Skip to main content

Kawabata and Hayashida Win Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon

 

Today's Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon was in one of the few places in the country not hit by heavy snow, but even though it was windier than ideal with a strong tailwind 1st half and headwind 2nd half people ran well.

After a 1:04:31 fast half the men dropped as slow as 16:03 into the wind between 25 and 30 km, but when the pacers dropped a group of 6 broke free from the pack and got the race back on track with a 15:25 split through 35 km. Even though he only had a 2:15:11 PB Kazuto Kawabata was the only one who could sustain that over the next 5 km, and he kept rolling on to win in a new PB of 2:10:27. Amateur Shusei Ohashi dropped a 2:11:01 PB for 2nd, just holding off the debuting Shoki Yamaguchi from Soka University who was 3rd in 2:11:02.

6 of the top 10 ran PBs, the other 4 all running the marathon for the first time and everyone under 2:12:30. Back in 13th, the talented Kenta Murayama from the local Asahi Kasei corporate team brought his career to an end with a 2:14:04, never quite capitalizing on the potential he showed in distances up to the half marathon. Veteran Daiji Kawai was 14th in 2:14:23.

The women's race was a 3-way shared effort between last year's winner Akiko Ogawa, 46-year-old Rieko Koshi and local Reina Hayashida. Ogawa and Hayashida went through halfway in 1:20:56 with Koshi a couple of steps behind, and as Koshi faded further back Hayashida dropped Ogawa. Hayashida won in an 8-minute PB of 2:42:17, with Koshi coming back in the final km to run Ogawa down for 2nd 2:43:25 to 2:43:37.

64th Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon

Nobeoka, Miyazaki, 8 Feb. 2026

Women
1. Reina Hayashida (Nobeoka T&F Assoc.) - 2:42:17 - PB
2. Rieko Koshi (Emoto Juku) - 2:43:25
3. Akiko Ogawa (Koyugun T&F Assoc.) - 2:43:37

Men
1. Kazuto Kawabata (SG Holdings) - 2:10:27 - PB
2. Shusei Ohashi (Kodaira T&F Assoc.) - 2:11:01 - PB
3. Shoki Yamaguchi (Soka Univ.) - 2:11:02 - debut
4. Koki Kamata (Yakult) - 2:11:18 - PB
5. Kanta Ikeda (Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:11:21 - PB
6. Ryuji Kawakita (Nexus RC) - 2:11:53 - PB
7. Kaito Nakamura (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) - 2:12:04 - debut
8. Masahiro Fukumoto (Kraftia) - 2:12:18 - debut
9. Ibuki Kaneko (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:12:18 - PB
10. Ryosuke Sasaki (Suzuki) - 2:12:20 - debut
11. Akihito Eishin (Osaka Police) - 2:12:45
12. Masami Nagakura (Kurosaki Harima) - 2:13:09 - PB
13. Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) - 2:14:04
14. Daiji Kawai (Toenec) - 2:14:23
15. Koya Suzuki (Fujitsu) - 2:15:39 - debut

© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kawauchi Wins Inaugural Kawauchi Half Marathon

http://www.minyu-net.com/sports/running/FM20160501-070419.php translated by Brett Larner 川内優輝ロード pic.twitter.com/rEJk7CQPFV — みとっぽ (黒) (@mitoppo_tmyk) April 30, 2016 Yuki Kawauchi Road in Kawauchi, Fukushima Held to inspire former residents to return to the area after the nearby TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident five years ago, the village of Kawauchi held the first " Kawauchi no Sato Kaeru Half Marathon - From Reconstruction to Creation " on April 30.  The course started and finished at the village heliport.  1188 runners from across the country gathered to celebrate the village's revival as they ran through its springtime streets. The event's organizing committee was made up of local government and board of education members with support from the Fukushima Minyu Newspaper and other sponsors.  The race's purpose was to transmit the vitality and charm of the reconstructing Kawauchi village to the rest of the nation in hopes of helpin...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Record-Breaking 22 High School Boys Under 14 Minutes for 5000 m This Season

As we saw with multiple national records at last Friday's long distance National Championships , the Japanese distance world keeps getting faster and faster. High school athletes are no exception. Breaking 14 minutes for 5000 m is the gold standard for a top-level high school runner. This season 22 boys have done it not including foreign student athletes, almost double the previous record for a single season, 12 in 2010. In 2010, Kenta Murayama , now part of the Asahi Kasei corporate team but then running for Miyagi's Meisei H.S., was the fastest high schooler at 13:49.45. Future Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura ran 13:50.38 that year while at Iga Hakuho H.S. Since then the number of boys under 14 minutes has held steady, with 10 in 2015, 10 in 2016 and 11 in 2019, showing how exceptional this season's number is. Leading this new generation is Tokyo Nogyo Daini H.S. 3rd-year Kosuke Ishida . While at Fukuoka's Asakawa J.H.S. Ishida ran 3:49.72 for 1...
3 comments
Read more