japan running news

by Brett Larner Newcomer James Rungaru  (Kenya/Team Toyota) rocked Saturday's Nittai Univ. Time Trials men's 10000 m A-heat with a solo 27:22.53 PB, going out at sub-27 pace without accompaniment and lapping the entire field.  Toyota's B-Kenyan, Rungaru ran 15 seconds faster than Paul Tanui 's winning time at Friday's National Corporate T&F Championships 10000 m and 16 seconds faster than Toyota's A-Kenyan John Thuo  ran at the national meet.  His nearest competition, Ethiopian Fekele Assefa  (Team Kanebo), finished in only 28:36.63 after running most of the race with Masaki Ito  (Kokushikan Univ.). Ito's PB of 28:38.13 led three university men under 29 minutes, the most surprising being Aritaka Kajiwara  of the minor Shoin University .  With a performance like this behind him Kajiwara is a lock on a spot for the 2012 Hakone Ekiden's Select Team.  Also in the field in his first race since the Daegu World Championships marathon earlier...

by Brett Larner The first meet of the 2011 Hokuren Distance Challenge series took place June 19 in Kitami, Hokkaido. With cooler than usual temperatures 2006 world 10000 m junior champion and 2008 world junior XC champion Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) delivered the biggest result of the evening, a solo 27:09.02 nearly a minute ahead of runner-up Alex Mwangi (Kenya/Team YKK). Jeilan's time was the third-fastest of the year by an Ethiopian, putting him into consideration for the Ethiopian team for August's Daegu World Championships. In 5th, third-year Yuki Maeda (Waseda Univ.), whose excellent run on the first day of this year's Hakone Ekiden was instrumental in keeping Waseda in contention for the win, became the latest Waseda runner to break 29 minutes as he clocked a PB of 28:54.34. Ten men on the roster of Waseda's 2010-2011 squad held PBs under 29 minutes. In the women's 5000 m, 2011 East Japan Corporate T&F 10000 m champion Hiroko Shoi (Team ...