In its 77th version the Marugame Half Marathon had what needed to have been the very best situations in its historical past, and the deep fields made probably the most of it in each the boys’s and ladies’s races. 15 hours of heavy rain that allow up 2 hours earlier than the beginning mixed with single digits and nearly no wind to make a cool mist that hung over the realm all through the race. The boys’s race was sizzling from the beginning, 2 pacers taking it via 5 km in 14:05 and 10 km in 28:02, 59:09 tempo vs the Japanese NR of 1:00:00. That type of warmth burned off all however 6 folks, CR holder Alexander Mutiso, Emmanuel Maru, James Mutuku, Tomoki Ota, Kotaro Shinohara and Kento Baba, however Bedan Karoki and others together with a trio of college males had been solely one other few second behind.
Baba, a Rikkyo College runner with a PB of just one:02:35, was the primary to drop off, adopted by Mutuku from Yamanashi Gakuin College. Ota and Shinohara, coaching companions below Komazawa College nice Hiroaki Oyagi, misplaced contact with Mutiso and Maru after 15 km, however the hole by no means actually grew a lot, and their 56:26 break up at 20 km meant that Japan’s first, and second, sub-60 clocking was a accomplished deal. It was only a query of who received there first.
Mutiso kicked away from Maru within the final km to win in 59:16, 1 second below his personal CR from 2 years in the past and three seconds forward of Maru. In the identical race 2 years in the past Ota outkicked Shinohara by 3 seconds after they ran their PBs of 1:00:08 and 1:00:11. Shinohara went for a protracted push from 3 km out to attempt to cease that from taking place once more, however he could not shake Ota off and will solely watched as historical past repeated itself.
Ota completed third in 59:27 to turn into the primary Japanese man to interrupt the hour within the half marathon, a full 33 seconds below the previous file. Shinohara was 3 seconds again once more in 59:30, 30 seconds below the NR and breaking the collegiate file held by Richard Etir of Tokyo Kokusai College by 2 seconds. Between Hakone and the New Yr Ekiden Japanese males have run the equal of a sub-60, even sub-59, half marathon numerous instances, however lastly they introduced the identical focus to the half marathon itself. The outcomes converse for themselves. Historical past.
Ota, who was injured for lots of 2024, advised JRN post-race, “I caught the flu a bit earlier than the New Yr Ekiden, so my buildup wasn’t nice. My foremost factor was simply to not lose to Shinohara.” Shinohara, working his final race within the Komazawa college and his first as an On-sponsored athlete, stated that he had watched the Houston Half and was motivated by Conner Mantz‘s U.S. NR efficiency there. “Mantz was actually quick and aggressive,” Shinohara stated. “However he is solely run 2:07 for the marathon, so I felt like one thing like what he ran in Houston was in vary.”
In fifth was Waseda College 2nd-year Shinsaku Kudo, 2nd on Hakone’s uphill fifth stage final month, with an enormous PB of 1:00:06 simply 6 seconds off the previous NR regardless of beginning with comparatively conservative opening splits of 14:12 and 14:11. “I by no means anticipated to go that quick!” he advised JRN post-race. “I type of overdid it between 10 and 15 km with a 14:07 after I began catching folks and received excited. That burned me later and I might have been below 1 hour if I might held again. I am going to positively break Shinohara’s file earlier than I graduate, although! It is in my sights.”
Depth was unimaginable even by Japanese mega-race requirements, with the highest 24 all below 61 minutes. Andy Buchanan ran a PB 1:00:28 to make the rostrum in seventh and are available in at all-time Australian #2, with Rory Linkletter likewise hitting a PB 1:00:57 for all-time Canadian #2. Marugame this time was the collegiate males’s nationwide championship and the official choice race for this yr’s World College Video games half marathon group. Shinohara, who graduates subsequent month, gave the group a miss, however together with Kudo in 1:00:06, Rikkyo’s Baba made the lower in 1:00:26 with Ryuto Uehara from Izumo and Nationwide College Ekiden champ Koku Gakuin College choosing up the third spot in 1:00:30. That might be higher than most nations’ groups for the World Half Marathon Championships, not to mention the World College Video games.
77th Kagawa Marugame Worldwide Half Marathon
Marugame, Kagawa, 2 Feb. 2025
Males
1. Alexander Mutiso (Kenya/ND Software program) – 59:16 – CR
2. Emmanuel Maru (Kenya/Toyota Boshoku) – 59:19
3. Tomoki Ota (Toyota) – 59:27 – NR
4. Kotaro Shinohara (Komazawa Univ.) – 59:30 (NR) – Collegiate NR
5. Shinsaku Kudo (Waseda Univ.) – 1:00:06
6. Kento Baba (Rikkyo Univ.) – 1:00:26
7. Andy Buchanan (Australia) – 1:00:28
8. James Mutuku (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) – 1:00:30
9. Ryuto Uehara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) – 1:00:30
10. Yudai Kiyama (Komazawa Univ.) – 1:00:32
11. Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) – 1:00:34
12. Hafte Strintzos (Australia) – 1:00:36
13. Ledama Kisaisa (Kenya/Kao) – 1:00:36
14. Bedan Karoki (Kenya/Toyota) – 1:00:40
15. Yuta Yoshinaka (Chuo Univ.) – 1:00:45
16. Hiro Konda (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) – 1:00:45
17. Rui Aoki (Koku Gakuin Univ.) – 1:00:47
18. Hikaru Tsujihara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) – 1:00:51
19. Hiromichi Nonaka (Koku Gakuin Univ.) – 1:00:54
20. Teruki Shimada (Teikyo Univ.) – 1:00:56
21. Ryota Tominaga (Nittai Univ.) – 1:00:56
22. Haru Taninaka (Komazawa Univ.) – 1:00:57
23. Rory Linkletter (Canada) – 1:00:57
24. Shoya Yonei (JR Higashi Nihon) – 1:00:59
25. Ryuto Hirashima (Nittai Univ.) – 1:01:02
Girls
1. Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (Kenya/Uniqlo) – 1:06:05 – CR
2. Calli Hauger-Thacker (Nice Britain) – 1:06:58 (CR)
3. Isobel Batt-Doyle (Australia) – 1:07:17 (CR) – NR
4. Pauline Kaveke Kamulu (Kenya/Route Inn Inns) – 1:07:33
5. Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu) – 1:07:53
6. Dominique Scott (South Africa) – 1:08:22
7. Kaede Kawamura (Iwatani Sangyo) – 1:08:58
8. Rie Kawauchi (Otsuka Seiyaku) – 1:11:17
9. Io Akashi (18 Ginko) – 1:12:27
10. Wakana Hashimoto (Niigata Meikun H.S.) – 1:13:30
11. Azusa Mihara (Route Inn Inns) – 1:14:23
12. Hinako Kiyosaki (Common Leisure) – 1:15:43
13. Azumi Niwa (Ehime Ginko) – 1:16:55
14. Remi Nishina (Josai Kokusai Univ.) – 1:19:04
15. Daeun Jeong (South Korea) – 1:20:29
textual content and photographs © 2025 Brett Larner, all rights reserved
