Nduta and Akidor Win at Sanyo Ladies Road Race

Alongside the National High School Girls Ekiden, the Nittai University Women's Long Distance Time Trials meet and Sanyo Ladies Road Race 10 km and half marathon made it a busy weekend for women's running in Japan.

At Nittai, Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) was just off her PB in the 5000 m, winning the A-heat in 15:26.59 by almost 20 seconds over teammate Yume Goto. Nokoka Hosaka (SID Group) took the 3000 m A-heat in 9:25.42, leading the top 5 under 9:30.

At Sanyo, a lead group of 4 went through 5 km in 16:09 in the 10 km before Lucy Nduta (Ehime Ginko) threw in a massive surge to win in a negative split 31:49. Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) held steady for 2nd in 32:17, with Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro) fading slightly but holding off the fast-closing Hikaru Kitagawa (Universal Entertainment) for 3rd 32:38 to 32:41. Part of the original lead quartet, Daisy Jerop (Josai Kokusai Univ.) blew up big time in the 2nd half, finishing 16th in 33:34.

Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) just missed her CR from last year in the half marathon but still pulled off the repeat win, dropping 10 km CR holder Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) after 15 km to take 1st in 1:07:52. Mwikali was 2nd in 1:08:01, with Tabitha Kamau Njeri (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Nanaka Izawa (Starts) both getting under 70 minutes in 1:09:26 and 1:09:36.

26th Nittai University Women's Long Distance Time Trials

Yokohama, Kanagawa, 20 Dec. 2025

complete results

3000 m A-Heat

1. Nokoka Hosaka (SID Group) - 9:25.42

2. Honomi Muramatsu (Tokai Sagami H.S.) - 9:25.79

3. Aiko Minomo (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 9:25.94

4. Mayu Hirata (Wacoal) - 9:26.52

5. Honoka Inoue (Tokai Sagami H.S.) - 9:26.91

6. Moe Kawajiri (GRlab Hyogo) - 9:30.26

7. Ayari Shiozaki (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 9:30.52

8. Momo Okazaki (Chuo Yokohama H.S.) - 9:35.39

9. Rin Kamiyanagi (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 9:35.46

10. Yuna Kamogari (Kinjo Gakuen H.S.) - 9:35.60

5000 m A-Heat

1. Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) - 15:26.59

2. Yume Goto (Uniqlo) - 15:45.76

3. Rina Kusu (Sekisui Kagaku) - 15:47.79

4. Yuka Sakajiri (Wacoal) - 15:54.67

5. Hikaru Hamano (Chuo Univ.) - 15:54.95

6. Eriko Otsuka (Higo Ginko) - 15:56.76

7. Suzuna Kinoshita (Chuo Univ.) - 15:57.53

8. Ayaka Segi (Meijo Univ.) - 15:57.66

9. Rion Furukawa (Nitori) - 15:57.80

10. Moe Koda (Starts) - 16:00.21

44th Sanyo Ladies Road Race

Okayama, 21 Dec. 2025

complete results

10 km

1. Lucy Nduta (Ehime Ginko) - 31:49

2. Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) - 32:17

3. Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro) - 32:38

4. Hikaru Kitagawa (Univ. Ent.) - 32:41

5. Sakiho Tsutsui (Univ. Ent.) - 32:49

6. Ayumi Morita (Tokyo Metro) - 32:49

7. Naomi Muthoni (Univ. Ent.) - 32:53

8. Azusa Sumi (Univ. Ent.) - 32:56

9. Shuho Takahashi (Nitori) - 32:59

10. Aika Murakami (Tokyo Metro) - 32:59

Half Marathon

1. Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) - 1:07:52

2. Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) - 1:08:01

3. Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:09:26

4. Nanaka Izawa (Starts) - 1:09:36

5. Sora Shinozakura (Yokohama T&F Assoc.) - 1:11:02

6. Asa Kobayashi (Noritz) - 1:11:26

7. Madoka Nakano (Iwatani Sangyo) - 1:11:36

8. Hisami Ishii (Sysmex) - 1:11:37

9. Yuki Toyoda (Ehime Ginko) - 1:11:43

10. Rina Shimizu (Noritz) - 1:11:52

Waseda Leads Top 7 Teams Under Izumo Ekiden CR, Ivy League Best-Ever 3rd (updated)

3rd last year, Waseda University scored its first Izumo Ekiden win since 2010, taking almost 2 minutes off the CR and leading the top 7 teams under the old record of 2:07:51 for the complete 6-stage, 45.1 km course. Waseda was 16 seconds back in 7th after the First Stage, but its 2nd runner Ojiro Honda made that up easily and put them 6 seconds out front. A massive 22:56 CR for the 8.5 km Third Stage by Shadrack Kipkemei (Nihon Univ.) dropped Waseda back to 2nd even though its runner Ryuki Suzuki broke the old CR too, but back-to-back CR on the next 2 stages by 1st-year Haruki Niizuma and Shunpei Yamaguchi put anchor Shinsaku Kudo out of reach of the rest of the field. Kudo duly won the 10.2 km anchor stage in 29:00, bypassing a 2:06 time entirely for a new 2:05:56 CR, just under 2:48/km average pace for the complete course. Defending champ Koku Gakuin University struggled a bit in the first half of the race but came on strong in the longer second half with 4th and 5th runners...

Kipyegon Repeats, Toyo Wins Hakone Ekiden Qualifier in First Appearance in 21 Years

Back for the first time in 21 years after a disastrous 14th-place finish at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January, Toyo University hit one out of western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park with a solid win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the half marathon that serves as the official qualifying race for the 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The top 10 teams in the Hakone auto-qualify for the following year, with the rest having to run the Yosenkai in October with a squad of 10 to 16 runners out of which the top 10 score on aggregate time, with the 10 fastest schools joining the Hakone field and top individuals from non-qualifying teams names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team to make up the complete Hakone field of 21. Driven in large part by an aggressive run from 3rd-year Yu Miyazaki , one of only 2 Japanese athletes to go with the big African contingent up front, Toyo won in 10:31:30, 1:03:09 or 2:59.6/km per athlete. As the first team to have broken the 3:00/km average pace barrie...

Ngetich and Mutiso Take Down Tokyo Legacy Half CR

In its 5th edition the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon scored 2 new course records via Kenyans from the Ikaika agency, with 10 km WR holder Agnes Ngetich blasting 3 minutes off the old record to win by over 4 in 1:04:23, and Alexander Mutiso skimming just 1 second under the CR for the win by 5 seconds in 59:51. The 2 races played out completely differently, even if the paydays were the same for the winners. Surrounded by an envelope of male runners all the way to the final 100 m, Ngetich was out hard on the downhill in the first 5 km, hitting it on sub-64 pace in 15:08 before leveling out on the flat middle 10 km. Her next 2 splits projected to 1:04:09 and 1:04:17, and even with the uphill back to the stadium in the last 5 km she didn't fall far off from that, winning in 1:04:23. Runner-up Tabitha Njeri Kamau was nearly a mile back in 1:08:28, with Kamau's Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo teammate Kazuna Kanetomo dropping a 1:10:17 PB for 3rd. Now an independent, track Olympian Kaede Ha...

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