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Weekend Race Results

by Brett Larner

Apart from the Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet and Sunday's epochal Tokyo Marathon, three other significant races took place in Japan on Feb. 27.

Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) took the Kumanichi 30 km road race, winning in 1:32:14 by 18 seconds over Komazawa University's Akinori Iida. No women competed in this year's running.

At the 60th running of the venerable Kashima Yutoku Road Race, Hiroaki Koike (Toyo Univ.) won the men's half marathon in a modest 1:05:04, the only runner to break 66.

Korean university runner Seung Ho Baek beat Toyo University's Koshi Watanabe by 1 second to win the Inuyama Half Marathon in 1:03:47, while Mao Kuroda lead a near-sweep by Team Yutaka Giken runners in the women's division in a strong 1:12:21. Six women went under 35 minutes and six men under 30 in Inuyama's 10 km.

Kumanichi 30 km
Kumamoto, 2/27/11
1. Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) - 1:32:14
2. Akinori Iida (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:32:32
3. Shota Yamaguchi (Team Fujitsu) - 1:32:46
4. Go Nakagawa (Team NTT Nishi Nihon) - 1:33:04
5. Takahiro Aso (Team Aisan Kogyo) - 1:33:29

Kashima Yutoku Road Race
Saga, 2/27/11
Men's Half Marathon: Hiroaki Koike (Toyo Univ.) - 1:05:04
Women's Half Marathon: Kyoko Katafuchi (Tsuruta Clinic) - 1:22:22
Men's 10 km: Akira Iwasaki (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) - 30:22
Women's 10 km: Yuka Ezaki (Team Kyudenko) - 37:08

Yomiuri Inuyama Half Marathon
Inuyama, 2/27/11
Men's Half Marathon
1. Seung Ho Baek (Korea) - 1:03:47
2. Koshi Watanabe (Toyo Univ.) - 1:03:48
3. Taichi Takase (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:03:51
4. Myong Seung Lee (Korea) - 1:03:56
5. Junya Kanda (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:04:01

Women's Half Marathon
1. Mao Kuroda (Team Yutaka Giken) - 1:12:21
2. Nami Kakitsu (Nagoya Univ.) - 1:13:29
3. Akiko Matsunaga (Team Yutaka Giken) - 1:14:49

Men's 10 km
1. Tomoya Shirayanagi (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 29:39
2. Shuichi Nishio (Team Toyota Boshoku) - 29:41
3. Daichi Jinno (Chukyo Prep H.S.) - 29:42

Women's 10 km
1. Mai Tanabe (Team Aichi Denki) - 34:13
2. Mao Kiyota (Chukyo Prep H.S.) - 34:19
3. Manami Takeuchi (Team Aichi Denki) - 34:28

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
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