We're at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii where JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin is making her debut here as an athlete after having come to Kona for years as a journalist. Next to Kona the most eyes worldwide will be on the Chicago Marathon, where a solid Japanese contingent is lining up including men's marathon NR holder Suguru Osako and half marathon NR holder Tomoki Ota, Kiyoshi Koga, and the other power couple in Japanese marathoning, last year's Berlin Marathon runner-up Akira Akasaki and Paris Olympics 6th-placer Yuka Akasaki. Osako's manager told JRN that he is going for the Asian Record of 2:04:43 held by Moroccan-born Bahraini El-Hassan El-Abbassi who was served up a 4-year suspension not long after setting the record. Last year's Warsaw Marathon winner Ryoma Takeuchi is at the Perth Running Festival marathon in Australia where he hopes to add a CR win to his PB at July's Gold Coast Marathon.
At the next tier are Nihon University, Waseda University, Teikyo University, Josai University and Komazawa University. Nihon is another team making the cut again after being absent last year. Last year's runner-up Waseda University is way better than its #8 ranking, that mostly being a product of its 1st-year-heavy lineup being short on 10,000 m credentials. With 3 runners under 13:21 for 5000 m and the best incoming class in the field it should be a factor for at least top 3 again.
On the home front Keita Satoh is adding one more for the road at the end of city, making a surprise guest appearance in TBS' Akasaka 5-Chome Mini-Marathon segment of the All-Star Kanshasai variety show racing celebrities, comedians and models with a handicap start. But the more serious race of the weekend is Monday's Izumo Ekiden, the start of the university men's ekiden season that peaks with the massively popular Hakone Ekiden in January.
The top 10 teams at Hakone every year get invited to run Izumo, where they face top teams from other parts of the country, a couple of regional select teams, and the Ivy League Select Team. The top 11 pretty much goes to the 10 Hakone schools from the Kanto Region and the Ivies, with Koku Gakuin University taking the overall win last year, the Ivies finishing their best-ever 4th, and 11th-place Tokyo Kokusai University beating top-ranked non-Kanto school Kansai University by over a minute and a half for the 6-stage, 45.1 km race.
Last years's pre-race rankings had Chuo University ranked #1, the Ivy League #2, perpetual Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University 3rd, Koku Gakuin 4th, and Soka University 5th. They come to the 2026 race with exactly the same rankings, except all of the faster. Chuo's lineup is the best that has ever run Izumo from any school, but the same was true last year and all it could manage was 10th. The Ivy League returns core members Graham Blanks, Acer Iverson and Tyler Berg and should be in it for top 3.
Aoyama Gakuin has a bigger edge over Koku Gakuin then last time, 5 seconds per runner vs. 1 second last time, but AGU only managed 7th then while KGU came through for the win. AGU head coach Hara puts everything into Hakone, so expect KGU to have the advantage. Soka was 3rd last year off the same #5 ranking it has this time, so look for it to be in the race for top 3 again. Juntendo University didn't make Izumo last time but is ranked #6 this year not far behind Soka on paper. But like Chuo, it's one of those programs that tends to underperform in ekidens.
At the next tier are Nihon University, Waseda University, Teikyo University, Josai University and Komazawa University. Nihon is another team making the cut again after being absent last year. Last year's runner-up Waseda University is way better than its #8 ranking, that mostly being a product of its 1st-year-heavy lineup being short on 10,000 m credentials. With 3 runners under 13:21 for 5000 m and the best incoming class in the field it should be a factor for at least top 3 again.
Teikyo and Josai are solid mid-pack teams that should be near the top of the bottom half of the top 10 both up slightly from last year despite some key graduations from last year's lineups. Komazawa has the heaviest negative momentum this time around, dropping from a #6 ranking and 5th-place finish last year to a dismal #11 ranking. Komazawa is one of 3 schools along with Soka and Waseda to have 4 1st-years on its 10-runner entry list, although it's the weakest recruiting class of the 3, so it'll be interesting to see what head coach Atsushi Fujita can pull off despite the shackles of former head coach Hiroaki Oyagi refusing to step out of the spotlight and let Fujita do his thing.
Like we said earlier Kansai University is the top-ranked non-Kanto domestic school in the field, ranked and placing 12th last year and ranked 12th again this year. It's more likely that it'll be racing some of the other top-tier non-Kanto teams like Sapporo Gakuin University and Kogakkan University than dueling with any of the Hakone stars, but every now and then it does happen. Sometimes.
© 2026 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
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