Skip to main content

Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon Elite Field


The Feb. 1 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon is coming in hot this year with what's got to be a shot at the 2:04:55 Japanese NR. Up front is the king of this year's Hakone Ekiden, collegiate marathon NR holder Asahi Kuroda of 2026 Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University. Last year at Beppu-Oita AGU's Hiroki Wakabayashi ran a 2:06:07 debut to break the collegiate marathon record. 3 weeks later Kuroda bettered that with a 2:06:05 in his debut in Osaka. He comes in fresh off the greatest run in Hakone history, taking 2 minutes off Wakabayashi's CR for the massive uphill Fifth Stage in a run that Letsrun.com estimated was worth a 57:30-58:00 half marathon. Make of that what you will, if you accept 58:00 that's worth sub-2:02 in the marathon. Call it 59:00 and you're still talking sub-2:04. Can he possibly live up to the hype?

Beppu-Oita is basically not that kind of race, but looking at the rest of the front end of the field they've got to be thinking that way. 2:04:22 Kenyan Ronald Korir, Fukuoka International Marathon CR holder at 2:05:16 and AGU grad Yuya Yoshida, and multiple 2:06 runner, even pre-carbon shoes, Hiroto Inoue. Add the cream of the debuting people, sub-61 half marathoners Toru Kubota and Daiki Hattori, and 3 other members of AGU's 2026 Hakone roster, Shota Shiode, Kyosuke Hiramatsu and Shunya Udagawa, and it's going to be great.

There are a ton of others in the 2:06 to 2:09 range and debuting off 61-minute half marathons or 27-minute 10000 m times, and they'll pretty much all be going for qualification for the L.A. Olympic marathon trials to be held in the fall of 2027, because it's never too early to obsess over that. Basically they have to be in the top 6 Japanese finishers and sub-2:09:00, or sub-2:06:30. A 2:03:59 would let them bypass the trials altogether and score a place on the L.A. team, assuming nobody else beats their time before then. That wouldn't have seemed realistic pre-Hakone, but what's stopping Kuroda here? Gravity didn't at Hakone.

Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon Elite Field Highlights

Beppu, Oita, 1 Feb. 2026
times listed are athletes' best in last 3 years except where noted

Ronald Korir (Kenya) - 2:04:22 (Berlin 2023)
Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 2:05:16 (Fukuoka Int'l 2024)
Asahi Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 2:06:05 (Osaka 2025)
Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:06:14 (Tokyo 2025)
Mohamed Reda El Aaraby (Morocco) - 2:06:45 (Seville 2025)
Getachew Masresha (Ethiopia) - 2:07:04 (Dubai 2025)
Kento Kikutani (Toyota Boshoku) - 2:07:53 (Osaka 2025)
Takeru Yamaguchi (Suzuki) - 2:07:58 (Osaka 2023)
Mizuki Higashi (Aisan Kogyo) - 2:08:03 (Osaka 2024)
Taiyo Iwasaki (JFE Steel) - 2:08:25 (Osaka 2025)
Abe Gashahun (Ethiopia) - 2:08:35 (Riadh 2025)
Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) - 2:08:57 (Chicago 2023)
Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) - 2:09:06 (Beppu-Oita 2025)
Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) - 2:09:22 (Gold Coast 2024)
Yota Ifuku (Sumitomo Denko) - 2:09:26 (Nobeoka 2024)
Yuma Hattori (Toyota) - 2:09:47 (Osaka 2023)
Asuka Tanaka (Runlife) - 2:10:02 (Fukuoka Int'l 2025)
Chihiro Ono (GMO) - 2:10:15 (Osaka 2023)
Hiroshi Ichida (Logisteed) - 2:10:21 (Tokyo 2025)
Wataru Tochigi (Hiramatsu Byoin) - 2:10:28 (Gold Coast 2025)
Ryoma Inoue (Chudenko) - 2:10:32 (Nobeoka 2025)
Sota Fukutani (Kurosaki Harima) - 2:10:46 (Osaka 2025)
Takanori Ogata (Toyota Kyushu) - 2:10:47 (Beppu-Oita 2024)
Takuma Takemura (SG Holdings) - 2:10:59 (Nobeoka 2025)

