Nationwide XC Championships and Osaka Marathon

This weekend kicks off three in a row with main races throughout Japan. First up Saturday is the Nationwide Cross Nation Championships in Fukuoka. The senior ladies’s 8 km misplaced its largest draw, 18-year-old 30:45.12 10000 m runner Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.), earlier this month when she pulled out to deal with prep for Might’s 10000 m nationwide championships. In her absence, a few of the greater names embody Nationwide Company Half Marathon winner Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (U.S.E.), 3000 m steeplechase Olympian Yuno Yamanaka (Ehime Ginko), final yr’s Fifth-placer Momoka Kawaguchi (Toyota Jidoshokki), and 31:16.48 10000 m runner Minami Yamanouchi (Raffine).

Regardless of shedding 10000 m NR holder Akira Aizawa (Asahi Kasei) and 3000 m SC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo College) to last-minute withdrawals, the senior males’s 10 km is thicker on top-level expertise, together with 1500 m, 3000 m and 5000 m highschool NR holder Keita Sato (Rakunan H.S.), triathlon Olympian Kenji Nener (NTT), 2021’s #1-ranked Japanese man Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei), sub-61 half marathoner Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima), 3:37.90 1500 m runner Masaki Toda (SG Holdings), final yr’s runner-up Hiroki Matsueda and Fujitsu teammates Kazuya Shiojiri and Yuta Bando, Hakone Ekiden heavyweights Takumi Karasawa (Komazawa Univ.), Ayumu Yamamoto (Koku Gakuin Univ.), Kosuke Ishida (Toyo Univ.), and one million extra. It is an ideal vary throughout the spectrum like XC needs to be, everybody besides the marathoners, who’ve received different issues to do.

Each senior races shall be broadcast on TBS on Saturday afternoon beginning at 15:30 Japan time. The junior races shall be streamed reside on Youtube linked above, the U20 males’s 8 km at 13:50 and the U20 ladies’s 6 km at 14:30. Sato and Fuwa received these races final yr, and each races have seen different previous winners go on to larger issues.

2021 Nationwide Excessive Faculty Ekiden women’ winner Sendai Ikuei H.S. is absent from the U20 6 km, however 2nd-placer Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. and 4th-place Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. are each well-represented, Ritsumeikan Uji with 14 names on the checklist together with high member Aiko Hosoya, 9:14.82 for 3000 m, and Osaka Kunei bringing a squad of 9 together with its core trio of Nationals Fourth Stage winner Nanoha Myokai, 9:10.50 3000 m runner Kana Mizumoto, and Marin Nishizawa, 9:14.24 for 3000 m. Different high people embody Akari Matsumoto (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.), 9:11.96, and Mariya Noda (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.), 9:14.29.

Japan has plenty of highschool boys going sub-14 for 5000 m today, and a few of the finest are entered within the U20 8 km, together with Hiroto Yoshioka (Saku Chosei H.S.), 13:38.96, Sonata Nagashima (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.), 13:46.21, and Fumiya Oshima (Senshudai Matsudo H.S.), 13:50.04, plus a squad of 23 from 2021 Nationwide Excessive Faculty Ekiden winner Sera H.S. Each U20 races can be stable faculty races in most different international locations.

Sunday is the Osaka Marathon. Osaka, previously a late-fall mass-participation race, takes over from the historic Lake Biwa Marathon this yr, however with its mass-participation area of 20,000 dropped on quick discover to depart solely a home elite area, this time round it actually is actually simply Lake Biwa transplanted again to its unique house with a couple of ladies tacked on. 2016 Gold Coast Marathon winner Misato Horie (Sysmex) and debuting Common Leisure teammates Azusa Sumi and Rui Aoyama are essentially the most noteworthy names on the ladies’s checklist.

Though it solely has three non-Japanese athletes the lads’s checklist is deep, with ten present 2:07 guys, eight on the 2:08 stage, 4 at 2:09, eight at 2:10, seven at 2:11, and a half dozen high-potential debuts. A few of them are additionally entered in different races together with Tokyo, however whereas not everybody will run it ought to nonetheless be a stable 2:07 race. Test our earlier preview for a extra detailed take a look at who’s within the males’s race.