Hoshi Breaks Debut NR to Win Osaka Marathon in 2:07:31

In the reduction of from being part of the return to mass-participation racing with lower than two weeks to go, the Osaka Marathon celebrated its tenth version with the home elite-only discipline it picked up from the defunct Lake Biwa Marathon with the addition of two dozen feminine entrants. 2016 Gold Coast Marathon winner Misato Horie (Sysmex) scored one other win within the girls’s race, operating her finest time since 2019, 2:32:10, to outrun debuting duo Nami Aoki (Iwatani Sangyo) and Rui Aoyama (Univ. Ent.) by over 4 minutes for the highest spot on the brand new Osaka course.

First-timers additionally performed a serious position within the males’s race, taking 3 of the highest 8 locations. The pacing group held issues comparatively regular round low-to-mid 2:07 territory by means of a number of 180˚ turns and robust winds from the west till simply earlier than their departure at 30 km. On the primary fundamental climb close to 30 km the debuting Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), CR breaker on the Hakone Ekiden’s legendary uphill Fifth Stage, and Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei), one other Fifth Stage runner, went forward of the pacers to push them to remain on observe.

Murayama was briefly forward of the lead pack, however the first actual transfer got here when Ichitaka Yamashita (Mitsubishi Juko), 2:08:10 within the Miracle at Lake Biwa final 12 months, led the lead group again into contact round 31 km. After operating Murayama down Yamashita pushed the hilly part from 30 to 35 km to shake issues right down to a core of six with Urano, Murayama, the debuting Gaku Hoshi (Konica Minolta), Fumihiro Maruyama (Asahi Kasei) and Masaru Aoki (Kanebo).

By 35 km it was down to only him, Urano and Hoshi, Yamashita and Urano chatting to one another whereas Hoshi making an attempt to only dangle on. However with 5 km to go Hoshi checked his watch after which took off, shortly opening a lead and holding all of it the way in which to the top. He crossed the end line in 2:07:31, a brand new occasion document and a brand new debut marathon NR by 11 seconds. Yamashita dropped Urano for 2nd, clearing 2:08 for the primary time in 2:07:42, with Urano not far off the previous debut NR in Third in 2:07:52.

Again from a very long time off with damage, Maruyama closed exhausting however could not fairly catch Urano, taking 4th in 2:07:55, like Yamashita his first time below 2:08. However the hardest-closing man within the race was 37-year-old Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku). Down 20 seconds at 35 km, Okamoto break up 6:42 from 40 km to the end to maneuver as much as fifth with a PB of two:08:04. The final man he ran down was one other 37-year-old, the legend who launched the Hakone Ekiden’s trendy period of recognition, authentic God of the Mountain Masato Imai (Toyota Kyushu), who was sixth in 2:08:12, his first time sub-2:10 since 2015.

The highest six all met the factors for auto-qualification for the 2024 Olympic trials marathon, and the prospect of seeing previous guys Okamoto and Imai within the ring for the battle for Paris was certainly sufficient to carry a number of followers throughout the nation to tears. “I want he’d held on to fifth, however he acquired it performed,” Imai’s coach, Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita, informed JRN as Imai crossed the road, making an attempt to suppress a smile.

【#JMCシリーズ #大阪びわ湖マラソン】
ともに #MGCファイナリスト となった、5位フィニッシュの #岡本直己 選手（中国電力）と 6位 #今井正人 選手（トヨタ自動車九州）。ベテラン同士が、健闘を称えあいました。

✅https://t.co/uS5WwljNTA#MGCチャレンジ #マラソン pic.twitter.com/QP4Wl7ypLC

— ジャパンマラソンチャンピオンシップシリーズ（JMCシリーズ） (@jmc_series) February 27, 2022

The following 4 runners all cleared 2:09, with Seventh-placer Kenji Yamamoto (Mazda) narrowly PBing in 2:08:38 and Eighth-place Rintaro Takeda (Yakult) debuting in 2:08:48. 4 extra have been below 2:10, with fifteenth by means of nineteenth all clearing 2:11. The final man to clear 2:11, Yuki Takei (Asia Univ.), nineteenth in 2:10:57, will get a particular point out for closing exhausting in his debut whereas nonetheless in school, 2 minutes down on 18th-placer Daisuke Doi (Kurosaki Harima) at 30 km however selecting up his tempo progressively from there to the top and ending simply 1 second behind Doi. Regardless of the winds and the 180˚ turnaround-heavy new course, it was an enormous day for quick occasions right down to the depths.

Not everybody had an enormous day, although. Former NR holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) dropped off close to midway once more as in Fukuoka in December, however whereas he was a DNF there he gutted out a 2:13:19 for thirty first this time. Fukuoka Third-placer James Rungaru (Chuo Hatsujo) did the identical, thirty second in 2:13:45. Murayama light light badly after 35 km, in the end ending forty eighth in 2:17:51, telling JRN post-race that he’d suffered a pulled muscle in one among his calves after making an attempt to answer Yamashita’s transfer.