Running News Daily

For Mariko Yugeta, breaking three hours in the marathon was never simply a time goal. It was a dream that survived more than four decades of life’s responsibilities, setbacks and changing priorities before finally becoming reality.

Yugeta first stepped into marathon racing in 1982 at the age of 24, completing her debut in an impressive 3:09:21. At the time, she could hardly have imagined that her pursuit of the elusive three-hour barrier would stretch across generations.

Life soon took her in a different direction. Yugeta became a high school physical education teacher and devoted much of her time to raising her four children, leaving serious marathon training behind. The demands of family and work meant that the dream had to wait, but it never disappeared.

In her 50s, Yugeta returned to dedicated marathon training, reigniting a goal she had carried with her for decades. Her comeback eventually produced the breakthrough she had been chasing since her twenties, as she became a sub-three-hour marathoner at the age of 58.

But Yugeta was far from finished.

At 67, she produced perhaps the most remarkable chapter of her extraordinary running journey at the Kobe Marathon. She crossed the finish line in 2:58:59, with a net time of 2:59:02, becoming the first woman aged over 65 to complete a marathon in under three hours.

The performance was remarkable not only because of the time on the clock, but because of the journey behind it. More than 40 years separated her first marathon from this historic achievement, demonstrating an extraordinary level of patience, consistency and determination.

Even in her late 60s, Yugeta continues to train at a level that would challenge many much younger runners. She reportedly covers around 100 kilometres each week and remains active in masters marathon competition, continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible with age.

Her story is a powerful reminder that athletic dreams do not always have to follow a conventional timeline. Some ambitions are achieved quickly, while others require years of persistence and the willingness to begin again after life forces you to step away.

For Yugeta, the finish line simply took longer to reach.

Forty-three years after running her first marathon, she finally turned a lifelong ambition into a piece of running history — proving that sometimes the most extraordinary victories are the ones that take the longest to arrive.

The Osaka Marathon, held February 22, 2026, in Osaka, Japan, produced one of the most significant American marathon performances of the year. While the race featured a deep international field and fast times at the front, the biggest story for U.S. distance running came from former BYU athlete Ethan Shuley.

Shuley ran 2:07:14, a performance that now ranks as the seventh-fastest marathon ever by an American on a record-eligible course 

Just two years ago, Shuley’s personal best stood at 2:20:53, making his rise particularly striking. During the 2025 season he began to show major progress, running 2:18:13 for fifth place at the Nagano Marathon in April before finishing second at the Kobe Marathon in November with 2:11:30. In Osaka he took another massive step forward, slicing more than four minutes off that mark.

Shuley’s path to elite running is far from traditional. The American is currently based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where he studies film while continuing to train and compete. He shares much of his training and life in Japan on his YouTube channel, offering a rare look into the life of a developing international marathoner. 

His coaching situation is equally unconventional. Shuley works remotely—sometimes even communicating through Instagram—with coach Isaac Wood.

The Osaka Marathon has built a reputation as one of Asia’s premier road races, known for producing fast times and attracting strong international competition. The 2026 edition continued that tradition, with elite runners battling through cool conditions on a course that winds through the heart of the city.

While international athletes claimed the overall titles, Shuley’s performance stood out as one of the most important American results of the year and immediately placed him among the country’s top marathoners.

Fastest American Marathons

(Record-Eligible Courses) Because the Boston Marathon is a point-to-point course with significant net downhill, performances there are not eligible for records. The following marks were run on courses that meet international record standards.

1. Conner Mantz – 2:04:43 (Chicago 2025)

2. Khalid Khannouchi – 2:05:38 (London 2002)

3. Zouhair Talbi – 2:05:45 (Houston 2026)

4. Galen Rupp – 2:06:07 (Prague 2018)

5. Ryan Hall – 2:06:17 (London 2008)

6. Biya Simbassa – 2:06:53 (Valencia 2024)

7. Ethan Shuley – 2:07:14 (Osaka 2026)

Breaking into this list is no small achievement. It places Shuley alongside some of the most accomplished runners in U.S. marathon history.

For now, Osaka may be remembered as the race where a new American contender officially arrived. If Shuley’s trajectory continues, this performance could be only the beginning.

Barnaba Kipkoech took the top honors at the 12th edition of the Kobe marathon held on Sunday (19) in Kobe, Japan.

The 30 year-old who came to this race with the fastest time on paper of 2:08.21 that he got last year at the Malaga Marathon where he took the honors, live up to the race expectations as he cut the tape first in a time of 2:11.19 with the Reigning Oceania 10,000m champion, Tim Vincent of Australia who was making a debut over the distance, coming home in second place in a personal best of 2:12.05.

The 2019 Morocco’s 10,000m national champion, Hassan Toriss, who finished in twelfth place last year, made a great improvement this year, as he managed to be on the podium when he clocked 2:13.06 to wrap up the podium three finishes.

Last year’s thirteenth place finisher Ayoub Dardar of Morocco also made a significant improvement as he came home in fourth with Kenya’s Mathew Kibiwott finishing in fifth in respective time of 2:13.38 and 2:15.25.

The race course record of 2:08.46 set four years ago by Uganda’s double 5000m National Champion, Geofrey Kusuro remains standing.

