japan running news

Amateur winners of two of the world's biggest marathons, 2016 Osaka Marathon champ Yoshiko Sakamoto (YWC) and 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) return to Sweden to run the Stockholm Marathon for the second year in a row this Saturday with support from JRN. For its 40th running Stockholm features a new course designed to cut most of the hills out of the first half of the race, but with temperatures expected to peak at 27C the quality elite field may not be able to take full advantage of the new configuration. 5th last year, Sakamoto is fresh off a 2:35:40 PB at February's Tokyo Marathon. She faces defending champion Konjit Tilahun Biruk (Ethiopia), seven-time winner Isabellah Andersson (Sweden) and #1-ranked Kumeshi Sichala (Ethiopia), the only woman in the field with a current sub-2:30 time. The 2:28:24 event record set way back in 1988 by the great Grete Waitz (Norway) will be a stretch, but however fast it goes Sakamoto hopes to ...

by Brett Larner London World Championships marathon team member Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov’t) lined up at the Volkswagen Prague Marathon with support from JRN in a bid to break his four-year-old best of 2:08:14. Planning to go with second group pacer Eliud Macharia of Kenya at 3:02/km, Kawauchi and Macharia found themselves part of the lead group when its pacers were unable to hit their target 3:00/km in the challenging early part of the Prague course. The lead group accelerated approaching 15 km, while Macharia, Kawauchi and Moroccan Salah Eddine Bounasr stayed their course and hit it dead on 2:08:00 pace in 45:30. Over the next 10 km the leaders again slowed, letting Macharia’s trio return and even go to the front without changing their pace. Following the pacers’ departure it was down to a race of six, the Ethiopian trio of Gebretsadik Abraha , Bazu Worku and Mekuant Ayenew , Kenyan Benson Kipruto , Bounasr and Kawauchi. The group hit 32 km in 1:37:43, well off ...

by Brett Larner Japan's Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) will run Sunday's Volkswagen Prague Marathon with support from JRN in preparation for August's London World Championships marathon. At the pre-race press conference organizers expressed their hopes of seeing a 2:06 men's race, led by past 2:06 men Lani Kiplagat Ruto and Frankline Chepkwony of Kenya.  For his part Kawauchi said that his goal is to break his 2:08:14 PB dating back to 2013.  "I haven't broken my PB for four years, so I'm here to run 2:07," he said. Organizers were even more optimistic about the potential outcome of the women's race, which features 2:20 women Feyse Tadese and Amane Beriso , two other Ethiopians with bests under 2:23, and 1:07:50 half marathoner Valary Jemeli Aiyabei . With the quality of field assemble, favorable weather conditions and the split timing and finish time projection system devised by Dr. Helmut Winter and used at the London, Berli...

by Brett Larner Having left Japan's corporate team system, 2012 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon winner Samuel Ndungu (Kenya) was back to take the top spot again in Biwako's cold and rainy 70th edition.  With a target pace of 3:00/km for the front group including last year's winner Bazu Worku (Ethiopia), 2014 European champion Daniele Meucci (Italy), Mongolian national record holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Team NTN) and Japanese World Championships hopefuls Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei) and Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta), Kenyan pacers Kimutai Kiplimo and Silas Kimutai were not even close, going through 2 km in 6:19 and hitting 5 km in 15:30, well over 2:10 marathon pace. Collegiate runner Atsuya Hiraiwa (Meijo Univ.) pulled in front of the pacers to try to get the race moving, but although the next 10 km were decent, by 20 km they were back to another 15:30 split.  Halfway came in 1:04:39 with a pack of 40 still together, but a...

by Brett Larner It's a great luxury to get to watch a live marathon broadcast with no commercials, but that's just what you get with the 70th edition of the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon this Sunday.  Japan's first IAAF gold label race, Biwako as it is called here features a live ad-free nationwide broadcast on NHK starting at 12:15 p.m. Japan time with the race kicking off at 12:30.  Overseas viewers can follow @JRNLive for live coverage throughout the race if NHK is not available in your area. And what does the race hold?  It's the last of the selection races for the Japanese team for the Beijing World Championships.  At Tokyo last week the Federation seemed to have backed off its sub-2:06:30 requirement for auto team selection, with more talk about the top Japanese position in the selection races and deserving praise for the 2:07:39 scored in Tokyo by Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu).  Imai is a clear favorite to make the team, with Fukuoka's top Japane...

