The 78th Fuji Mountain Race was held on Friday, July 25. Between the long course race, 21 km climbing 3000 m to the peak of Mount Fuji, and the Fifth Station race, 15 km climbing 1480 m, a total of 3,363 people from across Japan and around the world took part. In the long course race, Yuri Yoshizumi, 39, won the women's title for the 7th time in a row, with accomplished trail runner Ruy Ueda, 31, winning the men's title for the first time. Yoshimi Tanaka, 33, won the Fifth Station women's title and Yuki Yamada, 27, the men's title, both of them winning for the 2nd time.
Yoshizumi, a pro mountain runner representing Fujisan GX Holdings who regularly trains on the Fuji Mountain Race course, said, "I remember the entire course." This time around Yoshizumi took the lead before hitting the hiking trail part of the course and pushed the pace from the Eighth Station onwards. "I was hitting it so hard that I couldn't respond to the people who were cheering," she said. With that kind of focus she opened a lead of over 12 minutes on 2nd place. Yoshizumi turns 40 next year, but she is still aiming for the top. "I need to work on my road racing a bit and am targeting 10-straight wins here."
Ueda, who is actively primarily overseas, took his first victory in 3 attempts. Last year he took a stab at the course record of 2:27:41 held by Toru Miyahara, but after the Seventh Station he fell apart and ended up only 6th. "That was the most disappointing result I've had in years," he said. "I hadn't done enough to get used to the altitude." This year he stepped away from racing internationally in the first half of the year in order to focus on getting ready domestically, training on Mount Fuji 2 weeks before the race. It paid off, as he passed 2-time defending champion Ryunosuke Omi just before the Fifth Station to take the lead. Post-race Ueda savored the taste of victory, saying, "This was the domestic win I'd been missing."
2024 short course women's winner Tanaka was back on top this time. Last year she finished 2nd, saying, "I've been carrying that disappointment all year." In the interim year Tanaka worked closely with her coach to ensure the win this year, and when it got tough she thought about how it had felt to lose last time. "I told myself I would keep it together this time no matter what happened," she said. When she broke the finish tape for the win this year she was completely spent and cried. Although she was disappointed with her time, Tanaka said, "I'm really, really happy to have won."
The 27-year-old men's Fifth Stage winner Yamada last won when he was 20. A year later he suffered an injury to his right knee and decided that that year's Fuji Mountain Race would be his last competitive race. He spent time trying other sports after that but couldn't find one that gave him the same satisfaction and decided, "Maybe I'm not done after all." His right knee recovered, but as he trained he started experiencing pain in his left leg that he had to learn to work through. The payoff came this year, his win representing a stellar comeback. Yamada's father passed away in April at age 72. "If he were still here he definitely would've come out to cheer," Yamada said. "But I think he's still happy that I won today."
78th Fuji Mountain Race
Yamanashi, 25 July 2025
long course: 21 km, ~3000 m elevation gain
short course: 15 km, ~1480 m elevation gain
Long Course Women
1. Yuri Yoshizumi (Yamanashi) - 3:08:36
2. Miina Ogawa (Tokyo) - 3:21:21
3. Rieko Koshi (Tokyo) - 3:24:08
4. Kanako Edamoto (Ishikawa) - 3:28:52
5. Miyu Akiyama (Yamanashi) - 3:30:28
Long Course Men
1. Ruy Ueda (Saitama) - 2:36:43
2. Taiga Yamaguchi (Tokyo) - 2:43:17
3. Kei Kikushima (Shizuoka) - 2:51:33
4. Masato Kamishohara (Gunma) - 2:52:20
5. Tsubasa Fuji (Nagano) - 2:53:22
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DNS - Hibiki Yoshida (Kanagawa)
Short Course Women
1. Yoshimi Tanaka (Kanagawa) - 1:45:54
2. Natsumi Miyauchi (Shizuoka) - 1:48:16
3. Azusa Ohara (Kanagawa) - 1:48:17
Short Course Men
1. Yuki Yamada (Tokyo) - 1:18:49
2. Sohei Wada (Tokushima) - 1:25:25
3. Shosei Habu (Tokyo) - 1:25:34
source article:
translated by Brett Larner
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