Izu: Ogasawara holds off Nishimura in fast, tight race!

Koken Ogasawara and Xiang Fuzhao won another spectacular edition of Izu Trail Journey in Japan on Sunday, a classic points race of 70km in our Asia Trail Master Championship series. For both global elites it was their first win in an ATM-promoted race, but obviously not their first overall. Both runners did have to work for their victories. Izu Trail always brings together many competitive athletes, and not being 100% fit means you drop a few places in the race result. Hisashi Kitamura, not yet fully recovered from his 2:29 road marathon PB two weeks ago, this year was only able to finish 12th - in itself still a very decent result in Izu, though.

Hokkaido’s Koken Ogasawara was on call from the beginning of the race, which as usual started by the sea in Matsuzaki just before sunrise. The temperature was not that cold as such this time, but the strong gale wind had a serious chill factor, which visibly bothered several competitors already before the start - such as Kitamura. Already second in Izu in 2022 and keen to win, Ogasawara. joined three other quick starters Hiroki Kai, Tatsuya Itagaki and Kento Tamura. This quartet arrived at the first checkpoint with a small advantage over the other two dozen (!) victory contenders. While Itagaki stumbled and hit his head, Hiroki Kai and Koken Ogasawara pressed ahead and opened up a gap running towards the famous Nishina Pass, arguably the scenic highlight of the race at km 40, with astonishing views of the bay and Mount Fuji. Kai was first on top, but Ogasawara was close and actually left the aid station at km 42 in first place. Two-time Izu race winner Hirokazu Nishimura was third four minutes behind. The route goes up and down the hills along the bay with the wind blowing strongly. At CP3, km 52, Ogasawara only had a good 30 seconds advantage left over the chasing Nishimura. The young and popular Hiroki Kai had lost contact and was breathing heavily, yet remained vigilant in third place. It looked like Nishimura was going to take his record-breaking third victory in Izu, and Ogasawara would have to settle again for second. However, the young runner who burst onto the trail scene after covid , proved his resilience while under pressure and held off Nishimura! Almost sprinting into the finish at Shunzeji Spa Town, he won with a good minute bonus on Nishimura in 6h00’56”. It was a fantastic dual and both gave each other a lot of respect after the finish. They both were over fifteen minutes faster than Nishimura’s winning time last year. Hiroki Kai was equally impressive in holding onto third place, just six minutes begind Ogasawara. Hajime Kasagi and Yuya Kawasaki - winner in 2020 and running with a rib injury - rounded up the top five. First non-Japanese finisher was Australia’s Billy Curtis. The young and rising talent from Queensland made a successful debut on the ultra distance. Previously he had been focusing exclusively on 50k and shorter distances. Curtis scored tenth - ahead of Kitamura. Yuta Matsuyama, recent winner of Luang Prabang Trail in Laos, finished just outside the top 20, which was according to previous results in Izu. His best was 13th a few years ago.

For a long time in the women’s race, 2022 winner Honoka Akayima looked like she was going to pull off an upset victory against China’s Xiang Fuzhao - one of the best performing female athletes in the world this year, even beating Hau Ha in a race in Korea six weeks ago. Xiang Fuzhao only passed the first checkpoints in fourth place and was 12 minutes behind Akayima after the Nishina Pass. Local event staff indicated that she was a very late addition to the start list, upon her own wish to still come and run while accompanying her friends who had already signed up for the race. In the end, a competitor will always remain a competitor and when she closed the gap to just four minutes by checkpoint 3 at km 52, everyone knew she was trying to catch Akayima. And she did. Xiang Fuzhao won in 7h25 and still looked comfortable. Akayima concluded in second, and a delighted Natsuki Tomii ran to third place.