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

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .
77 comments
Read more