With the Fukuoka International Marathon returning Sunday under new management we wanted to revisit the documentary JRN produced last year, Inside the Outside - When the World Came to Fukuoka, looking back at its 75-year history as it came to end. We talked to 75 international athletes who ran Fukuoka over the decades, including dozens of legends of the sport -- all but one of the world record holders to have run Fukuoka, all but one of the Olympic medalists to have run it, all but two of the living non-Japanese winners, and many more -- about their memories of the race and thoughts about it ending. Two of the participants, Luiz Antonio dos Santos of Brazil and Kenny Moore of the U.S.A., have passed away since recording their parts. We even produced a Japanese-language version too. It was a massive project, but it needed to be done.
Rino Goshima and Jun Kasai stepped up with PBs to win the 2024 National Championships 10000 m titles Friday at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. In the women's race, Goshima, 4th in last December's 2023 National Championships 10000 m, went out front from the start with Kenyan teammate Judy Jepngetich pacing and 2023 3rd-placer Haruka Kokai in tow. Things were never on track to hit the 30:40.00 Paris Olympics standard, but except for a brief dip to 3:08 at 7000 m Goshima held steady at 3:05 to 3:06/km even as Kokai and Jepngetich fell off. With blood dripping from her left knee after getting spiked by Jepngetich, Goshima closed in 3:03 to take 5 seconds off her best from December's Nationals and win in 30:53.31, moving up to all-time Japanese #6. Jepngetich also PBd at 31:09.42 without counting in the standings, with Kokai 2nd in 31:10.53 and Kazuna Kanetomo 3rd in a PB 31:59.29. The runner-up last time, Yuka Takashima was last in 33:33.27. The men's race went out in a
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