ITJ: Yuya Kawasaki storms to victory in battle of stars

Yuya Kawasaki was the big winner of a star-packed Izu Trail Journey 70 km race in 5:58:09, ahead of last year’s winner Hirokazu Nishimura in 6:06:22! Previously, Kawasaki already scored two second places in ATM points races: Izu 2017 and Hakuba 2018. This is his first victory on the ATM Championship circuit and as Izu is the Japan SuperTrail he collects 550 points that he will take into 2021.

Third place today went to Saturo Suga, followed by Tatsuya Yabe and Tomonori Onitsuka. Even more than usual, this season’s Izu Trail Journey was like a Japanese national championship race. Team Uglow's Yuta Matsuyama was 16th, ahead of Kazufumi Ose, another well-known runner in our series as past winner of the 9 Dragons in Hong Kong. Ryo Murata, who won Cameron Ultra 100 in 2019, finished 21st yesterday. Hiroaki Matsunaga, third at CMU a few years ago and 9th in Izu 2017, was 26th. Tomohiro Mizukoshi decided not to start to allow a knee injury to heal properly and be 100 % fit again for the 2021 season.

The women’s race also saw stellar performances. Honoka Akiyama turned out victorious in a very fast time of 6:59:41. She was 20th overall and ahead of e.g. Ryo Murata! Second-placed Yuri Yoshizumi was not even that far behind in 7:06:32 and Chihiro Aibara third in 7:22:52. Asuka Nakajima ran a great race herself to come home in sixth place in what was really her elite trail debut race in her native country Japan. Nakajima set a finishing time of 7:57:12. Tellingly, she was ahead of Yumiko Oishi - the woman who was second behind Veronika Vadovicova last year.

Comparing times year-on-year in trail running is in many ways a meaningless exercise, and this year’s Izu course was not even exactly the same as last year’s. Most elites who ran also last season, needed roughly between 10 and 30 minutes longer this year. In that perspective, the finishing times of top females Akiyama (6:59) and Yoshizumi (7:06) are outright stunning when you know Vadovicova took the 2019 win in 7:05…

Yuya Kawasaki already scored 2nd twice in ATM races, now he got a big win (photo archive Hakuba 2018)

Asuka Nakajima ran to an excellent 6th place in her domestic trail debut (photo archive SMFT 2019)