Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half, JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half.

This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR for the 5.8 km 3rd leg at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden Sasaki was 2nd overall and the top Japanese finisher on the Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden longest stage, the 10.5 km 5th leg. Murayama was 2nd overall on the Mt. Fuji anchor stage that climbs 169 m late in its 8.3 km length. Since then Murayama made her international debut with a bronze medal run in March's World University Cross-Country Championships in Italy, but for Sasaki the New York Mini will be her first-ever race outside Japan.

Head coach Masamori Kabuki will be joining them in New York, one of the more interesting young coaches currently working in Japanese athletes given his success in building a small program from nothing and coming just 9 seconds short of scoring a national title against the nation's top teams.

There's a solid field like always at the New York Mini, led by world record holder Agnes Ngetich. It's not likely we'll see either Murayama or Sasaki end up in the top 10, but given their ekiden times they should both have a shot at Ayuko Suzuki's record for the fastest-ever Japanese women's time at the New York Mini, 32:37. JRN will be on-site in NYC with them throughout race weekend.

2026 Mastercard New York Mini 10 km Elite Field Highlights

New York, U.S.A., 6 June 2026

complete field listing

times listed are athletes' best road or track times within last 3 years except where noted

Agnes Ngetich (Kenya) - 28:46 (Valencia 2024)

Tsigie Gebreselama (Ethiopia) - 29:48.34 (Los Angeles 2024)

Klara Lukan (Slovenia) - 29:51 (Ljubljana 2026)

Weini Kelati (U.S.A.) - 30:49 (New York 2025)

Emma Hurley (U.S.A.) - 31:00 (Tokyo 2025)

Jessica McClain (U.S.A.) - 31:13 (Mesa 2026)

Wuga He (China) - 31:14.94 (Walnut 2023)

Hellen Obiri (Kenya) - 31:16 (Manchester 2025)

Amanda Vestri (U.S,A.) - 31:17 (New. York 2024)

Annie Frisbie (U.S.A.) - 31:37 (Charleston 2026)

Sharon Lokedi (Kenya) - 31:39 (Boston 2025)

Annie Rodenfels (U.S.A.) - 31:54 (Boston 2024)

Ednah Kurgat (U.S.A.) - 31:56 (Miramar 2025)

Dakotah Popehn (U.S.A.) - 31:58 (New York 2024)

Emily Venters (U.S.A.) - 32:11 (Boston 2024)

Viola Cheptoo (Kenya) - 32:13 (Atlanta 2022)

Amisa Murayama (Japan) - 32:15.10 (Osaka 2025)

Fionnuala McCormack (Ireland) - 32:19 (Malaga 2022)

Sydney Vaught (U.S.A.) - 32:21.37 (Eugene 2025)

Callie Hughes (U.S.A.) - 32:21.54 (Walnut 2025)

Stephanie Bruce (U.S.A.) - 32:22.45 (London 2024)

Tess Barrett (U.S.A.) - 32:27 (Philadelphia 2026)

Rachel Smith (U.S.A.) - 32:35 (Cape Elizabeth 2024)

Mercy Chelangat (Kenya) - 32:37 (Boston 2024)

Nazuki Sasaki (Japan) - 32:48 (equiv., Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden 2025)

Sophia King (U.S.A.) - 32:59.93 (Portland 2025)

Madison Offstein (U.S.A.) - 33:09.78 (Azusa 2025)

Elena Haydar (U.S.A.) - 33:30 (Boston 2024)

Katarina Birimac (U.S.A.) - 33:48.47 (Philadelphia 2025)

Lisa Hart (Great Britain) - 34:05 (Winter Park 2026)

Gabi Rooker (U.S.A.) - 34:11 (Charleston 2026)

Restaurant Owner Selected as Olympic Torchbearer Dies in Fire After Becoming Despondent Over Impact of Coronavirus Crisis (updated)

On the evening of Apr. 30, the 54-year-old male owner of a restaurant in Tokyo's Nerima ward specializing in tonkatsu deep fried pork cutlets died from full-body burns in a fire at the restaurant. The man had been one of the people chosen as a torchbearer for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics torch relay. With the coronavirus crisis causing both the postponement of the Olympics and a loss of business at the restaurant, the man had recently started talking pessimistically about the future to those around him. With evidence of the man's body having been doused in tonkatsu cooking oil, metropolitan police from the Hikarigaoka Police Station are carefully examining the cause of the fire. At around 10:00 p.m. on the 30th, the fire broke out in the tonkatsu restaurant on the first floor of a three-story building. A neighborhood resident who noticed smoke called the fire department. Firefighters found the floor and part of a wall burning, with the man lying on the floor in the customer seat...

Aoyama Gakuin Breaks Hakone Ekiden CR for Second Year in a Row

2024 Hakone Ekiden course record breaker Aoyama Gakuin University was 3:16 up on 2023 winner Komazawa University at the end of Day One of the Hakone 2025, an even bigger margin than last year when it was 2:38 ahead of Komazawa and went on to win the 217.1 km overall race in a course record 10:41:25, beating Komazawa by almost 7 minutes. There was almost no chance Komazawa could close the gap today on the return trip of Hakone Day Two. But that doesn't mean they didn't try. Komazawa 3rd year Aoi Ito was just off the CR on the ~800 m downhill 6th leg in 57:38, but even with a run that good he lost ground when AGU's Akimu Nomura proved a hypothetical, breaking the 57-minute barrier for the 20.8 km leg with a 30-second CR of 56:47. Post-race Nomura said that he had spent the whole year training to run 56, and he executed perfectly. And put AGU 4:07 ahead, hopeless, except for a ray of hope. Injured for most of 2024 and running his first race since March on only 6 weeks of...

Hakone in the African Era

In the early days of the Hakone Ekiden Koreans were the first group from outside Japan to run and make an impact on the event's history . 60 years after the first two Koreans ran Hakone, Kenyan Douglas Wakiihuri became the first Kenyan to come to Japan to run when he joined the S&B corporate team. After he won the 1987 Rome World Championships marathon and took silver a year later in the Seoul Olympics the door was open for Kenyan and other African athletes to follow Wakiihuri's lead to the corporate leagues, to universities, and even to high schools. Tsutomu Akiyama was responsible for bringing the first two Kenyans to Hakone, recruiting Joseph Otwori and Kennedy Manyisa Isena to go to Yamanashi Gakuin University . "I went to Kenya to see what the people and environment were like," he told JRN. "I watched a cross-country race and thought, 'We have to get someone like that to run for Yamanashi Gakuin.'" Yamanashi Gakuin had debuted at Hakon...

japan running news

Search This Blog