Two of Japan's best current marathoners, Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko), 6th in the Paris Olympics and 2nd in Berlin last fall in a 2:06:15 PB, and Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku), 7th in Osaka last year in a PB of 2:06:06, were supposed to be in on the wild action at the Boston Marathon and London Marathon, but both ended up scratching with injury. It's hard not to wonder what kind of dent they might have made, especially Akasaki.
In Kikuchi's absence London didn't have any elite-level Japanese athletes, and the only one in Boston was Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro), 2:22:11 in Nagoya last year. Uesugi went out relatively strongly but faded hard in the hills to finish only 26th in 2:34:38. One other Japanese woman, Sherry Drury, ran the BAA Mile held the Saturday before the marathon, finishing 6th in 4:43.26.
Bigger news the same day as the BAA Mile came in Spain, where Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) followed up his 1:00:22 half marathon PB in February with a 28:15 NR at the 10 km en Ruta Villa de Laredo. With college sophomore Shunsuke Kuwata (Komazawa Univ.) having gone through 10 km in 27:57 at the tough NYC Half last month, that's a national record that is still ripe for the picking.
Aiwa Sakaguchi (Bears) followed up her 2:31:50 win in her debut at last August's Hokkaido Marathon, a win that made her the first Japanese woman to qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics marathon trials, with her overseas debut at the Vienna Marathon. In a race that saw winner Tigist Gezahagn (Ethiopia) set a 2:20:06 CR, Sakaguchi was 9th in 2:37:12.
Back home, 2 big marathons were happening domestically. At the more important of the 2, the Nagano Marathon, Daichi Atsuura (ND Software) ran a nearly 4-minute PB of 2:12:08 to take the win in the men's race, almost exactly what his 1:02:54 PB at the Incheon Half in South Korea 3 weeks earlier predicted. Shuya Iwami (Sumitomo Denko) was the only other athlete under 2:15, 2nd in a 2:12:43 PB. Anna Matsuda (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) took the women's race in a conservative 2:39:43, close to 11 minutes slower than what she ran in Osaka last year.
Trail runner Kana Numata would have placed pretty well in Nagano, but her 2:44:30 was more than enough to win the Kasumigaura Marathon the same day in her home prefecture of Ibaraki. The top 4 women in Kasumigaura went under 2:50, beating Nagano's count of 3. Former Konica Minolta runner Gen Hachisuka (Oneship) won the men's race in 2:20:24. Mirei Onodera (Ishinomaki Senshu Univ.) had a close win in the women's 10-miler in Kasumigaura, beating club runner Aki Kowase by just 5 seconds in 1:00:43. Kiyoto Ono (Juntendo Univ.) won the men's 10-miler in 48:56.
The big road race this past weekend was the Gifu Seiryu Half. 1st in the Kanto Regionals D2 half marathon just 3 weeks ago, Shoki Yamaguchi (Soka Univ.) did a lot of the work to try to keep the men's race going at something close to a decent pace, going to the front repeatedly and quickly turning out to be the only Japanese man left in the Kenyan lead group of 6. Patrick Mosin had the strongest kick, winning in 1:00:35 with Boniface Mulwa (ND Software) 1 second back, Geoffrey Toroitich 3rd in 1:00:37, and both Kiprono Sitonik (Kurosaki Harima) and Yamaguchi's Soka teammate Stephen Muthini clocking 1:00:38 for 4th and 5th. Yamaguchi was 6th in 1:00:46, a 46-second PB that was pretty impressive given Gifu's rolling course.
The all-Kenyan lead group in the women's race in Gifu ground down from 6 at 15 km to a duel between 2022-2023 champ Dolphine Omare (Uniqlo) and last year's winner Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) by 20 km. Omare broke away in the last km, but in the home straight Nyiva came bearing back down on her again. Omare managed to hold Nyiva off, winning in 1:07:04 with Nyiva 2 seconds back in a 1:07:06 PB. Top Japanese finisher Kana Kobayashi (Otsuka Seiyaku) was 9th in 1:10:43.
© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
Comments