Ekiden season rolls on with Sunday's Ageo City Half Marathon. Most of the universities bound for the Hakone Ekiden, including this season's Izumo Ekiden winner Koku Gakuin University and National University Ekiden winner Komazawa University send big squads to Ageo every year so their coaches can thin down the list of contenders for their 16-name Hakone entry roster.
Since 2012 there's been the extra motivation for top talent to run Ageo in JRN's partnership program between Ageo and March's United Airlines NYC Half to bring the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo and their coaches to run in NYC. That's had an impact, with people like this year's Berlin Marathon runner-up Akira Akasaki and former half marathon and marathon NR holder Yuta Shitara having gone through the program.
You never really know from the entry lists who's actually going to show up to run in Ageo, but it's always an incredibly deep race with no parallel anywhere except maybe Spain these days. Koku Gakuin and Komazawa have both entered some heavy hitters, with Komazawa featuring last year's 2nd and 3rd-place collegiate finishers in Ageo Yudai Kiyama, 1:00:32, and Hibiki Murakami, 1:01:46, both returning along with teammates Shunsuke Kuwata, 1:01:09, Kaisei Yasuhara, 1:02:33, and Seiryu Morishige, 1:02:51. Koku Gakuin has Rui Aoki, 1:00:47, Goki Takayama, 1:01:42, Hayato Oguma, 1:01:46, Arata Iiguni, 1:01:51, Junpei Kakazu, 1:02:18, Kuranosuke Yoshida, 1:02:29, Shoma Kamada, 1:02:49, and Kotaro Kodama, 1:02:56. With 2025 Hakone winner Aoyama Gakuin University having seriously upgraded its half marathon credentials at races last weekend, both Komazawa and Koku Gakuin will be looking to improve on those numbers here.
Other top entries include Patrick Kamau (Jobu Univ.), Akito Noda (Hosei Univ.), Renato Ogata (Toyo Univ.), and Rinta Miyaoka (Waseda Univ.). Five runners with 10000 m bests under 29 minutes are entered to debut, led by Juntendo University's Riito Ikema at 28:29.80.
The race starts at 9:00 a.m. local time Sunday, with streaming getting rolling at 8:40. Check the event's official Twitter account too. JRN will be on-site at Ageo and posting pictures and video from the lead car during the race.
38th Ageo City Half Marathon Entry List Highlights
Ageo, Saitama, 16 Nov. 2025
Yudai Kiyama (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:00:32
Rui Aoki (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:00:47
Shunsuke Kuwata (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:01:09
Patrick Kamau (Jobu Univ.) - 1:01:10
Akito Noda (Hosei Univ.) - 1:01:32
Renato Ogata (Toyo Univ.) - 1:01:42
Goki Takayama (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:42
Hibiki Murakami (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:01:46
Hayato Oguma (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:46
Arata Iiguni (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:51
Rinta Miyaoka (Waseda Univ.) - 1:01:59
Kotaro Tahara (Chuo Univ.) - 1:02:06
Junpei Kakazu (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:18
Hinata Shirakawa (Chuo Univ.) - 1:02:18
Sota Harada (Rikkyo Univ.) - 1:02:20
Kazusa Takanuma (Suzuki) - 1:02:27
Kuranosuke Yoshida (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:29
Kaisei Yasuhara (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:33
Kanta Fujiwara (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 1:02:34
Riku Sato (Nittai Univ.) - 1:02:35
Sorachi Suzuki (Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:36
Shun Inami (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:46
Shoma Kamada (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:49
Shun Sakamoto (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:50
Seiryu Morishige (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:51
Yudai Hara (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:52
Mizuki Shoji (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 1:02:52
Auto Hayashi (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:56
Kotaro Kodama (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:56
Kotaro Osabe (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:57
Debut
Riito Ikema (Juntendo Univ.) - 28:29.80
Nayab Yoshikura (Waseda Univ.) - 28:46.86
Yuta Asano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 28:51.33
Nozomi Sugaya (Komazawa Univ.) - 28:55.55
Itsuki Takaishi (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 28:57.49
text © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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