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KGU's Aoki Cracks Ageo City Half CR in 1:00:45, Noda 1:01:29 U20 NR

This season's Izumo Ekiden winner Koku Gakuin University and National University Ekiden champ Komazawa University brought solid squads to Sunday's Ageo City Half Marathon, pushing the always super-deep race into uncharted territory with almost 50 people under 63 minutes, over 100 under 64, and up front, a new race record courtesy of the favorite for the win.

Making his half marathon debut, Komazawa 2nd-year Shunsuke Kuwata did all the work almost the entire way, leading the front pack almost from the gun steadily on low-61 pace, 14:35 through 5 km, 28:55 at 10 km, and 43:27 at 15 km. Just past 15 km the fastest guy in the race, KGU's Rui Aoki with a 1:00:47 PB that exactly matched the Ageo record, took over, and only Kuwata could follow. The lead changed multiple times over the last few km as the projected finish time got closer and closer to the record, and after a 57:44 split at 20 km, inside the last km Aoki kicked.




Track resurfacing meant a slightly different course this year with a finish in front of the stadium, and Aoki broke the tape there with a 1:00:45, 2 seconds under the record and his PB with Kuwata right behind in 1:00:48, his first time under 61. Both earned invitations to March's United Airlines NYC Half for their efforts, Aoki being the first KGU runner to make it. And behind him, his teammates excelled.

KGU 1st-yr Kenshin Noda dropped a 1:01:29 for 6th in his debut, easily breaking the U20 NR of 1:01:37 set by last year's Ageo winner Kazura Munakata (Daito Bunka Univ.). KGU's Junpei Kakazu ran a 1:01:30 PB for 7th, with 7 other KGU runners hitting new sub-63 PBs. Komazawa's results were solid too, with Nozomi Sugaya 5th in 1:01:24 in his debut and Kaisei Yasuhara and Reiji Uesaka both with new PBs under 1:02:30. 2025 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University scored a ton of new sub-63 PBs last weekend at the Setagaya 246 Half, but the results today mean Hakone is going to be wild.


Toyo University's Mashu Nishimura and Kaito Matsui were both under 62, Nishimura 3rd in a 1:01:18 PB and Matsui debuting in 1:01:44 for 9th. Teikyo University solidified its claim to Hakone dark horse status, Yudai Hara running a 1:01:21 PB for 4th and 7 others running 62-minute PBs. 2nd at Izumo and 5th at Nationals, Waseda University lacked a big performer in Ageo but added what it needed to its credentials before Hakone with 5 new 62-minute-range PBs.

Debuts aside, everyone in the top 50 except Tokyo policeman Ryota Sato, 44th in 1:02:50, ran a PB, and even Sato was only 5 seconds off his best. A combination of great conditions, a deep field, and motivated people up front meant the depth was even further off Ageo's well-charted charts:

sub-61: 2
sub-62: 10
sub-63: 49
sub-64: 103
sub-65: 179
sub-66: 228
sub-67: 293
sub-68: 344
sub-69: 384
sub-70: 433

What else can you say? Bring on Hakone.

The women's race in Ageo doesn't attract the same kind of depth, but it was a relatively tight race up front with Yuka Tanaka outrunning Shoko Shimoda by 23 seconds to win in 1:16:10. 3rd through 5th were all within 17 seconds, Kana Masuda taking 3rd in 1:17:19.

