Arao Becomes 1st Man in 40 Years to Score Back-to-Back Ome Road Race Wins

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin. Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06.

Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shiori Zama (Shimamura) won the women's race by almost 3 minutes over Asuka Yamamoto (Universal Entertainment) - 1:44:57, with Haruka Ito (Komazawa H.S.) taking the high school girls' 10 km in 35:07 and Ryusa Furuya (Takushoku Daiichi H.S.) the high school boys' race in 29:54.

The former home of the 30 km world record, Kumamoto's Kumanichi Road Race is usually a faster race than Ome, but this year the men's race was more of a tense pack race til near the end. Mahiro Sato pulled away late to win in 1:31:51, the third big road title so far this year for the Konica Minolta corporate team following teammate Taiga Hirayama's wins at the Osaka Half Marathon and National Corporate Half Marathon. 2nd through 4th all finished within 7 seconds, Hinata Kuroki (Soka Univ.) taking 2nd in 1:32:25.

Higo Ginko teammates Eriko Otsuka, Miyu Kubo and Hina Tada ran most of the race together and finished close, Otsuka winning in 1:49:50, Kubo next in 1:50:00 and Tada 3rd in 1:50:07.

58th Ome Road Race

Ome, Tokyo, 15 Feb. 2026

complete results

Men's 30 km

1. Masato Arao (ND Software) - 1:30:54

2. Yudai Shimazu (GMO) - 1:31:58

3. Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) - 1:32:07

4. Akihiro Kaneko (Comodi Iida) - 1:32:20

5. Takumi Oishi (Suzuki) - 1:32:35

6. Takuma Akiyoshi (Tokyo Univ.) - 1:32:48

7. Yuichi Sato (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:33:56

8. Ryo Kuchimachi (Subaru) - 1:36:12

9. Ezekiel Cheboitibin (Kenya) - 1:36:42

10. Ruon Oikawa (ND Software) - 1:36:54

Women's 30 km

1. Shiori Zama (Shimamura) - 1:44:57

2. Asuka Yamamoto (Univ. Ent.) - 1:47:41

3. Anna Matsuda (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 1:52:32

4. Eri Suzuki (Kumashiro T&F Assoc.) - 1:55:53

5. Mitsuko Hirose (Tokyo Wings) - 1:57:39

High School Girls' 10 km

1. Haruka Ito (Komazawa H.S.) - 35:07

2. Reika Kitamura (Komazawa H.S.) - 35:41

3. Ayane Kobayashi (Komazawa H.S.) - 35:58

4. Yuho Fujii (Komazawa H.S.) - 36:27

5. Arisa Otsuka (Fussa H.S.) - 37:47

High School Boys' 10 km

1. Ryusa Furuya (Takushoku Daiichi H.S.) - 29:54

Kumanichi Road Race

Kumamoto, 15 Feb. 2026

complete results

Men's 30 km

1. Mahiro Sato (Konica Minolta) - 1:31:51

2. Hinata Kuroki (Soka Univ.) - 1:32:25

3. Koki Kobayashi (SG Holdings) - 1:32:31

4. Takuto Aramaki (Juntendo Univ.) - 1:32:32

5. Sota Sumihara (Aisan Kogyo) - 1:33:38

6. Kaito Iida (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 1:34:11

7. Yuito Nakamura (SG Holdings) - 1:34:34

8. Kento Otsu (Chuo Hatsujo) - 1:34:55

Women's 30 km

1. Eriko Otsuka (Higo Ginko) - 1:49:50

2. Miyu Kubo (Higo Ginko) - 1:50:00

3. Hina Tada (Higo Ginko) - 1:50:07

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

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Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

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