japan running news

On Oct. 4, Tokyo Olympics marathon 6th-placer Suguru Osako , 31, announced that he has signed with the GMO corporate team. Osako will continue his relationship with sponsor Nike but will run January's New Year Ekiden as part of the GMO team. It is an unusual move for an independently-sponsored runner to join the corporate leagues. GMO held a press conference in Tokyo to announce the news. Taking part remotely from his training base in the U.S., Osako looked excited. He talked about the move in broad strokes. "When I run, everyone will pay attention to the New Year Ekiden," he said. "Winning is a given, but I want to a game-changer in the running world. I want to create some kind of new added value on top of just going for the win." After quitting the Nissin Shokuhin corporate team in March, 2015, Osako moved to the U.S. to join the now-defunct Nike Oregon Project team led by the now-suspended coach Alberto Salazar . Since then he has trained in the U.S. and...

Toshihiko Seko against Juma Ikangaa , the Soh twins and Alberto Salazar at the 1983 Fukuoka International Marathon.

On Nov. 10, men's marathon national record holder Suguru Osako took to Twitter to lash out at people who suspect him of doping. Sponsored by Nike, Osako was a longtime member of the Nike Oregon Project team. The team's head coach Alberto Salazar was recently suspended by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for four years as the result of an investigation into his misuse of restricted substances and methods. Osako posted his opinions on his Twitter account @sugurusako at 8:46 a.m. on Nov. 10, denying that he has doped. "It seems like people seem to think that what happened with the Oregon Project means that I'm already guilty of doping, but anyone who thinks that way is really, really simple-minded," he wrote. "My coach never even once told me to take drugs or get injections that I didn't understand, and I've checked every single supplement and throat lozenge that's gone in my mouth." At the Nike Oregon Project Osako was not...

by Brett Larner special thanks to Dr. Helmut Winter for assistance with graphics It's fitting that last weekend's U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials brought American marathoning back to Los Angeles.  In the years leading up to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics American men and women paved the way as the world's best marathoners, but the L.A. Olympics marked the start of a long decline on both sides that has only recently started to turn around.  With Galen Rupp making a massively anticipated debut and Los Angeles launching its bid for the 2024 Olympics the 2016 L.A. Trials may come to be looked back upon as another turning point.  It's worth taking an honest look at the last 50 years or so of history to understand where that turning point may take American marathoning. Looking at the average of the ten fastest marathons per year by American men, for the 16 years between the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics American men's marathoning develop...

by Brett Larner 大迫傑 Suguru Osako @sugurusako 途中棄権 DNF 5Km @OregonPJT #早稲田大学 Waseda #陸上競技 #PTF15 2015年6月14日 pic.twitter.com/AKxW7yHw0S — TrackAndFieldPhoto (@TaFphoto) June 15, 2015 Former Waseda University star Suguru Osako 's string of bad luck in his snakebitten move away from the corporate leagues to embattled coach Alberto Salazar 's Nike Oregon Project continued with a DNF in Sunday's Portland Track Festival 5000 m.  After setting three national records while training under Salazar with quasi-NOP status for the last couple of years Osako's full NOP debut was shot down with the cancellation of the 5000 m at May's Hoka One One Middle Distance Classic due to dangerous weather conditions.  His belated debut came two weeks later at the Prefontaine Classic, where he missed the 2015 World Championships 10000 m qualifying standard of 27:45.00 by just 0.24 seconds.  Just days later the NOP was hit by doping allegations against Salazar and athlete Galen Rup...

Initial ProPublica and BBC articles: https://www.propublica.org/article/former-team-members-accuse-coach-alberto-salazar-of-breaking-drug-rules http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-32877702 Responses from Salazar and Rupp: http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2015/06/alberto_salazar_and_galen_rupp.html Former Waseda University and Team Nissin Shokuhin runner Suguru Osako has set multiple Japanese national records while working with Salazar in recent years.  He made his formal Nike Oregon Project debut at last weekend's Prefontaine Classic .

by Brett Larner My first awareness of South Africa's Comrades Marathon was Alberto Salazar 's seemingly random win when I was 20 and his subsequent crediting of the performance benefits he received from taking the drug Prozac, but it was at the Boston Marathon the next spring that it really caught my imagination.  At the pre-race pasta party an older Irish runner sitting at the same table told my friend Bruce and I about Comrades, its epic scale, the intense drama of its finish line cutoff, the camaraderie of those trying to help each other to the line and the devastation of the unlucky stopped just a stride away.  Ever since then I've wanted to run it.  In 2010 JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin and I planned to do it, but with the change of course direction due to the World Cup we opted to wait for another uphill year.  This year things finally aligned. Our experience was no different from any other blog account of Comrades you can find.  And yet it w...

by Brett Larner click photo for video c/o USATF.TV Quasi- Nike Oregon Project member Suguru Osako ran the 2 mile at the 2015 Armory Track Invitational alongside training partners Cam Levins and Galen Rupp .  After moving to Oregon to train with the NOP and head coach Alberto Salazar while remaining tied to the Nissin Shokuhin corporate team, early last fall Osako set the outdoor 3000 m national record of 7:40.09 and all-time #2 Japanese mark of 8:28.30 for 2 miles outdoor.  Biding his time mid-pack at the Armory, Osako kicked hard to take 2nd behind Levins in 8:16.47, a new national record more than 8 seconds faster than fellow Waseda University alumnus Kensuke Takezawa 's outdoor 2 mile NR of 8:24.69.  More records are sure to follow. Armory Track Invitational Men's 2 Mile New York, 1/31/15 click here for complete results 1. Cam Levins (Canada/Nike Oregon Project) - 8:15.38 2. Suguru Osako (Japan/Nissin Shokuhin) - 8:16.47 - NR 3. Ben Blankenship (USA/...

by Brett Larner Already on the edge of national records for 3000 m, 2 miles, 5000 m and 10000 m, Suguru Osako (Team Nissin Shokuhin) stepped up in his last race on the summer European circuit, the 3000 m at Italy's Rieti Meeting 2014.  Partially based in the U.S. since graduating from Waseda University this spring, Osako has been training with the Alberto Salazar -coached Nike Oregon Project.  Before the race NOP assistant coach Pete Julian told JRN, "He's been hitting all the workouts with Mo Farah and Galen Rupp , so he's pretty worn out at this point.  With a couple weeks of rest he'll be stronger but we don't expect much for this race." Despite the fatigue Osako went with the 2:29.24 opening 1000 m in Rieti, hanging on to the leaders through some ups and downs in the pacing and crossing the line in 7:40.09 to break marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka 's 15-year-old 3000 m record by almost two seconds.  Among distances officia...

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer.  These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly.  I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes.  As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway.  That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/12/25/kiji/K20121225004849190.html http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20121225-OHT1T00207.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner In a Dec. 25 interview about the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden , Waseda University junior Suguru Osako , Japan's #1 collegiate runner and one of the brightest hopes of Japanese men's distance running, revealed that he will join the 2012 national champion Nissin Shokuhin team following his graduation in 2014.  Osako's long list of achievements includes the 2011 National University Championships 1500 m title, the 2011 World University Games 10000 m gold medal, and the Asian junior half marathon record.  He chose the Nissin team, he said, "because they are going to give me the freedom to do what I want to do."  According to Waseda head coach Yasuyuki Watanabe , Osako plans to move to Portland, Oregon to be coached by one of marathon legend  Toshihiko Seko 's great rivals, American Albe...