38th Ageo City Half Marathon

Ageo, Saitama, 16 Nov. 2025

Men
1. Rui Aoki (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:00:45 - CR, PB
2. Shunsuke Kuwata (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:00:48 - PB
3. Mashu Nishimura (Toyo Univ.) - 1:01:18 - PB
4. Yudai Hara (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:01:21 - PB
5. Nozomi Sugaya (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:01:24 - debut
6. Kenshin Noda (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:29 - U20 NR, debut
7. Junpei Kakazu (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:30 - PB
8. Hinata Shirakawa (Chuo Univ.) - 1:01:34 - PB
9. Kaito Matsui (Toyo Univ.) - 1:01:44 - debut
10. Manato Takata (Nihon Univ.) - 1:01:58 - PB
11. Kuranosuke Yoshida (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:01 - PB
12. Kaisei Yasuhara (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:08 - PB
13. Kotaro Ito (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:14 - PB
14. Reo Niizuma (Kanagawa Univ.) - 1:02:16 - PB
15. Yamato Sugasaki (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 1:02:17 - debut
16. Yusei Tomita (Nihon Univ.) - 1:02:18 - PB
17. Kotaro Miyota (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:24 - debut
18. Seigo Sato (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:25 - PB
19. Yudai Fujimoto (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:26 - PB
20. Eigo Nagatomo (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:26 - debut
21. Yuta Asano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:26 - PB
22. Nayabu Naoki Yoshikura (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:26 - PB
23. Kotaro Kodama (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:27 - PB
24. Reiji Uesaka (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:28 - PB
25. Sorachi Suzuki (Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:28 - PB
26. Atsuyuki Kodaira (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:28 - PB
27. Shota Horino (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:28 - PB
28. Junpei Maseda (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:31 - PB
29. Hajime Matsui (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:33 - PB
30. Keisuke Yukita (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:33 - PB
31. Shoma Saito (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:33 - PB
32. Ryu Tokuzen (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:35 - PB
33. Rintaro Enoki (Soka Univ.) - 1:02:37 - PB
34. Shutaro Onishi (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:37 - PB
35. Masaki Yamada (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:39 - PB
36. Tomoki Nagata (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:39 - PB
37. Tomohito Asano (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:41 - PB
38. Neito Takeda (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:42 - PB
39. Yuto Ishikawa (Nihon Univ.) - 1:02:43 - PB
40. Yusei Ueda (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:45 - PB
41. Kosei Orio (Chuo Univ.) - 1:02:45 - PB
42. Yasuyumi Kusakari (Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:49 - PB
43. Yu Miyazaki (Toyo Univ.) - 1:02:49 - debut
44. Ryota Sato (Tokyo Police) - 1:02:50
45. Daichi Kondo (Kanagawa Univ.) - 1:02:50 - PB
46. Tsubasa Muramatsu (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:02:54 - PB
47. Yuta Kinugawa (Soka Univ.) - 1:02:54 - debut
48. Takaharu Kimura (Toyo Univ.) - 1:02:57 - debut
49. Kota Yamanaka (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:58 - PB
50. Hayato Otsuki (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:03:00 - PB
-----
75. Seiryu Morishige (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:03:29
100. Tomohisa Abe (Kanagawa Univ.) - 1:03:53
125. Nanase Nojiri (Soka Univ.) - 1:04:14
150. Haruto Matsunaga (Asia Univ.) - 1:04:31
175. Kosei Hosaka (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:04:56
200. Ryuki Matsumura (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:05:24
250. Harunoshin Takayoshi (Chuo Univ.) - 1:06:20
300. Ritsu Ogiso (Tokai Univ.) - 1:07:12
350. Daiki Yuga (Jobu Univ.) - 1:08:09
400. Kaito Uekuri (Seiwa Univ.) - 1:09:22
433. Daichi Sudo (Tokai Univ.) - 1:09:57

Women
1. Yuka Tanaka - 1:16:10
2. Shoko Shimoda - 1:16:33
3. Kana Masuda - 1:17:19
4. Sawa Takahashi - 1:17:25
5. Toko Okada (D.D. Lab) - 1:17:36
6. Hirari Suzuki (Shin Nihon Jusetsu) - 1:18:28
7. Minami Kobayashi - 1:19:57
8. Ryoko Kitajima (Hyex) - 1:22:15
9. Mai Ota (Fujimori RC) - 1:23:32
10. Hau Ka Yan (Hong Kong) - 1:24:00

text and photos © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

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Comments

Anonymous said…
This is all very good for the upcoming Hakone battle. Lots of depths on lots of teams, need to see which of these guys has peaked too much in advance to claim a spot on the team versus those who are able to maintain this level.
We know AGU and Komazawa guys will likely be at peak form in January while other teams are less reliable. KGU deserves credit after the past few season and they'll likely not disappoint. At this point even if Chuo proves to be unreliable again we might have 5-6-7 teams very competitive on day 1.

In terms of individual runs, let's hope this will be the starting point for Noda. After Kazuma Maeda beat the u20 record he had a great start in the ekidens only to be plagued by injury afterwards. (hope he bounces back in Hakone this year).
Then came Munetaka, since the record he didn't get close to that kind of performance.

Here comes Noda, on one of the top Hakone teams, wonder if he'll be on the roster but this performance certainly boosts his chances.

1 month and half till the best race in the world and looking ahead this might be absolutely spectacular even if with a bit less "star" names compared to recent past.
November 18, 2025 at 6:27 AM
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