After the Osaka International Women's Marathon and Osaka Half Marathon last weekend Japan's winter road season rolls on with 3 big races Sunday. The Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon has a good field up front in the women's race with 5 runners, Eilish McColgan, Dolphine Omare, Isobel Batt-Doyle, Charlotte Purdue and Yuka Ando, with sub-1:09 bests and the debut of #1 collegiate runner Sarah Wanjiru of Daito Bunka University.
3 men in Marugame have recent sub-60 times, Emmanuel Maru, Richard Etir and Kotaro Shinohara leading the way. Shinohara was one of 2 Japanese men to break 60 at Marugame last year and missed the NR by 3 seconds in 59:30. After a 42:53 CR on his 15.3 km leg at the New Year Ekiden on Jan.1, 45:06 pace for 10 miles, he's looking to pick up at least another 4 seconds this time around. 14 other men in the field are at the 60-minute level, and Chuo University's sub-28 10000 m runner Yamato Hamaguchi is making a highly anticipated debut after not getting picked as a starting member at Hakone. The forecast is looking good, with sunny skies and temps in the high single digits. JRN will be on-site in Marugame for the race. Detailed field listing here.
Marugame started hosting the National University Half Marathon Championships last year, but Yokohama's Kanagawa Half Marathon happening at the same time always hosts a massive number of college runners outside the very top tier. 2026 Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University usually have a big presence, and this year Soka University will be sending a big crew. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) won last year over AGU's Shunya Udagawa and Nihon University's Yusei Tomita, so there is a chance some other high-level corporate runners will be there, especially from New Year Ekiden winner GMO.
Yoshida and Udagawa for sure won't be at Kanagawa as they're both running the day's other big race, the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. Yoshida made his debut there with a 2:08:30 for 3rd right before graduating from AGU, and Udagawa will be debuting this time around. His AGU teammates Shota Shiode, Kyosuke Hiramatsu and Tomoki Aramaki are also debuting, but the big name is collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda, fresh off an incredible record-breaking run on Hakone's uphill Fifth Stage to held solidify AGU's 3rd-straight Hakone title.
Kuroda debuted in 2:06:05 in Osaka last year and is reportedly targeting the 2:04:55 Japanese NR in Berlin this fall after he graduates and heads to GMO, so something in the low-2:05 range seems like a realistic step this time. But with Hibiki Yoshida slated to debut in Osaka at the end of February off the equivalent of a 58:47 half marathon at the New Year Ekiden and saying he's going for the NR there, it might give some motivation for Kuroda to go the extra 1 sec/km this time around.
Other top names in Beppu-Oita include Ronald Korir, Hiroto Inoue, Mohamed Reda El Araaby, Toru Kubota and Daiki Hattori. Wind can be a factor in Beppu-Oita, but like in Marugame as of right now the forecast is looking very good. Detailed field listing here.
© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Comments
I'm not sure the pacing in Beppu will be enough to properly attempt a NR but surely needs to watch it closely as I think Kuroda has a very good chance to demolish Wakabayashi's time of last year.
My dream was to see Kuroda and Hibiki Yoshida running the same marathon and now knowing that Yoshida will be in Osaka (where I was hoping Kuroda would run again before he announced Beppu) it's a bit of a bitter feeling but hey,let's see what this 1-2 punch gives us.
With these guys it feels like the Osako's NR won't survive 2026: will it happen? No idea but we are here to see it.