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

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...

japan running news

Search This Blog