - 2:09:09
24. Kenta Uchida (SID Group) - 2:09:11
25. Mizuki Higashi (Aisan Kogyo) - 2:09:13
26. Eikichi Kazaoka (JFE Steel) - 2:09:13 - PB
27. Kei Kawanishi (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:09:14 - PB
28. Yuta Inage (Press Kogyo) - 2:09:14 - PB
29. Tsukasa Koyama (Subaru) - 2:09:25
30. Takumi Iwata (JFE Steel) - 2:09:28 - PB
31. Tianyu Chen (China) - 2:09:33
32. Ryuichi Hashimoto (Press Kogyo) - 2:09:40 - PB
33. Kazuya Azegami (Toyota) - 2:09:48
34. Akito Terui (Subaru) - 2:10:06 - PB
35. Naoki Koyama (Honda) - 2:10:13
36. Masaki Sakuda (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:10:21
37. Ben Preisner (Canada) - 2:10:32
38. Kazuya Nishiyama (Toyota) - 2:10:34
39. Sota Fukutani (Kurosaki Harima) - 2:10:46 - PB
40. Ciren Zhaxi (China) - 2:10:47 - PB
41. Michael Githae (Kenya/Suzuki) - 2:10:51
42. Yuki Suzuki (Kao) - 2:10:53 - debut
43. Yuta Shimoda (GMO) - 2:10:56
44. Kazuma Kubo (Nishitetsu) - 2:11:31
45. Akihiro Kaneko (Comodi Iida) - 2:11:32
46. Erenjia Jia (China) - 2:11:34
47. Reo Kuniyuki (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:11:36
48. Takuma Kumagai (Sumitomo Denko) - 2:11:40
49. Hiroki Abe (Sumitomo Denko) - 2:12:30 - debut
50. Keita Shitara (Nishitetsu) - 2:12:33
-----
DQ - Shinsuke Iwashita (Hirakata Masters) - 2:21:58
-----
DNF - Eyob Faniel (Italy)
DNF - Ryo Hashimoto (Chuo Hatsujo)
DNF - Yota Ifuku (Waseda Univ.)
DNF - Deresh Kindie (Ethiopia)
DNF - Ronald Korir (Kenya)
DNF - Abraraw Misganaw (Ethiopia)
DNF - Takeshi Nishida (Toyota)
DNF - Shinya Wada (Nagase Sangyo)

Women
1. Waganesh Mekasha (Ethiopia) - 2:26:33
2. Afera Godfay (Ethiopia) - 2:26:40
3. Kuba Alemu (Ethiopia) - 2:26:43 - PB
4. Daiana Ocampo (Argentina) - 2:28:26
5. Anna Matsuda (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 2:28:50 - PB
6. Tara Palm (Australia) - 2:34:15
7. Nanami Aoki (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:39:05
8. Yajing Lu (China) - 2:40:01
9. Chifumi Ito (Kazoku) - 2:41:05
10. Mitsuko Ino (Linkstyle) - 2:42:15
11. Nera Jareb (Australia) - 2:42:32
12. Yu Nasuno (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 2:44:24 - PB
13. Asami Minakawa (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 2:48:21
14. Tomomi Nakajima (Kayobi Renshukai) - 2:48:21
15. Sayuri Oka (Takaya Marathon RC) - 2:51:25
-----
DQ - Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) - 5:07:47
-----
DNF - Yeshi Kalayu Chekole (Ethiopia)
DNF - Sisay Meseret Gola (Ethiopia)
DNF - Amid Fozya Jemal (Ethiopia)

text © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Comments

Anonymous said…
What a battle.
Couldn't watch it live but read headwinds and snow over the final few kilometres slowed the pace down, with ideal conditions who knows how it goes.
The cone positioning mistake added 30 metres, cost a few seconds, perhaps is better they didn't get to NR time or could have been an authentic bummer missing it out because of that.

Lots of great running top to bottom, obviously kudos to Ryota Kondo, massive debut.
Kuroda collegiate record marks another great debut. Looking foward to see where this guy can go with one more year of preparation at AGU and what happens next year after his final Hakone.
Good to see Kengo Suzuki back at very good pace.

A great race, just a bit of regret for conditions not being ideal.
On to Tokyo marathon, let's see if they top this one.



February 24, 2025 at 11:00 PM
j said…
There are now 11 teams in Japan with a 5 runner average of sub 2:10 (running the time before transferring doesn't count)
Mitsubishi Juko 2:07:21
Toyota 2:07:24
JR East Japan 2:07:30
Asahi Kasei 2:08:28
Krosaki Harima 2:08:38
Fujitsu 2:08:43
Chugoku Denryoku 2:08:57
GMO Internet Group 2:08:58
Yakult 2:09:04
NTT West Japan 2:09:41
JFE Steel 2:09:44 (they were at 2:12:16 before this!)
February 25, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Brett Larner said…
If Ota runs 2:09:38 or better in Tokyo then Aoyama Gakuin will join that list too.
February 25, 2025 at 12:04 PM
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