Further evidence that Japan's 20-25 year old runners are running road races while ours are running 12:50-13:30 5,000m races? The US had more top 10 finishers at the olympics than japan, so they can have their 63 minute half marathon runners.
This is just further proof that they have a ton of decently fast runners, but they aren't sniffing the medals. USA won medals in the 10,000m, 5,000m, steeple, 1500 and had two top 10's in the marathon. That's a way better showing at the olympics than Japan.
That's extremely impressive but you gotta wonder what's the point of busting your ass to get into 1:04:40 shape just to place 100th in a random, non-championship race? The Japanese mentality must be entirely different.
That's extremely impressive but you gotta wonder what's the point of busting your ass to get into 1:04:40 shape just to place 100th in a random, non-championship race? The Japanese mentality must be entirely different.
That's extremely impressive but you gotta wonder what's the point of busting your ass to get into 1:04:40 shape just to place 100th in a random, non-championship race? The Japanese mentality must be entirely different.
I believe most in this race up front are university students. 21 or the top 25 are students. Most of the top guys run for a Hakone Ekiden-bound school. The winner - Kazura Munakata - runs for Daito Bunka University, a good program but with no realistic chance of winning Hakone in January. They're probably aiming to secure top 10 and an automatic invitation for 2026