Sharon Kemboi might not be well known on the world athletics stage at the moment but there’s a solid chance the Kenyan will have a major impact on the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon on October 15.

For a start, the 30-year-old Asics athlete from the town of Iten raced only in Kenya until 2022. And she has only one marathon race to her credit winning the 2022 Kobe Marathon in Japan last November in a time of 2:29:13. That saw her end the year as the 241st fastest woman of the year, hardly a world beater.  Yet, to dismiss her as a contender in this World Athletics Elite Label race would be foolish.

Last year Kemboi ran two world-class half marathons in Spain finishing second both times. Her personal best of 1:07:28 in Madrid followed by a strong 1:08:08 clocking two weeks later in Malaga indicates a time on Toronto Waterfront’s fast course nearer 2:22 is possible. The course record remains 2:22:16 by Magdalyne Masai – also from Kenya – set in 2019.

“The Kobe marathon course was a hard course, it is not easy. The course is so hard,” Kemboi says during a video call from her home in Iten. “I will try to run 2:25 or faster in Toronto. I want to run my personal best.

“I am training with Antonina Kwambai. She won last year in Toronto (2:23:20). She told me about Toronto and also I used to watch the Toronto races on YouTube.  She told me the course is not so hard and she said she really enjoyed it.”

A few hours prior to her overseas video call Kemboi and Kwambai along with their training partners, Immaculate Chemuta, who is a Ugandan training in Kenya, and Gladys Chepkurui, had run a 30 kilometres time trail paced by three male pacemakers and under the watchful eye of coach Thomas Portzinger. The Austrian native has worked with Kemboi for close to three years now and with Kwamboi for nearer seven. Pacemakers are often employed for special sessions. Training for Toronto Waterfront is progressing well.

Clearly, she is taking her running seriously now after showing promise as a high school runner at Chepkongony Church of Christ Secondary School near Eldoret.

“When I ran in high school I ran at the national level in the 5,000m and 10,000m. And then I got married and had two kids. Then I started training again,” she offers.

“I wanted to be like (2016 Olympic 5000m champion) Vivian Cheruiyot when I was in high school. I did not meet her but I used to watch the races she ran. I watched her Olympic races on YouTube.”

It was during her time at high school that she met her husband Lawrence Kemboi Kipsang who attended a boy’s school in Marakwet which is very close to her home village of Kendur. 

A world-class 3,000m steeplechaser, he has a best time of 8:11.26 in the event. In 2022 he was a much sought after pacemaker on the European circuit and helped Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma beat the world 3,000m steeplechase record at the Paris Diamond League meet. The husband and wife will occasionally run together.

“We have a house helper who watches our children when we go training,” she reveals. “They are 7 and 4 and their names are Adele Jelegat and Adriana Jerop.”

Unlike many other Kenyan distance runners, she does not stay in a training camp but instead meets up for training sessions in Iten with her mates. The town of Iten is well known as a haven for distance runners from many nations. With a balance in training and family life Kemboi is very content with her fortunes.

Once again TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon is a World Athletics Elite Label race meaning the competition she will face is sure to be of the highest standard. Kemboi welcomes the challenge. This, after all, will be her opportunity to continue her successful transition from the half marathon to the marathon and shine on the world stage.

A study released on September 27 by Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus of theoretical economics at Kansai University, estimated that the cancellation or postponement of 460 marathons and road races in Japan from the fall of 2020 through the spring of 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis would result in an estimated economic loss of 710 billion yen (USD 6.74 billion, EUR 5.75 billion).

For races with more than 2000 participants, apart from direct losses such as entry fees and accommodation costs, the study’s calculation included linked losses such as reduced purchases of supplies and materials, and secondary losses such as reduced spending by vendors due to decreased income. After performing the calculation for a number of representative races, numbers for other races were estimated based on their field sizes.

The loss due to the cancellation of November’s Osaka Marathon was estimated at 18 billion yen (171m USD, 145m EUR). Its 2019 race attracted 33,000 participants from across the country, making it the second-largest in Japan. The Kobe Marathon, likewise cancelled, is expected to face losses of 7 billion yen (66.5m USD, 56m EUR). Whether the 2021 Tokyo Marathon goes ahead as scheduled in March is yet to be decided, but with 38,000 entrants in 2020 its losses should it be cancelled are expected to total 29 billion yen (275m USD, 235m EUR).

Since the beginning of the 2000s the number of mass participation marathons across Japan has increased dramatically. The races help promote the region in which they are held and boost tourism and related consumption. Many attract foreign runners to make the trip to run in Japan. Professor Emeritus Miyamoto noted, “As an economic loss, the cancellation and postponement of marathons represents a negative stimulus to regional economic revitalisation.”

According to R-bies Inc., the Tokyo-based operator of an online race entry site, of the races in its system scheduled after the end of September, more than 130 have already cancelled. Doshisha University professor Hiroaki Ninomiya, a specialist in sports economics, commented, “Even if races are able to go ahead there is a risk of major deficits. Moving forward, rather than just going ahead with an event no matter what, it will be essential to develop income streams other than entry fees to make races profitable.”

The study estimates only losses for the upcoming year and does not include losses for the hundreds of races cancelled between February and September this year.