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2008 As Seen By JRN Readers

JRN's most-read articles of 2008 by month:

January
First-time winner Mara Yamauchi takes Osaka in 2:25:10 PB, Kayoko Fukushi 19th in debut.Jan. 27

February
Last run for Team Toshiba LSI: the Betsudai Marathon. - Feb. 2
Tokyo Marathon 2007 through foreign runners' eyes. - Feb. 4
Arata Fujiwara: an unknown contender for Beijing. - Feb. 19

March
Koide presecient: Yurika Nakamura wins Nagoya in 2:25:51 debut. - Mar. 9

April
30 hospitalized after honeybee attack at Saga Sakura Half-Marathon. - Apr. 8

May
Mekubo Mogusu sets Olympic A-standard 10000 m meet record at Kanto University track and field championships. - May 20

June
Sapporo International Half-Marathon preview. - June 11

July
Chisato Fukushima selected as first women's 100 m Olympian in 56 years. - July 6

August
Mizuki Noguchi considering dropping out of Olympics after hospitalization for fatigue. - Aug. 9
Chunxiu Zhou's Japanese coach Shinya Takeuchi seeks to make personal compensation to China for WWII. - Aug. 14
A 'good enough' mentality can never win. - Aug. 26

September
Nobuharu Asahara bows out to full house at Super Meet in Kawasaki. - Sept. 24

October
Nihon University's Gitau steals Izumo Ekiden victory from Komazawa.Oct. 14

November
Deeper and deeper goes the greatest half-marathon in the world - Ageo 2008. - Nov. 17

December
Tsegaye Kebede breaks Samuel Wanjiru's course record and Gert Thys' Japan soil record with 2:06:10 win in Fukuoka. - Dec. 7
Samuel Wanjiru shares the secret of training to win. - Dec. 24

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

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Most-Read This Week

Nat'l University Ekiden Updates Here

Looks like I just went over my update limit on Twitter - sorry, it's the first time I've tried to use it for this. I'll look for another option next time. In the meantime I'll add updates to the comments below. Not sure if that has a max too but I guess we'll find out. Update: Part one of the Nationals commentary can be found here .

Top 7 Break NR at Ginza Road Mile

The mile isn't really a thing in Japan, especially on the roads, but it's starting to change a little bit. At Nike's new Ginza Mile road race, even in the middle of heavy rain the top 7 in the men's race all broke the national record of 4:00.02 set in March by Ojiro Honda (Waseda Univ.). Soma Nagahara (Juntendo Univ.) was first across the line to become the official new NR holder in 3:57.0, just beating Shunsuke Kuwata (Komazawa Univ.) by 0.3 in Kuwata's best race since the NYC Half in March. Kaisei Okada (Chuo Univ.) and Yuto Miyake (Chuo Univ.) were right behind in 3:57.9 and 3:58.1, and while there doesn't seem to be an official Taiwanese road mile NR it's pretty much a given that the 3:58.9 by Chien Tzu-Chieh (Chuo Univ.) for 5th was Taiwan's best-ever. Women's NR holder Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) easily won in 4:33.8, almost 2 seconds off her NR from 2023, with Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) 2nd in 4:36.87 and Ran Urabe ...

Nagoya Asian Games Team Announced

Following this past weekend's National Championships, the JAAF has announced the complete lineup of 41 women and 45 men for September's Nagoya Asian Games national team. Times listed are athletes' 2025-26 best. Women 100 m Midori Mikase (Sumitomo Denko) - 11.33 Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 11.35 200 m Abigail Fuka Ido (Toho Ginko) - 22.79 Aiko Iki (Osaka Gas) - 23.41 400 m Nanako Matsumoto (Toho Ginko) - 52.14 800 m Rin Kubo (Sekisui Kagaku) - 1:59.52 Ayano Shiomi (Iwatani Sangyo) - 2:01.01 1500 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 4:04.16 Mizuki Michishita (Sekisui Kagaku) - 4:10.48 5000 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 14:34.10 Yuma Yamamoto (Sekisui Kagaku) - 14;59.89 10000 m Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 30:54.40 Ririka Hironaka (Uniqlo) - 30:56.32 100 mH Hitomi Nakajima (Hasegawa) - 12.71 Mako Fukube (NKK) - 12.72 400 mH Honoka Aoki (Zenrin) - 55.92 Satsuki Umehara (Sumitomo Denko) - 56.22 3000 mSC Miu Saito (Panasonic) - 9:24.72 Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui...