Skip to main content

Taisei Kiyono and Miu Saito Win Karatsu Road Race, 13 H.S. Boys Sub-30


The 66th Karatsu Road Race took place Feb. 8 in Karatsu, Saga. In his first time running the men's 10 mile, Taisei Kiyono (Chugoku Denryoku) ran 47:12 to win. The race came down to a 4-way sprint finish, with Kiyono pulling away on the track to beat 2nd place by just 1 second. 2nd on the 12.3 km opening leg at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden, Kiyono already had proven ability. "I was pretty confident of my chances if it came down to a kick," he said. "I didn't think there was any way I was going to lose on the track."

Kiyono was making his debut over 10 miles in windy conditions. "I couldn't tell what the pace was, so it se long," he said. "Winning it was a great experience." After this Kiyono will shift focus to outdoor track season. "I want to make the 5000 m and 10000 m at the National Championships," he said.


In the women's 10 km, Miu Saito (Panasonic), who represented Japan in the 3000 mSC at last fall's Tokyo World Championships, won in 32:21. "It was really windy," she said. "We had a strong headwind on the way out so I didn't think it'd be as bad on the way back, but it still was. Saito ran the race to keep fitness in the off-season. "There aren't any steeple races right now, so I decided to do a road race to kick the season off." Saito started to push after only 4 km, opening a massive lead and beating 2nd place by 44 seconds.

Saito's next race will be the Asian Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka on Feb. 21. Her main goal for the year is September's Asian Games in Nagoya. "I want to focus my peaking this season on the Asian Games," she said. As the NR holder in the 3000 mSC, she hopes to continue moving up on the international scene.


In the high school boys' 10 km, Jin Imamura (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) led an impressive 13 boys under 30 minutes, winning by 25 seconds in 29:07. Moe Imon (Sei Catalina H.S.) won the high school girls' 5 km in 16:24.

66th Karatsu Road Race

Karu, aga, 8 Feb. 2026

1. Taisei Kiyono (Chugoku Denryoku) - 47:12
2. Yusei Tomita (Nihon Univ.) - 47:13
3. Hayato Nomura (Chugoku Denryoku) - 47:17
4. Daiki Murakami (Mitsubishi Juko) - 47:19
5. Masaki Tominaga (Nishitetsu) - 47:26
6. Shinta Miyazawa (Suzuki) - 47:35
7. Yuta Kubode (Chugoku Denryoku) - 47:49
8. Seiryu Morishige (Komazawa Univ.) - 47:51
9. Shota Ushinohama (JFE Steel) - 47:54
10. Takafumi Mikaki (Hioki City Hall) - 48:00

1. Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 32:21
2. Sakura Nishio (Iwatani Sangyo) - 33:05
3. Yumi Yamada (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 33:06
4. Shiori Nagumo (Higo Ginko) - 33:23
5. Yuna Furusawa (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 34:01
6. Hikaru Fukuyama (Fukuoka Univ.) - 34:09
7. Hikari Tanikado (Fukuoka Univ.) - 34:33
8. Moyu Taniguchi (Toto) - 34:33
9. Mizuki Sanai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 34:41
10. Nene Kitano (Osaka Gakuin Univ.). 35:14

1. Jin Imamura (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 29:07
2. Kosuke Sawayama (Jiyugaoka H.S.) - 29:32
3. Teruto Tsugami (Jiyugaoka H.S.) - 29:33
4. Goki Kawazoe (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 29:37
5. Tsubasa Matsuo (Iizuka H.S.) - 29:39
6. Yutaro Takenobu (Fukuoka Kogyo H.S.) - 29:39
7. Minori Shitamori (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 29:40
8. Eita Uchi (Fukuoka Daiichi H.S.) - 29:40
9. Kai Shigefuji (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 29:40
10. Kotaro Hirao (Ube Kojo H.S.) - 29:41
11. Tasuku Miyano (Kyushu Kokusai H.S.) - 29:44
12. Kohei Takahashi (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 29:48
13. Yuta Seri (Fukuoka Daiichi H.S.) - 29:57

1. Moe Imon (Sei Catalina H.S.) - 16:24
2. Rena Sasaki (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) - 16:31
3. Rena Shimano (Takagawa Gakuen H.S.) - 16:35
4. Sawa Okuma (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) - 16:42
5. Mako Shiraishi (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) - 16:43
6. Eren Kaneko (Takagawa Gakuen H.S.) - 16:50


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

Osaka Marathon Elite Field

With 3 weeks to go the elite fields for the Feb. 22 Osaka Marathon are out. Given Osaka's history as the elite men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon the women's field is small, with only one entrant, Sinhala Kureshi , having broken 2:21 with her 2:19:53 in Hamburg last spring. Afera Godfay , Mare Dibaba and Rose Chelimo have all run 2:21 to 2:22 in recent races, and Esther Chemtai is an interesting debut off a 1:08:09 at last fall's Cardiff Half. Kaede Kawamura is the highest-level Japanese woman in the field with a 2:25:44 in Osaka 2 years ago. Last year's men's champ and CR breaker Yihunilign Adane is back, his main competition being fellow Ethiopians Bute Gemechu , Mulugeta Asefa Uma and South Africa's Elroy Gelant . 4th last year in 2:05:58, Kyohei Hosoya leads the front of the super deep Japanese field along with Ichitaka Yamashita , Kenta Sonota , Kiyoto Hirabayashi , Yuhei Urano , Yusuke Nishiyama and Daisuke Doi . But where Osaka excels is in deb...
1 comment
Read more

Matsuo Breaks High School Half Marathon Record in 1:02:47

At the 48th Kanagawa Half Marathon at Yokohama's Nissin Olio Group's Isogo Plant, Jinya Ozaki (Teikyo Univ.) outran tough competition from National University Ekiden champion Komazawa University and Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University to take 1st in the men's race in 1:02:04. AGU's Sho Fukutomi was 2nd in 1:02:07, with Komazawa's Rinta Muta 3rd in 1:02:08. High schooler Nichika Maeda (Miura Gakuen H.S.) took the women's race in 1:16:30. But it was another high schooler who made headlines. 3rd-year Koki Matsuo (Shiritsu Funabashi H.S.) ran 1:02:47, taking 28 seconds off the fastest half marathon time ever run by a Japanese-born high school student. Last summer Matsuo ran the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in November he went under 14 minutes for 5000 m, his time of 13:55.07 putting him into the top class of high school running. At last fall's Chiba Prefectural High School Ekiden Matsuo set a new CR of 2...
1 comment
Read more

Hirayama Strikes Again, Kabasawa Over Fuwa in Whiteout Conditions at National Corporate Half

With heavy snow hitting most of the country the National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km in Yamaguchi almost dodged a bullet. Almost. It was -2˚ and windy at the start, but with sunny skies it wasn't too bad. The men went out 15 minutes ahead of the women on sub-61 pace with a massive pack trailing early leader Daisuke Shimojo (ND Software). At times snow was in the air, but even right up to the end the sun was still breaking through. From a few km out a lead trio coalesced of last year's winner Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx), Kenyan Boniface Mulwa (ND Software) and Taiga Hirayama (Konica Minolta), CR-breaking winner at the Osaka Half Marathon 2 weeks ago. Ichiyama made a break for it with 500 m to go, but on the track at the end Muluwa reeled him back it. Entering the home straight Hirayama threw down and passed them both, bettering his Osaka time by 6 seconds to win in 1:00:44. Muluwa was next in 1:00:45, with Ichiyama, in training for the Tokyo Marathon in 3 weeks, 3rd in...
Post a Comment
Read more