The Nationwide Monitor and Subject Championships in Niigata have been the principle occasion this weekend, however up north the place it is cooler there have been three vital highway races.
Chuo College gained the 7-stage, 66.2 km college males’s race at Saturday’s 71st Oga Ekiden in Akita. Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin College led on the primary two levels, however on the 7.5 km Third Stage Chuo’s Rei Yamahira took excessive spot and by no means let go. Chuo gained in 3:22:42, with Aoyama Gakuin finally a minute and a half again in 3:24:12. Tokyo Kokusai College was an in depth third in 3:24:53.
Working the identical distance, the Shingenden company workforce was the highest placer within the open division in 3:31:06, properly again from 4th-place college workforce Toyo College. Omuta H.S. gained the 7-stage, 49.5 km highschool boys’ division in 2:30:10, with Sendai Ikuei H.S. taking the highest 2 spots within the 5-stage, 21.3 km highschool women’ race, its A-team profitable in 1:08:56. Full outcomes right here.
On the Hakodate Half Marathon and Marathon Sunday in Hokkaido, Hibiki Yoshida of Soka College set a course document 1:01:45 to win the lads’s half marathon, the one individual to go beneath 63 minutes. 2:06 marathoner Hiroto Inoue was subsequent in 1:03:00 only one second forward of 2017 World College Video games half marathon gold medalist Kei Katanishi, and in 4th got here 2:05 marathoner Ichitaka Yamashita. Olympic workforce alternate Ai Hosoda gained the ladies’s race in 1:09:31, 2:23 marathoner Mao Kiyota was 2nd in 1:12:50 and, Shiori Yoshizono and Reia Iwade have been 3-4 in 1:13:04 and 1:13:15, each ending simply forward of Yuki Kawauchi who was 84th amongst males in 1:13:37.
Japan-resident Kenyan Benjamin Ngandu gained the marathon division in Hakodate in 2:17:36, the one runner to clear 2:20. The ladies’s race went to high-volume beginner Tomomi Sawahata, 1st by virtually quarter-hour in 2:42:27. Full outcomes for each races right here.
Additionally in Hokkaido Sunday, after setting a nationwide document of 6:06:08 on the Lake Saroma 100 km Ultramarathon, Jumpei Yamaguchi was again to win once more win 6:10:04. Final 12 months Yamaguchi went by way of the marathon in 2:31:39 and slipped off sub-6 hour tempo simply earlier than 60 km, which he hit in 3:37:09. This time he was much more aggressive, going by way of the marathon in 2:26:21, 50 km in 2:54:46 and 60 km in 3:32:15, properly on monitor for sub-6. At 70 km he was on tempo for six:00:17, nonetheless over 5 minutes beneath world document tempo, however a 41:55 break up from 70 to 80 km price him the document. At all times sturdy within the last levels, Yamaguchi rallied with a 38:34 from 80 to 90 km and a 37:23 from there to the end, however the document was out of attain for one more 12 months.
Tomoya Watanabe was with Yamaguchi by way of midway earlier than backing off to carry regular at round 4:00/km the remainder of the best way, taking 2nd in 6:14:57. World champion Haruki Okayama began slower, 2:27:54 on the marathon and a couple of:56:41 at 50 km, much less regular than Watanabe over the second half however taking third in 6:16:32.
Within the girls’s race, final 12 months’s runner-up Mai Fujisawa took it out laborious, 3:11 forward of final 12 months’s winner Mikiko Ota at midway in 3:41:20 and over 6 minutes up simply 10 km later. However from there Ota began to shut, and proper earlier than 80 km she handed Fujisawa for the lead, occurring to win in 7:45:12. 24-hour world document breaker Miho Nakata, 4th at Lake Saroma final 12 months, began much more conservatively, 4:11:45 at midway, however held her tempo higher than both Ota or Fujisawa, clocking the quickest splits at each 10 km checkpoint from 60 km to the top. 8 minutes again from Fujisawa with 10 km to go, Nakata ran her down for 2nd in 7:54:39, Fujisawa staggering in 4 minutes later in 7:58:48 for third.
Ryu Arai took the lads’s 50 km in 3:20:58 and Hina Shiozaki the ladies’s 50 km in 4:09:59, but it surely was an indication of the distinction within the degree of the 2 distances at Lake Saroma that each have been far behind the 50 km splits of the highest folks within the 100 km. Full outcomes right here.
