Masresha Over Yoshida and Kuroda at Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon

The Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon was a strictly amateur race on the women's side, Chika Yokota running a 2:43:45 PB for the win. But with 6 spots at the L.A. Olympics marathon trials on the line all the Japanese men were obsessed over getting their places reserved early. 2 first-half falls knocked Ethiopian Abe Gashahun and 2024 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon winner Yota Ifuku out of the race, but the rest of the field rolled on steadily just under 3:00/km.

The pace crew took them to 30 km in 1:29:45, 2:06:15 pace, and at that point there were still 20 in it including the home soil favorites Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda. Inside the last 10 km Ethiopian Getachew Masresha went to the front, followed initially by the debuting Takato Suzuki but let go by the rest of the pack. Once Masresha was about 10 seconds ahead Kuroda, the collegiate record holder and CR breaker on the Hakone Ekiden's legendary uphill Fifth Stage a month ago, picked it up in pursuit. After Kuroda ran down Suzuki the chase group shook down to just 5, Kuroda and Yoshida with support from Sota Fukutani, Kiyoshi Koga and the debuting Itta Tameike from Chuo University.

The group worked together to try to cut down Masresha's lead as the kilometers went by, but as they dropped off one by one the gap stayed the same, hovering between 10 and 15 km. Over the last 5 km it was down to just Kuroda and Yoshida, who pulled a bastard move at the 40 km and attacked hard while the less-experienced Kuroda had his head back taking a drink. Kuroda tried to close it up again, but when he got close Yoshida dropped him for good.

Masresha was out of range, though, and took the win with his first sub-2:07 in 2:06:49. Unable to close the gap, Yoshida just squeezed under in 2:06:59 for 2nd, Kuroda narrowly missing in 2:07:03 for 3rd. Fukutani and Koga both ran 2:07 PBs for the first time, but in between them veteran Hiroto Inoue came up for 5th. Tameike was in obvious pain on the last lap of the track but gutted out a 2:07:59 to take the last Olympic trials qualifying spot, a very solid debut that backed up his 1:00:23 half marathon equivalent on Hakone's Second Stage.

Kento Kikutani was the unlucky 7th Japanese finisher, missing out on a Trials spot in 2:08:17 for 9th overall. Tameike's teammate Hinata Shirakawa, 1:01:34 for the half, was 10th in 2:08:48 in his debut, with the next 5 men including Suzuki going sub-2:10, 4 of them for the first time. With his Tokyo Olympics marathon teammate Shogo Nakamura having just announced his retirement, Yuma Hattori struggled to recatch the magic, finishing 31st in 2:14:38.

74th Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon

Oita, 1 Feb. 2026

complete results

Men

1. Getachew Masresha (Ethiopia) - 2:06:49 - PB

2. Yuya Yoshida (GMO) - 2:06:59

3. Asahi Kuroda (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 2:07:03

4. Sota Fukutani (Kurosaki Harima) - 2:07:11 - PB

5. Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:07:36

6. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) - 2:07:46 - PB

7. Itta Tameike (Chuo Univ.) - 2:07:59 - debut

8. Mohamed Reda El Aaraby (Morocco) - 2:08:01

9. Kento Kikutani (Toyota Boshoku) - 2:08:17

10. Hinata Shirakawa (Chuo Univ.) - 2:08:48 - debut

11. Hiroshi Ichida (Logisteed) - 2:09:10 - PB

12. Mizuki Higashi (Aisan Kogyo) - 2:09:29

13. Daiki Hattori (Toyota Boshoku) - 2:09:31 - debut

14. Takanori Ogata (Toyota Boshoku) - 2:09:49 - PB

15. Takato Suzuki (GMO) - 2:09:57 - debut

16. Shota Nishimura (Aichi Seiko) - 2:10:12 - debut

17. Kazuma Ohata (Yasukawa Denki) - 2:11:08 - PB

18. Yudai Fukuda (Runners Connect) - 2:11:16 - PB

19. Kyosuke Hiramatsu (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 2:11:31 - debut

20. Ryoto Yoshioka (Mitsubishi Juko) - 2:11:36 - debut

21. Seon Nakazawa (Nihon Univ.) - 2:11:50 - debut

22. Asuka Tanaka (Runlife) - 2:12:13

23. Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) - 2:12:17

24. Chihiro Ono (GMO) - 2:12:18

25. Takeshi Yamaguchi (Suzuki) - 2:12:41 - debut

-----

31. Yuma Hattori (Toyota) - 2:14:38

-----

DNF - Abe Gashahun (Ethiopia)

DNF - Yota Ifuku (Sumitomo Denko)

Women

1. Chika Yokota - 2:43:45 - PB

2. Mai Arizuka - 2:46:39

3. Aoi Makara - 2:47:34

4. Asami Furuse - 2:47:51

5. Mizuho Uekado - 2:48:54 - PB

Hirayama Breaks Osaka Half CR, Martinez Set Puerto Rican NR

The Osaka Half Marathon took another big step up the domestic half marathon rankings from a mass-participation race run alongside the Osaka International Women's Marathon to one of the country's top-tier races. In the women's race, the debuting Jecinta Nyokabi (Denso) went out fast, only to be run down by veteran Yumi Yoshikawa (Canon AC) by 10 km. Nyokabi faded to 6th in 1:10:41, but Yoshikawa pushed on to a PB 1:09:14 for the win. Rina Shimizu (Noritz), Yuna Takahashi (Shimamura) and Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.) all broke 70 minutes, Tsuchiya taking the Kansai Region collegiate title in 1:09:32 for 4th overall. Everyone in the top 10 who wasn't debuting ran a PB, a mark of how fast the day was even with cold and windy conditions. The men's race went out on sub-61 pace courtesy of Yudai Shimazu (GMO), then got a big injection of speed when Kyuma Yokota (Toyota Kyushu) took off close to 60-flat pace. Yokota opened a 10-second lead by 15 km, but over ...

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