Gold Coast Half Marathon Elite Field

Fresh off the announcement of the elite fields for the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon come the fields for the China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon a day earlier on July 5. The top 3 Australian women from the June 1 Launceston Half Marathon, CR breaker Jessica Stenson, Caitlin Adams and Sarah Klein, are back together, with domestic competition Leanne Pompeani and Tara Palm and a group mostly from this year's National Corporate Half Marathon led by Yuri Mitsune, Wakana Itsuki and Aiwa Sakaguchi.

The main domestic protagonists from Launceston, Isaac Heyne, Brett Robinson, Liam Boudin, Sam Clifford, Andy Buchanan and Ryan Gregson, are all on the Gold Coast too, but where they faced a group from the Marugame Half in Launceston this time it's a massive National Corporate Half contingent led by sub-61 men Yuma Nishizawa, Hideyuki Tanaka and Yoshiki Oshiro. 2:05 marathoner Kenya Sonota is also on the list, quietly down near the bottom of the elite field with only a 1:03:29 recent best in the half. National Corporate Half winner Tsubasa Ichiyama will be pacing to 25 km the next day in the marathon instead of running the half.

The race starts at 6:15 a.m. local time on July 5, with streaming on Youtube. JRN will be on-site on the Gold Coast as usual.

China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon

Elite Field Highlights

Gold Coast, Australia, 5 July 2025

times listed are athletes' best in last 3 years except where noted

Women

Leanne Pompeani (Australia) - 1:09:01 (Melbourne 2024)

Jessica Stenson (Australia) - 1:09:04 (Melbourne 2024)

Yuri Mitsune (Japan/Hitachi) - 1:10:23 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)

Tara Palm (Australia) - 1:10:55 (Osaka 2025)

Wakana Itsuki (Japan/Kyudenko) - 1:11:00 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2023)

Caitlin Adams (Australia) - 1:11:14 (Launceston 2025)

Aiwa Sakaguchi (Japan/Bears) - 1:11:18 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)

Madoka Nakano (Japan/Iwatani Sangyo) - 1:11:22 (Sanyo Ladies 2023)

Sarah Klein (Australia) - 1:11:38 (Gold Coast 2023)

Abigail Nordberg (Australia) - 1:13:01 (Launceston 2024)

Sufang Pan (China) - 1:13:05 (Harbin 2024)

Men

Andy Buchanan (Australia) - 1:00:28 (Marugame 2025)

Yuma Nishizawa (Japan/Toyota Boshoku) - 1:00:29 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)

Hideyuki Tanaka (Japan/Toyota) - 1:00:43 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)

Yoshiki Oshiro (Japan/Toyota Kyushu) - 1:00:43 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)

Isaac Heyne (Australia) - 1:01:13 (Launceston 2025)

Brett Robinson (Australia) - 1:01:20 (Launceston 2025)

Sota Namikawa (Japan/Chuo Univ.) - 1:01:38 (Marugame 2025)

Liam Boudin (Australia) - 1:01:40 (Launceston 2025)

Jun Nobuto (Japan/Mazda) - 1:01:57 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)

Sam Clifford (Australia) - 1:02:00 (Launceston 2025)

Hitoshi Okahara (Japan/Chudenko) - 1:02:09 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)

Yue Hong (China) - 1:02:15 (Meishan 2025)

Kotaro Tahara (Japan/Chuo Univ.) - 1:02:40 (Marugame 2025)

Ryan Gregson (Australia) - 1:03:00 (Larne 2024)

On the Loss of the ARRS Database

At some point in the last few months I discovered that both versions of the ARRS database, the static one and the searchable version , are gone. Last week David Monti posted a link to the ARRS history of an event he covered in Race Results Weekly, I guess copying and pasting a link from last year without looking at it, and that reminded me to write something about the loss of the database. The Association of Road Racing Statisticians was basically a one-man show operated from the remote Northern California shores by Ken Young . When the site existed its intro read: The Association of Road Racing Statisticians (ARRS) is an independent, non-profit organization that collects, analyses and publishes results and statistics regarding elite distance running at distances 3000m and longer...The data of ARRS is stored in the ARRS database, which has more than 1.3 million performances from more than 240,000 races by more than 95,000 elite and sub-elite distance runners worldwide...This website ...

Multiple National Records This Weekend

Olympic and World champion Haruka Kitaguchi got the biggest headlines among Japanese athletes this weekend, overcoming a rough last year and a half that included injury and a coaching change to break her own javelin throw NR by over a meter and a half to win the inaugural WA Ultimate Championship in Budapest. U20 WR and Asian AR holder Ziyi Yan opened with a big 68.05, 0.67 m further than Kitaguchi's best-ever from back in 2023. That could have been the end, but Kitaguchi came back from a 61.15 m first attempt to throw a massive 68.92 m NR on her next one, ultimately enough for the win. She still has a long way to go to match the 18-year-old Yan's 71.74 m from May, but it was a clear statement that Kitaguchi is back. Back home at the National Corporate Track and Field Championships in Kyoto, women's pole vault NR holder Misaki Morota continued a solid comeback season of her own, bettering her NR from May by 1 cm with a 4.51 m on her first attempt. Morota took another 3...

Japan's Team Lineup in Copenhagen

Re-upping an earlier post on Japan's team lineup for this weekend's Copenhagen World Road Running Championships . The JAAF chose not to name any women to the team in the mile. Women 5 km Kana Mizumoto (Edion) - 15:06.98 Rina Kusu (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:10.91 Half Marathon Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon) - 1:09:14 Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:20 Rina Shimizu (Noritz) - 1:09:22 Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) - 1:09:23 Men Mile Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.) - 3:37.53 (1500 m) Tomoki Nakano (Toenec) - 3:37.92 (1500 m) 5 km Yota Mashiko (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.35 Rui Suzuki (Waseda Univ.) - 13:20.64 Half Marathon Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 1:00:22 Yuma Nishizawa (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:00:26 Neo Namiki (Subaru) - 1:00:29 Daisuke Sato (Chuo Univ.) - 1:00:40 © 2026 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

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