Skip to main content

The Best of Japan Running News

JRN's most-read articles along with selected reader and editor favorites.  Click on year for an index by month.

 2007・2008・2009・2010・2011・2012

Comments

Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

9th-Grader Drury Scratches From Biwako XC Due to Media Attention: "I Don't Like Them Reporting On My Private Life"

On Mar. 3 Tsuyama 9th grader Sherry Drury withdrew from Sunday's Biwako Cross Country Meet. An attorney representing Ms. Drury made the announcement, saying that she is uncomfortable with the amount of media coverage of her recent races and doesn't know how to deal with all the people stopping her to take pictures and talk to her. In comments made public by her attorney Ms. Drury said, "Because of all the changes since the National Women's Ekiden I can't train in freedom like I did before, and all the media reporting on me is wearing me out. I don't like them reporting on things outside my running, things in my private life that I've never talked about publicly like my studies and hobbies. Some magazine reporters have interviewed our neighbors and other people who know me, and some have even gone to my classmates' homes to try to interview them. I don't want other people to have to go through that because of me. I'm going to keep running in h
1 comment
Read more

Marugame Half and Beppu-Oita Marathon Headline Weekend Action

Post-ekiden road season is up to full speed in Japan with two major races this Sunday. First up, the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon kicks off its 75th anniversary edition at 10:35 a.m. with an Aussie-heavy field and the usual domestic depth. Kenyan Nancy Jelagat is the class of the women's field on paper with a 1:05:21 in Berlin 2021, but without any race results in 2022 it's a question how she'll fare against Japan-based Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels), the Aussie trio of Sinead Diver , Eloise Wellings and Isobel Batt-Doyle , Brit Charlotte Purdue , American Sarah Pagano , and top-ranked domestic woman Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu). Sub-58 man Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) fronts the men's field, with Aussies Jack Rayner and Riley Cocks set to mix it up with debuting 27:20.34 man Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko) and a million domestic men including sub-61 half marathoners Yusuke Tamura (Kurosaki Harima) Takashi Namba (Toenec) and Yusuke Nishiyama
Post a Comment
Read more

Pauline Kamulu and Alexander Mutiso Break Marugame Half CR

In its 75th anniversary race the Marugame Half saw new course records in both the women's and men's races and a near-miss on a new Japanese men's NR. Japan-based Kenyan  Pauline Kamulu soloed a 1:07:22 CR to win the women's race by 49 seconds, 4 seconds under the old CR and her fastest time since her 1:06:56 for bronze at the 2018 World Half Marathon Championships. Rika Kaseda continued to climb the ranks among Japanese women with a 1:08:11 for 2nd, landing her in the all-time Japanese top 10. Australian duo Isobel Batt-Doyle and Sinead Diver were 3-4 just 2 seconds apart in 1:09:27 and 1:09:29. In the men's race a lead sextet of Japan-based Kenyans Alexander Mutiso , Cleophas Kandie and Andrew Lorot , corporate leaguer Tomoki Ota , and collegiate runners Kotaro Shinohara and Reishi Yoshida went through 10 km together in 10 km before splitting into two groups. Lorot fell off the front group before 15 km and Yoshida off the back group by 15 km, leaving Muti
1 comment
Read more