Skip to main content

National University Half Marathon Championships Entry List

by Brett Larner

The Inter-University Athletic Union of Japan has released the entry lists for Sunday's National University Half Marathon Championships in western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park. With the rapidly increasing level of Japanese university men's distance running the once-minor half marathon championships have taken on increasing importance, three of the last four years seeing winning times under 63 minutes and 2012's race setting world records for depth with 193 men under 66 minutes.  1389 men are entered for this year's race, and with a consistent pattern of large numbers running aggressive paces throughout the season since Tokyo secured the 2020 Olympics this year's race could be the fastest and deepest yet.

On Feb. 2 Hiroto Inoue (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) ran the fastest half marathon ever by a Japanese 21-year-old, 1:01:39, and with that time he heads the entry list.  Inoue is on the Japanese national team for the Mar. 29 World Half Marathon Championships, so while it is possible he may double the chances of him starting are probably less than even.  2012 national champion and last year's runner up Toshikatsu Ebina (Teikyo Univ.) returns for the last race of his university career, one of the few top-level seniors in the field.  2014 Hakone Ekiden stage winners Koki Takada (Waseda Univ.) and Hideto Yamanaka (Nittai Univ.) are also top contenders, Yamanaka in particular as he won Hakone's 21.4 km First Stage in 1:01:25, equivalent to a 1:00:33 half marathon.  Whether he can follow up on a performance like that will be one of this year's main draws.

Other contenders include sub-1:02:30 men Shuhei Yamamoto (Waseda Univ.) and Shuho Dairokuno (Meiji Univ.).  Of special note is Kota Murayama (Josai Univ.), the top Japanese man at October's Yosenkai 20 km in 59:17 and the identical twin brother of World Half team leader Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.).  Kenta ran the all-time third-fastest Japanese mark and best-ever by a Japanese 20-year-old, 1:00:50, in Marugame last month. Kota's coach at Josai, Seiji Kushibe, the one-hour run national record holder, puts a heavier emphasis on speed work than Komazawa head coach Hiroaki Oyagi whose training focuses more on stamina, and it shows.  Kota's 5000 m best of 13:41.60 is over five seconds faster than Kenta's, but in his one half marathon to date Kota has only run 1:07:51. His Yosenkai performance showed potential for him to go comfortably sub-63, but whether he can approach his brother's level is another question.

17th National University Half Marathon Championships 
Entry List Highlights
Tachikawa, Tokyo, 3/2/14
click here for complete entry list

Hiroto Inoue (3rd yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 1:01:39
Shuhei Yamamoto (3rd yr., Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:14
Shuho Dairokuno (3rd yr., Meiji Univ.) - 1:02:19
Toshikatsu Ebina (4th yr., Teikyo Univ.) - 1:02:23
Koki Takada (2nd yr., Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:38
Yuta Katsumata (2nd yr., Nittai Univ.) - 1:02:39
Yusuke Nishiyama (1st yr., Komazawa Univ.) - 1:02:43
Yuki Matsumura (3rd yr., Juntendo Univ.) - 1:02:44
Takayuki Maeno (3rd yr., Meiji Univ.) - 1:02:45
Daiki Taguchi (3rd yr., Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:53
Shinichiro Tai (4th yr., Hosei Univ.) - 1:02:54
Shogo Sekiguchi (3rd yr., Hosei Univ.) - 1:02:57
Shota Miyagami (2nd yr., Tokai Univ.) - 1:02:58
Takuma Sano (3rd yr., Hosei Univ.) - 1:02:58
Koki Ido (1st yr., Waseda Univ.) - 1:02:59
Kota Murayama (3rd yr., Josai Univ.) - 59:17 (20 km)
Shuhei Yamaguchi (2nd yr., Soka Univ.) - 59:54 (20 km)
Hideto Yamanaka (2nd yr., Nittai Univ.) - 1:00:37 (20 km)

(c) 2014 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Metts said…
The Japanese running scene seems like a breath of fresh air and or pure running compared to what happened last weekend in the US. Except for the occasional coaching mishaps in Japan, running at its purest in Japan. Most of the time.
Brett Larner said…
Nobody's perfect, but no argument here.

Most-Read This Week

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr