Oe and Maruichi Win Lake Saroma 100 km

It was a high-level men's race at this year's Lake Saroma 100 km Ultramarathon. In cooler conditions than usual at Lake Saroma Tatsuya Inagaki and Masato Tanaka went out hot with a 34:50 opening 10 km, way ahead of pace for Alexsandr Sorokin's 6:05:35 WR and even the unofficial 5:59:20 run by Sibusiso Kubheka last year. Tanaka lost touch with Inagaki before 40 km, but with halfway splits of 2:54:59 and 2:56:05 both were still far under Kubheka's mark. Running 3rd through 5th at that point, Chiharu Kuzukubo, Hirofumi Nakamura and Toru Somiya were all under Sorokin's WR pace too, with 6th-placer Takatoshi Oe just off in 3:02:49.

Inagaki couldn't sustain that kind of performance, and by 60 km Tanaka was back in touch. 10 km Tanaka was 5 minutes ahead and still on 5:54:46 pace, with Oe moving up to 3rd and just over 3 minutes behind Inagaki. 70 km is the marathon's 30 km of the 100 km, and Tanaka began to slow rapidly, over 6 hour pace at 80 km with Oe now in 2nd and 5 minutes back, then on 6:07 pace at 90 km with only a 1:19 lead over Oe and even Tanaka regaining ground. In the end Tanaka could't hold Oe off, Oe winning in 6:10:23 with Tanaka next in 6:12:19 and Inagaki 3rd in 6:16:02. In 4th, Somiya cleared 6:20 too with a 6:19:46, making it one of the deepest years in Lake Saroma history.

The women's race started off as a head-to-head between last year's winner Mikiko Ota and Akiko Maruichi, the pair running together for the first 20 km before Ota opened a lead. But between 40 and 50 km Ota started to fade, and Maruichi went from a minute and a half behind to 10 minutes ahead. Ota started to turn it around over the last 30 km, but in the end Maruichi kept a margin of almost 7 minutes to win in 7:22:23. Ota was next in 7:28:50, with Ako Takigahira 3rd in 7:42:47.

Based on their performances here, post-race the JAU named Oe, Tanaka and Inagaki to the Japanese men's team for September's IAU 100 km World Championships in Ames, Spain alongside NR holder Jumpei Yamaguchi, with Somiya named alternate. Maruichi, Ota and Takigahira join Miho Nakata on the women's team, 4th-placer Ono named alternate.

Mahiro Watanabe won the men's 50 km in 3:07:58, with Hong Kong's Virginia Lo winning the women's title by almost 33 minutes in an excellent 3:22:52.

41st Lake Saroma Ultramarathon

Hokkaido, 28 June 2026

complete results

Men's 100 km

1. Takatoshi Oe - 6:10:23

2. Masato Tanaka - 6:12:19

3. Tatsuya Inagaki - 6:16:02

4. Toru Somiya - 6:19:46

5. Hirofumi Nakamura - 6:22:04

6. Shun Masaoka - 6:38:18

7. Shinji Watanabe - 6:39:41

8. Takahiro Sakaguchi - 6:42:03

9. Takayuki Kibata - 6:43:09

10. Fumio Shimura - 6:45:58

Women

1. Akiko Maruichi - 7:22:23

2. Mikiko Ota - 7:28:50

3. Ako Takigahira - 7:42:47

4. Kaoruko Ono - 7:44:15

5. Saki Shimada - 7:50:43

6. Haruka Yamaguchi - 7:54:41

7. Yuka Tomitaka - 7:59:12

8. Kanako Tomita - 8:03:33

9. Yukari Kiyomiya - 8:08:53

10. Emi Saito - 8:25:34

Men's 50 km

1. Mahiro Watanabe - 3:07:58

2. Daichi Soda - 3:09:14

3. Yasuhiko Shibata - 3:10:33

Women's 50 km

1. Virginia Lo (Hong Kong) - 3:22:52

2. Yoshimi Kishi - 3:55:33

3. Ikuko Hasegawa - 4:02:58

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...

Keita Satoh Running New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile

1500 m U20 NR holder Keita Satoh (Nike Swoosh TC) is running this weekend's New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile , the first time that a Japanese man has been invited in the race's 45-year history. In university Sato had to change focus away from middle distance to the half marathon-scale lengths of the Hakone Ekiden stages, but since graduating in March and relocating to Flagstaff he has refocused on the 1500 m, going from 3:43.19 in April in his first 1500 m in almost 4 years to 3:38.30 over the course of 5 races. Fifth Avenue will be his last race before heading back to Japan for one more track 1500 m and some down time. Men's entries with best 1500 m times in last 3 years: Stefan Nillessen (NED) - 3:29.23 (2025) Flavien Szot (FRA) - 3:30.74 (2025) Oliver Hoare (AUS) - 3:31.07 (2024) Jake Heyward (GBR) - 3:31.18 (2026) Titouan Le Grix (FRA) - 3:31.46 (2026) Romain Mornet (FRA) - 3:31.62 (2025) Adam Spencer (AUS) - 3:31.83 (2026) Pieter Sisk (BEL) - 3:31.85 (2025) Gary Martin (...

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