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

text and photos © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved