Top 7 Break NR at Ginza Road Mile

The mile isn't really a thing in Japan, especially on the roads, but it's starting to change a little bit. At Nike's new Ginza Mile road race, even in the middle of heavy rain the top 7 in the men's race all broke the national record of 4:00.02 set in March by Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.). Soma Nagahara (Juntendo Univ.) was first across the line to become the official new NR holder in 3:57.0, just beating Shunsuke Kuwata (Komazawa Univ.) by 0.3 in Kuwata's best race since the NYC Half in March. Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) and Yuto Miyake (Chuo Univ.) were right behind in 3:57.9 and 3:58.1, and while there doesn't seem to be an official Taiwanese road mile NR it's pretty much a given that the 3:58.9 by Chien Tzu-Chieh (Chuo Univ.) for 5th was Taiwan's best-ever.

Women's NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) easily won in 4:33.8, almost 2 seconds off her NR from 2023, with Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) 2nd in 4:36.87 and Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) 3rd in 4:38.7.

Nike Ginza Mile

Ginza, Tokyo, 20 June 2026

complete results

Elite Men

1. Soma Nagahara (Juntendo Univ.) - 3:57.0 - NR

2. Shunsuke Kuwata (Komazawa Univ.) - 3:57.3 (NR)

3. Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) - 3:57.9 (NR)

4. Yuto Miyake (Chuo Univ.) - 3:58.1 (NR)

5. Chien Tzu-Chieh (Taiwan/Chuo Univ.) - 3:58.9 - NR

6. Hiroto Yoshioka (Juntendo Univ.) - 3:59.2 (NR)

7. Nayabu Naoki Yoshikura (Waseda Univ.) - 3:59.6 (NR)

8. Juda Hyodo (Tokai Univ.) - 4:00.6

9. Koki Terada (Chuo Univ.) - 4:03.0

10. Ryo Higuchi (Univ. of Kansas) - 4:03.1

Women

1. Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:33.8

2. Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) - 4:36.8

3. Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:38.7

4. Yuina Nagamori (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 4:41.3

5. Yuzu Nishide (Daihatsu) - 4:43.0

6. Anna Svrcek (Ushiku H.S.) - 4:43.4

7. Shiho Kurokawa (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 4:45.9

8. Nonoha Takahashi (Azuma Tachibana J.H.S.) - 4:46.7

9. Mei Hokiyama (Athtrack AC) - 4:48.8

10. An Sakata (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) - 4:50.0

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."...

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 .

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...

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