Just recently, the official social account of the American classic road race BOLDERBoulder (BB10K) announced that Japan will send a team of Suguru Osako, Kengo Suzuki and Kiyoto Hirabayashi to compete in this year’s BB10K International Team Challenge on May 25. Unlike regular road races, the BB10K International Team Challenge is a team event with teams of three; the team with the lowest total points from its three runners wins (1 point for first place, 2 points for second, 3 points for third, and so on). If teams are tied on points, the placing of the third finisher from each team decides the winner. The first BB10K was held in 1979. It’s a 10 km road race staged annually on the last Monday in May in Boulder, Colorado. The United States, Kenya and Ethiopia are among the strongest contenders for the title. After 1998 the race added an international athletes challenge: three-person national teams compete in the 10 km event and are ranked by cumulative race time. America’s top man Conner Mantz has taken the individual title at BB10K three years running; last year he also helped the U.S. win the men’s team title, while the women’s team honors went to Ethiopia. This year’s Japanese lineup, however, looks very competitive. Suguru Osako — who once broke the Japanese marathon record — is in fine form. On the track his 10,000m best is 27:36.9, set in Osaka in 2020. Coupled with a 5000m of 13:49.61 in Los Angeles last May, the 34-year-old still shows excellent speed for middle- and long-distance events. Kengo Suzuki, who recently left his corporate team, will treat this race as a high-intensity training phase test. Earlier this year he secured MGC qualification with a 2:06:09 at the Tokyo Marathon, showing good form. Like Osako, he also set a 10,000m PB of 27:49.16 in 2020. Kiyoto Hirabayashi ran a 10,000m PB of 27:37.13 on the track last November, and earlier this year he set a new full marathon PB of 2:06:14 at the Osaka Marathon. We look forward to the younger generation’s extraordinary speed from Hirabayashi in this race. By the way, a Chinese team was invited to BB10K in 2018 — Jin Lingling, Liu Ziyang and Zhuang Liming competed together then. It’s expected there still won’t be a Chinese team entry this year. If in the future a team of Wang Wenjie, Yu Shuiqing and Mao Jinhao were to line up, what kind of result do you think they could run? #TrailRunningBlast #10kmRoadRace #Running #SuguruOsako