Skip to main content

Marathon Weekend Roundup


Alongside the weekend's 2 big 30 km races and college ekiden action, 4 of Japan's big mass-participation races with quality sub-elite fields happened across the country. The Kitakyushu Marathon just north of Fukuoka saw the fastest men's race up front, with Toyo University's Mashu Nishimura scoring the win in his debut in 2:16:14, outrunning Rio Olympian Hisanori Kitajima by 2 minutes. The Daihatsu corporate team's Yuki Shibata had a decent debut to win the women's race in 2:40:36.


The only one of the 4 marathons to be on the World Athletics calendar and visible to the rest of the world, the Kumamoto Castle men's race was almost as fast as in Kitakyushu, with amateur Hiroaki Furukawa taking a 5th win in 2:16:56 and 3 others under 2:20 like in Kitakyushu. Another amateur, women's winner Michiru Kato took her 5th win too, running a CR and PB 2:42:00.


Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., the Kyoto Marathon had the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend as Miyu Fukada of local Ritsumeikan University won by almost 6 minutes in a 2:37:39 CR. Local amateur Yuma Morii won for the 3rd time, the only won to break 2:20 at 2:17:38.


The Kochi Ryoma Marathon's women's race saw Hong Kong triathlete Leanne Szeto win in a PB 2:43:20 almost 5 minutes up on Japan's Mizuha Otaru. The men's race was a close one, with Takemaru Yamasaki edging Naoya Takayama by 8 seconds to win in 2:19:12.

Kitakyushu Marathon

Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 15 Feb. 2026

Men
1. Mashu Nishimura - 2:16:14 - debut
2. Hisanori Kitajima - 2:18:16
3. Keiichiro Tomomori - 2:18:40 - PB
4. Kohei Okada - 2:18:41 - PB

Women
1. Yuki Shibata - 2:40:36 - debut
2. Miho Hiraizumi - 2:41:20 - debut
3. Riko Ozawa - 2:47:54 - debut

Kumamoto Castle Marathon

Kumamoto, 15 Feb. 2026

Men
1. Hiroaki Furukawa - 2:16:56
2. Hyuma Abe - 2:18:08 - PB
3. Junpei Kato - 2:18:42 - PB
4. Takayuki Matsuura - 2:19:57 - debut

Women
1. Michiru Kato - 2:42:00 - CR, PB
2. Rui Miike - 2:48:44 - PB
3. Kanami Shigemoto - 2:50:18 - PB

Kyoto Marathon

Kyoto, 15 Feb. 2026

Men
1. Yuma Morii - 2:17:38
2. Tatsuya Itagaki - 2:20:56
3. Seiya Kusaka - 2:21:09

Women
1. Miyu Fukada - 2:37:39 - CR
2. Fuka Hirokawa - 2:43:25
3. Mikiko Ota - 2:50:06

Kochi Ryoma Marathon

Kochi, 15 Feb. 2026

Men
1. Takemaru Yamasaki - 2:19:12
2. Naoya Takayama - 2:19:20 - debut
3. Munehiro Harada - 2:20:46 - debut

Women
1. Leanne Szeto (Hong Kong) - 2:43:20 - PB
2. Mizuha Otaru - 2:48:12
3. Haruka Yamaguchi - 2:53:44

© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

Buy Me A Coffee

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

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

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

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