In parallel with the Osaka Worldwide Ladies’s Marathon, Sunday’s Osaka Half Marathon had some large names come out on prime in each the ladies’s and males’s races. Final yr Yuka Ando outran Ethiopian Desta Burka by 2 seconds to set a CR of 1:08:18. Operating with a private male pacers this time Ando went out to higher that, on observe for 1:08:00 at 5 km and dipping into sub-68 territory over the subsequent 5 km. However after that she began to fade, and particularly from 20 km to the end at the very least a half dozen different ladies break up quicker. Nonetheless, she was far sufficient out entrance to take the win in 1:08:57, with company leaguers Sakiho Tsutsui and Mizuki Nishimura taking 2nd and third in 1:09:29 and 1:09:49.
Osaka additionally served because the Kansai Area collegiate half marathon championships, and the winner of this season’s Morinomiyako Ekiden and Mt. Fuji Ladies’s Ekiden, Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan College, got here out robust. The again half of its Mt. Fuji nationwide title-winning lineup took 4th by way of sixth, with uphill anchor stage winner Kokoro Nakachi setting a Kansai Area file of 1:09:58 for 4th, Sixth Stage CR breaker Fuka Fukunaga subsequent in 1:10:17, and Fifth Stage runner Makoto Tsuchiya making up for a subpar efficiency at Mt. Fuji with a 1:10:44 for sixth.
The lads’s race had a shock from enigmatic former half marathon and marathon NR breaker Yuta Shitara. Sitting within the large lead pack by way of 10 km in 29:15, Shitara took off simply earlier than 15 km. Taishi Yamada was the one one to attempt to go together with him, however by 20 km Shitara was on their own 15 seconds out entrance and Yamada had been reabsorbed by the pack. An 11-way dash end on the observe introduced its entrance finish inside 3 seconds of Shitara, however he held on to take the win in 1:01:47 over Kosei Machida, 2nd in 1:01:50, and Ryuto Urushibata, third in 1:01:51. The highest 12 all made it below 1:02.
His quickest half marathon since 2020, Shitara’s time precisely tied what he ran as a 20-year-old on the 2012 NYC Half the place he outkicked American nice Dathan Ritzenhein to attain what at that time the fastest-ever half marathon by a Japanese man on U.S. soil. It was nonetheless far off his greatest, however with Shitara entered in March’s Tokyo Marathon it was sufficient to get followers excited concerning the prospect of seeing him pull it again collectively in time for the Tokyo World Championships.
18th Osaka Half Marathon
Osaka, 26 Jan. 2025
Ladies
1. Yuka Ando (Shimamura) – 1:08:57
2. Sakiho Tsutsui (Common Leisure) – 1:09:29
3. Mizuki Nishimura (Tenmaya) – 1:09:49
4. Kokoro Nakachi (Ritsumeikan Univ.) – 1:09:58
5. Fuka Fukunaga (Ritsumeikan Univ.) – 1:10:17
6. Makoto Tsuchiya (Ritsumeikan Univ.) – 1:10:44
7. Nana Matsumoto (Daiichi Seimei) – 1:10:52
8. Tara Palm (Australia) – 1:10:55
9. Mizuki Kakiuchi (Daiso) – 1:10:56
10. Ayaka Maeda (Kansai Univ.) – 1:11:03
11. Mio Kuroda (Kyocera) – 1:11:14
12. Erina Yasui (Iwatani Sangyo) – 1:11:17
13. Miu Yagi (Iwatani Sangyo) – 1:11:30
14. Kyungsun Choi (South Korea) – 1:11:30
15. Yumeno Yamazaki (Common Leisure) – 1:12:02
16. Koto Hiramura (Daiso) – 1:12:33
17. Yume Miyake (Takushoku Univ.) – 1:12:49
18. Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh (Mongolia) – 1:13:08
19. Anna Suzuki (Shimamura) – 1:13:09
20. Ayana Yamashita (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) – 1:13:22
21. Ami Furunishi (Meiji Kokusai Iryo Univ.) – 1:13:47
22. Chisato Kagaya (Tokyo Metro) – 1:13:52
23. Ayu Inden (Takushoku Univ.) – 1:14:03
24. Ayami Hirano (North) – 1:14:19
25. Misaki Matsumoto (Chukyo Gakuin Univ.) – 1:14:21
Males
1. Yuta Shitara (Nishitetsu) – 1:01:47
2. Kosei Machida (Chuo Hatsujo) – 1:01:50
3. Ryuto Urushibara (Yasukawa Denki) – 1:01:51
4. Hiroto Fujimagari (Toyota Kyushu) – 1:01:52
5. Kazuki Moriya (Mitsubishi Juko) – 1:01:53
6. Yuma Nozawa (Soka Univ.) – 1:01:54
7. Akihiro Kaneko (Comodi Iida) – 1:0:1:54
8. Masanori Sumida (Aichi Seiko) – 1:01:55
9. Kento Kikutani (Toyota Boshoku) – 1:01:57
10. Yuki Osaka (Osaka Police) – 1:01:57
11. Taishi Yamada (Aichi Seiko) – 1:01:57
12. Naoki Tomita (Chuo Hatsujo) – 1:01:59
13. Torazo Kai (Suzuki) – 1:02:07
14. Sota Ueda (Sumitomo Denko) – 1:02:07
15. Go Kiriyama (Suzuki) – 1:02:07
16. Daisuke Higuchi (Chuo Hatsujo) – 1:02:08
17. Ryota Omori (JFE Metal) – 1:02:15
18. Sho Fukuda (Teikyo Univ.) – 1:02:22
19. Keita Sakamoto (Aichi Seiko) – 1:02:28
20. Hitoshi Okahara (Chudenko) – 1:02:39
21. Takuya Kumashiro (Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) – 1:02:40
22. Kosei Matsunami (Kurosaki Harima) – 1:02:49
23. Takaki Iwamuro (Togami Denki) – 1:02:52
24. Riku Makita (Kao) – 1:02:53
25. Genki Nakanishi (Aisan Kogyo) – 1:02:57
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DNF – Mizuki Higashi (Aisan Kogyo)
