Local Reporter Otawa, 23, Breaks Ohtawara Marathon CR

The Ohtawara Marathon and 10 km took place Nov. 23 at DI Stadium in Ohtawara, Tochigi. 2803 people started the marathon at 10:00 a.m., with 2354 people finishing for a finisher rate of 84.0%. The race has a cutoff time of 4 hours, and all participants are able to use special drink tables.

Most years there is a headwind blowing from the mountains of Nasu in the 2nd half of the race, but this year there was almost no wind and cloudy skies. Itto Otawa, a 23-year-old Tochigi local, won the men's marathon in a 2:13:04 course record. Otawa ran this year's Hakone Ekiden for Senshu University, placing 15th on the Ninth Stage. After graduating in March he was hired by the Shimotsuke Newspaper in Tochigi, where he works as a reporter. In August he ran a PB of 2:16:29 at the Hokkaido Marathon.

"At work I'm mainly in charge of the Nikko beat," Otawa said. "My goal in Ohtawara this time was to break the course record. I've run a PB every time so far in the marathon, and I'm super happy to have won the only marathon in my home prefecture of Tochigi."

Asked about his training, Otawa said, "I run about 600 km a month. I usually do 20-25 km in the morning before work. At university we did a lot of group runs, but these days I pretty much train by myself. I've always been good at running alone, so doing long runs by myself doesn't bother me at all. I'm planning to run the Tokyo Marathon next year and want to run a good one there."

Saitama's Tomomi Sawahata won the women's race in 2:38:49, with a total of 9 women breaking 2:50.

Ohtawara Marathon

Ohtawara, Tochigi, 23 Nov. 2025

complete results

Men

1. Itto Otawa - 2:13:04 - CR

2. Tatsuya Itagaki - 2:15:03

3. Kenta Murayama - 2:15:20

4. Kazuki Takanuma - 2:16:36

5. Yoshinobu Otsu - 2:19:11

6. Kazuya Namera - 2:19:56

Women

1. Tomomi Sawahata - 2:38:49

2. Eri Suzuki - 2:40:53

3. Kana Numata - 2:42:33

4. Natsuki Tomii - 2:44:59

5. Miyuki Shibata - 2:45:27

6. Rieko Koshi - 2:45:29

7. Junko Ganbara - 2:47:38

8. Sonoka Nakayama - 2:48:36

9. Mirei Sugai - 2:48:37

source article:

https://runnet.jp/topics/report/251125.html#gsc.tab=0

translated and edited by Brett Larner

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Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

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