Skip to main content

Marugame Half Marathon Elite Field


The elite field has been partially announced for the Feb. 1 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon. The women's race has a good matchup up front between 2 of the stars of last year's race, Dolphine Omare and Isobel Batt-Doyle, and British duo Eilish McColgan and Charlotte Purdue. The current #1 woman in Japanese collegiate athletics, Daito Bunka University's Sarah Wanjiru, is an interesting debut, with Japanese hopes pretty much resting on Tokyo World Championships marathon team members Yuka Ando and Kana Kobayashi.

Last year's runner-up Emmanuel Maru is the favorite in the men's race, but right behind him there's a tasty duel between collegiate half marathon record co-holders Richard Etir and Kotaro Shinohara. Past Fukuoka International Marathon winner Sondre Moen and Josphat Ledama Kisaisa round out the front end of the field.

The relocation of the National University Men's Half Marathon from Tachikawa to Marugame last year had a profound impact on the level of collegiate men's times, with Shinohara going sub-60, 14 other university men running 60 minutes, and 37 more running 61 minutes. Along with the now-graduated Shinohara, 3 of the 60-minute men from last year, Kento Baba, Hiromichi Nonaka and Haru Taninaka, are back, and expect even more once the full field is announced. We'll update this listing once that happens.

78th Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon

Elite Field Highlights
Marugame, Kagawa, 1 Feb. 2026
times listed are athletes' best in last 3 years except where noted

Women
Eilish McColgan (Great Britain) - 1:05:43 (Berlin 2023)
Dolphine Omare (Kenya/Uniqlo) - 1:06:05 (Marugame 2025)
Isobel Batt-Doyle (Australia) - 1:07:17 (Marugame 2025)
Charlotte Purdue (Great Britain) - 1:08:02 (Marugame 2024)
Yuka Ando (Shimamura) - 1:08:18 (Osaka 2024)
Kana Kobayashi (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:09:09 (Gifu Seiryu 2025)
Hikaru Kitagawa (Univ. Ent.) - 1:10:50 (Matsue Ladies 2023)
Ayumi Morita (Tokyo Metro) - 1:11:46 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)
Kaede Hagitani (Saku T&F Assoc.) - 1:11:59 (Tokyo Legacy 2025)

Debut
Sarah Wanjiru (Kenya/Daito Bunka Univ.) - 31:41.80 (Bochum 2025)
Kaho Onishi (Route Inn Hotels) - 32:27.71 (Abashiri 2024)

Men
Emmanuel Maru (Kenya/Toyota Boshoku) - 59:19 (Marugame 2025)
Richard Etir (Kenya/Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) - 59:30 (Berlin 2025)
Kotaro Shinohara (Fujitsu) - 59:30 (Marugame 2025)
Sondre Moen (Norway) - 1:00:11 (Marugame 2024)
Kento Baba (Rikkyo Univ.) - 1:00:26 (Marugame 2025)
Josphat Ledama Kisaisa (Kenya/Kao) - 1:00:36 (Marugame 2025)
Ken Nakayama (Honda) - 1:00:38 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2022)
Hiromichi Nonaka (Koku Gakuin Univ.) - 1:00:54 (Marugame 2025)
Haru Taninaka (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:00:57 (Marugame 2025)
Yusaku Nomura (Toyota) - 1:00:58 (Nat'l Corp. Half 2025)
Shoya Yonei (JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:00:59 (Marugame 2025)
Takuma Ohama (Daito Bunka Univ.) - 1:01:08 (Marugame 2025)
Kenta Sekiguchi (SG Holdings) - 1:01:09 (Marugame 2025)
Takumi Orihashi (Soka Univ.) - 1:01:16 (Marugame 2025)
Santiago Catrofe (Uruguay) - 1:01:23 (Boston 2025)
Yusuke Ogura (Yakult) - 1:01:35 (Marugame 2025)
Daichi Shibata (Chuo Univ.) - 1:01:41 (Marugame 2024)
Taisei Ichikawa (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:43 (Marugame 2025)
Yuta Asakawa (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:01:59 (Marugame 2025)

© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

'Kobe 2024: Aitchison, Athmani Lead Record-Breaking Thursday'

  https://www.paralympic.org/news/kobe-2024-para-athletics-world-championships-aitchison-athmani-lead-record-breaking-thursday Complete results and daily schedule from the Kobe World Para Athletics Championships are here .
Post a Comment
Read more

Summary of Japanese Medalists at Asian Athletics Championships

Overall:    gold: 4   silver: 6   bronze: 10 Men:    gold: 1   silver: 3   bronze: 4 Women:    gold: 3   silver: 3   bronze: 6 20th Asian Athletics Championships Pune, India, July 3-7, 2013 click here for complete results Men's 200 m Final   +0.7 m/s 1. Xie Zhenye (China) - 20.87 2. Fahad Mohammed Alsubaie (Saudi Arabia) - 20.912 3. Kei Takase (Japan) - 20.918 Men's 400 m Final 1. Yousef Ahmed Masrahi (Saudi Arabia) - 45.08 2. Ali Khamis (Bahrain) - 45.65 3. Yuzo Kanemaru (Japan) - 45.95 Men's 110 m Hurdles Final   +0.1 m/s 1. Jiang Fan (China) - 13.61 2. Abdulaziz Almandeel (Kuwait) - 13.78 3. Wataru Yazawa (Japan) - 13.88 Men's 400 m Hurdles Final 1. Yasuhiro Fueki (Japan) - 49.86 2. Cheng Wen (China) - 50.07 3. Satinder Singh (India) - 50.35 Men's 3000 m SC 1. Tarek Mubarak Taher (Bahrain) - 8:34.77 2. Dejene Regassa Mootoma (Bahrain) - 8:37.40 3. Tsuyoshi Takeda (Japan) - 8...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hakone Champ AGU's 4th Runner Kyosuke Hiramatsu Reveals He Suffers from Rare Disorder

  On Jan. 8 Aoyama Gakuin University held a victory celebration at the school's Aoyama Campus in Shibuya, Tokyo for its win at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden, the 9th win for AGU in the last 12 years and its second threepeat. AGU's 4th runner at Hakone, Kyosuke Hiramatsu (3rd yr.) took 3rd on his leg and set up Day One anchor Asahi Kuroda (4th yr.) to run down the leader on the uphill Fifth Stage and take the Day One win. At the celebration he revealed that he had been suffering from a rare disorder, acquired idiopathic generalized anhidrosis. This disorder, which the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare estimates to afflict only 100 to 200 people nationwide, primarily men aged 10 to 30, impairs the function of sweat glands throughout the body. As a result those affected have difficulty regulating body temperature and are highly susceptible to heatstroke. The cause is unknown and no established treatment exists, but according to the National Intractable Disease Information Center ...
Post a Comment
Read more