Skip to main content

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

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

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

photo © 2026 Shun Suzuki, all rights reserved
text © 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Masato Arao is a guy and a story that's easy to root for. Great to see him take another win here. Will be interesting to see him in the next marathon, the half marathon last month he didn't run as fast as maybe he would have liked so it will be tricky to go below 2.06 but let's see what happens. Good stuff.
February 17, 2026 at 3:39 AM
Brett Larner said…
He was planning to run the Osaka Half as a marathon-pace workout, i.e. around 1:02:45, so the 1:01:49 PB there was faster than he'd anticipated.
February 17, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Anonymous said…
Thanks a lot Brett for the additional feedback and insight. Reading that is certainly encouraging then. Looking forward to see him at the Tokyo marathon even more. Thanks again.
February 18, 2026 at 9:01 AM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...
2 comments
Read more

Nagoya Women's Marathon Preview and Streaming (updated)

Japan's winter marathon season of 6 major races in 7-straight weekends wraps up Sunday with the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon . The weather is looking pretty good, 6˚ at the start rising to 10˚ by the finish and sunny skies, but a moderate 7 m/s NW wind means a headwind finish that might impact the potential for some fast times. Official streaming kicks off at 9:00 a.m. local time. Live results will be here . Sheila Chepkirui won last year in 2:20:40, breaking away from Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba at 30 km and hanging on for the win. Sato negative split a 2:20:59 PB for 2nd, Chumba fading to 3rd in 2:21:36. All 3 are back this time, but they have pretty serious competition from Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Selly Chepyego Kaptich , 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023. And of course, Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda . Maeda ran 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024 to make the Paris Oly...
Post a Comment
Read more

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...
53 comments
Read more