Debut
Toru Kubota (Honda) - 1:00:49 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)
Daiki Hattori (Toyota Boshoku) - 1:00:49 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2024)
Shota Nishimura (Aichi Seiko) - 1:01:08 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)
Hinata Shirakawa (Chuo Univ.) - 1:01:34 (Ageo City Half 2025)
Yuta Nakagawa (M&A BP) - 1:01:40 (Marugame Half 2025)
Shota Shiode (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:54 (Marugame Half 2024)
Kyosuke Hiramatsu (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:04 (Setagaya 246 Half 2025)
Kotaro Ito (Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:14 (Ageo City Half 2025)
Shunya Udagawa (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:02:20 (Kanagawa Half 2025)
Itta Tameike (Chuo Univ.) - 27:52.38 (Abashiri 2024)
Tomoki Aramaki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 28:37.51

© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

 
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
What a great marathon this could turn out to be. Deep and with interesting field and debuts in addition to Kuroda.

Not sure if the translation was accurate but I think I read Hara advising Kuroda to aim for the 2.03.59 in Berlin (would check with Ota running Berlin after graduating too). Maybe he'll use Beppu like Brett suggested to qualify for MGC and aim for Berlin in September but NR could be on the cards right away if he hasn't had issues after Hakone. Safe to say it should be a great run.

Curious to see what the pacers and target time look like.
January 17, 2026 at 8:01 AM
Brett Larner said…
I'm sure it'll end up being something more like 2:05-06 here, but it'll be exciting either way. Hirabayashi had a hard time repeating his debut, but Kuroda doesn't seem to miss.
January 17, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Anonymous said…
2:05/06 sounds reasonable, i think Kuroda has an higher ceiling than wakabayashi/hirabayashi but its a marathon so we will see how it goes and it ll be a long season.
January 18, 2026 at 8:25 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Nagoya Asian Games Test Event Canceled After Insulation Falls From Venue Ceiling

A section of insulation material fell from the ceiling of Nagoya Kinjo Futo Arena, the official venue for squash competition at September's Nagoya Asian Games. There were no injuries, but the city suspended use of the arena until its safety could be guaranteed, resulting in the cancelation of the Asian Games squash test event which was scheduled to have begun on May 14. It is not yet clear whether the arena will be usable for the Asian Games as planned. According to city officials, arena staff found that the insulation material had fallen onto a work walkway 13 m above the ground on the night of May 11. The fallen material was 3.6 m long, 50 cm wide and 2.5 km thick, and was found to be waterlogged. The cause of the accident is unknown, but it is possible that it was caused by rainwater leaking in from the roof. The same insulation material is installed across the entire ceiling, and the city plans to check for the extent of the possible flooding. Asked whether the arena will be re...
1 comment
Read more

Hakone Ekiden Qualifying Race Entry Roster Sizes Increased from 14 to 16

Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR have announced details for the qualifying half marathon for next year's 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The Yosenkai qualifying race will be held Oct. 17 in Tachikawa, Tokyo. The combined times of the 10 fastest finishers from each participating team will be used for team scoring, with the 10 fastest teams going on the the main event next January and top-placing individuals from teams that do not qualify being names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team. One change from previous years is that the number of runners each school can enter has been increased from 14 to 16. Teams will still only be allowed to have from 10 to 12 athletes on the starting line, but the move gives coaches greater flexibility in making the final decision on their starting rosters. No changes have been made to the qualifying times of 34:00 for 10000 m or 1:13:00 for the half marathon, and the new earlier starting time of 8:30 a.m. introduced last year in an effort to mitigate ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nomura and Odagiri Go 3-4 at Zevenheuvelenloop 15 km

2010 Zevenheuvelenloop 15 km Nijmegen, Netherlands, 11/21/10 Women click here for complete women's results 1. Genet Getaneh (Ethiopia) - 47:53 2. Florence Kiplagat (Kenya) - 48:07 3. Sayo Nomura (Meijo Univ.) - 49:43 4. Aki Odagiri (Meijo Univ.) - 51:37 5. Benita Willis (Australia) - 51:51 Men click here for complete men's results 1. Leonard Patrick Komon (Kenya) - 41:13 - WR 2. Abera Kuma (Ethiopia) - 42:01 3. Ayele Abshiro (Ethiopia) - 42:01 4. Abraham Kiplimo (Uganda) - 43:03 5. Berhanu Delale (Ethiopia) - 43:08 ----- 14. Kazuya Watanabe (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 45:31
Post a Comment
Read more