Yuasa Goes Sub-2:10 to Win Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon

Almost totally absent its usual winds, great conditions at the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon produced overall fast times and a sub-2:10 winning time for the second year in a row.

Last year Waseda University's Yota Ifuku became the first man to break 2:10 in Nobeoka with a surprise 2:09:26 debut for the win. Ifuku was back as a pacer with 2:07 man Tetsuya Yoroizaka from the local national champion Asahi Kasei corporate team, taking the lead group through 30 km almost dead on 3:06/km pace. A lead group of 12 was still together at that point, but just over a kilometer later Jin Yuasa, solid at January's New Year Ekiden in his corporate league debut with the Toyota corporate team with a 2nd-place run on the 11.4 km Sixth Stage, went on the attack.

Pre-race Yuasa had said that he planned to bide his time until a strategic uphill between 31 and 32 km, and that's exactly what he did. Pushing on the climb, Yuasa then rolled a 2:52 for the 33rd km to blow the pack apart. From there to the finish he was under 3:00/km for every km except one, getting closer and closer to Ifuku's CR but finding it just out of range. Still his 2:09:43 was a 5 1/2-minute PB that made him the 2nd-fastest man ever on the Nobeoka course, a major improvement and a controlled effort that put him in position to follow up with something bigger.

Almost a minute behind Yuasa, Ryoma Inoue (Chudenko) had a great debut, running 2:10:32 for 2nd. Takuma Takemura (SG Holdings) just made it under 2:11 with a 2:10:59 PB for 3rd. Times were solid far down into the field, with everyone in the top 13 who wasn't debuting running a PB. New Zealand's Caden Shields ran a nearly 2-minute PB of 2:11:35 for 5th, dropping to 11th after Yuasa's move but patiently working his way up through the field over the last 10 km and coming up just short of catching 4th-placer Yoichi Ishikawa (SDF Academy) who ran 2:11:30 in his debut.

Triathlete Akiko Ogawa outran ultramarathoner Miho Nakata to win the women's race 2:40:32 to 2:42:40.

Almost simultaneously with Yuasa's win, his former Chuo University teammate Kazusa Takanuma won the Ehime Marathon in a 2:13:00 PB, while Yuasa's fellow 2024 Chuo grad Shota Nakano won the Karatsu 10-Miler in 47:30.

63rd Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon

Nobeoka, Miyazaki, 9 Feb. 2025

complete results

Men

1. Jin Yuasa (Toyota) - 2:09:43 - PB

2. Ryoma Inoue (Chudenko) - 2:10:32 - debut

3. Takuma Takemura (SG Holdings) - 2:10:59 - PB

4. Yoichi Ishikawa (SDF Academy) - 2:11:30 - debut

5. Caden Shields (New Zealand) - 2:11:35 - PB

6. Akihito Eishin (Osaka Police) - 2:11:45 - PB

7. Taiga Seino (Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:11:50 - PB

8. Shusei Ohashi (Kodaira T&F Assoc.) - 2:12:22 - PB

9. Kota Sugito (Suzuki) - 2:12:49 - PB

10. Fuma Nakamura (Fujitsu) - 2:12:57 - PB

11. Hayato Mera (Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) - 2:13:10 - debut

12. Taiyo Watanabe (Togami Denki) - 2:13:28 - PB

13. Hiroyuki Kato (Makes) - 2:13:32 - debut

14. Shinji Yoshimoto (Kurosaki Harima) - 2:14:52

15. Kanta Ikeda (Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:15:11 - debut

16. Shunsuke Kanbe (Komori Corp.) - 2:15:37 - debut

17. Yuta Kanno (Waseda Univ.) - 2:16:41 - debut

18. Hiromu Kitamura (Togami Denki) - 2:17:43 - PB

19. Yuma Shimizu (Toyota Kyushu) - 2:18:12

20. Maki Yamada (Asahi Kasei) - 2:18:41

21. Shota Kai (Nishitetsu) - 2:18:47

22. Takato Imai (Asahi Kasei) - 2:19:24 - debut

23. Yuya Tanabe (Asahi Kasei Nobeoka) - 2:20:10 - PB

24. Keisuke Yokota (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 2:21:01

25. Kazuhiro Morita (Saitama RC) - 2:24:20

Women

1. Akiko Ogawa (Koyugun T&F Assoc.) - 2:40:32 - PB

2. Miho Nakata (Chiba T&F Assoc.) - 2:42:40

3. Arika Ito (Universal Field) - 3:08:21

Japan's First Goldless Day - Asian Athletics Championships Day Four Highlights

Day 4 of the Bangkok Asian Athletics Championships was the first without a single gold medal going to Japan, but there were still enough silvers and bronzes to go around. Robyn Lauren Brown of the Philippines outclassed the rest of the women's 400 mH final field, taking gold in 57.50. Eri Utsunomiya and Ami Yamamoto made it a Japanese 2-3, Utsunomiya running 57.73 for silver and Yamamoto 57.80 for bronze. Yusaku Kodama also scored silver in the men's 400 mH, running 48.96 behind Qatari winner Bassem Hemeida 's 48.64. Yuki Yamasaki won bronze in the heptathlon with 5696 points, Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Voronina taking gold in 6098 and Swapna Barman silver in 5840. Teammate Karin Odama was 4th in 5487. Another bronze came in the mixed 4x400 m relay, with Japan running 3:15.71 behind India's 3:14.70 and Sri Lanka's 3:15.41. Naoto Hasegawa and Ryoichi Akamatsu both cleared 2.23 m in the men's high jump, Hasegawa finishing 4th overall and Akamatsu 5th. ...

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