by Brett Larner The Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon , universally called Biwako for short in Japan, celebrates its 70th running this year, with a place at the Beijing World Championships up for any Japanese man who decides to run sub-2:06:30.  For its anniversary year race Biwako brings back defending champion Bazu Worku (Ethiopia) and 2012 winner Samuel Ndungu (Kenya) to face the likes of 2:06 man Eric Ndiema (Kenya), Mongolian national record holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Team NTN), 2:08:55 runner Jose Antonio Uribe (Mexico), 2014 European champion Daniele Meucci (Italy) and many more from around the world in one of the most international fields in Biwako history. On the domestic front, with a 2:08:00 best Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), a rare Japanese athlete to have been at the top of the Japanese scene all the way from high school through a solid marathon career, goes in ranked #1 despite a weak 2014, twins Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) and Yuko Matsumiya (Team...

by Brett Larner #2-ranked Bazu Worku  (Ethiopia) came through with the win at the 69th running of the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon , holding off  Satoru Sasaki  (Team Asahi Kasei) and defending champion Vincent Kipruto  (Kenya) to cross the line in 2:09:10 with Sasaki running down Kipruto in the final 200 m to go sub-2:10 for the first time in 2:09:47. Conditions were very reasonable, with 12 degree temperatures and light wind, but despite this the casualty rate was high and came early.  2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau  (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) was off the back of the pack before the lead group of thirteen hit halfway in 1:03:24.   Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't), in search of a 2:07 and a place in the history books as Japan's first man to run sub-2:10 seven times, was the next big name to falter.  By 25 km it was down to seven, and when the pacers departed at 30 km only Worku, Kipruto and Essa Ismail Rashed ...

by Brett Larner It’s still early in the year, but the Japanese men’s major domestic spring marathon season is already reaching its peak with Sunday’s Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon . Lake Biwa was Japan’s first IAAF gold label marathon and is one of its oldest continuous races, but with last weekend’s Tokyo Marathon having joined the Fukuoka International Marathon in 2:05 course record territory it is due for an improvement on Wilson Kipsang ’s 2:06:13 course record. To get there it has enlisted defending champion and Daegu World Championships silver medalist Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) and former junior world record holder Bazu Worku (Ethiopia), both with 2:05 bests. The pair’s duel, or teamwork, up front should be one of this year’s main story lines. Another is Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov’t) and his quest for a 2:07. Kawauchi is the lone A-list Japanese man in the field this year, at Lake Biwa for the sole purpose of joining Japan’s sub-2:08 club. Since his world record-set...

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2014021300784 http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20140213-OYT1T01083.htm http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2014/02/13/kiji/K20140213007581080.html http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/p-sp-tp0-20140214-1257340.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Feb. 13 the organizers of the Mar. 2 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon announced the sixteen invited elites for this year's 69th running.  Defending champion Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) returns, with his toughest overseas competition coming from 2:05:25 man Bazu Worku (Ethiopia) and 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel). 3rd at the most recent Fukuoka, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) leads the Japanese field along with his 2011 Daegu World Championships marathon teammate Yoshinori Oda  (Team Toyota). Lake Biwa is a selection race for the Japanese national team for this fall's Asian Games marathon in South Korea.  ...

by Brett Larner photo by Kenji Ogura Japan's #3 independent runner Sho Matsumoto  (Nikkei Business Service) made his international debut  June 22 at the 37th running of Grandma's Marathon .  Appearing through an invite from outgoing race director Scott Keenan  and support from JRN after running a 2:13:38 best at February's Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon, Matsumoto ran comfortably in the lead pack on mid-2:12 pace until eventual winner Bazu Worku (Ethiopia) made his race-breaking move near 30 km.  Worku went on to record the fifth-fastest winning time in Grandma's history, 2:11:14, with Kenyans Ernest Kebenei and Eliud Ngetich joining him under 2:12.  A total of 22 men ran sub-2:20 thanks in part to strong tailwinds throughout much of the point-to-point race. Unable to follow Worku's play, Matsumoto lost ground and struggled over the final 5 km, ultimately finishing 17th in 2:17:53.  "I should have been able to make the podium," he told JRN pos...

by Brett Larner photos by Kenji and Jamie Ogura With 22 men on its entry list having run under 2:14 in the last four years, 11 of them sub-2:12 and an unprecented sub-2:10 contingent led by former marathon junior world record holder Bazu Worku (Ethiopia), in its final year under the helm of race director Scott Keenan the 37th running of Grandma's Marathon may, if the weather cooperates, see a serious shot at the historic 2:09:37 set in 1981 by the great Dick Beardsley .  Only one athlete among the top 22 hails from a country other than Kenya or Ethiopia, 27-year-old Japanese independent Sho Matsumoto  (Nikkei Business Services).  Appearing at Grandma's with support from JRN after a recommendation from Japan's most famous independent, Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't), Matsumoto faces a tough challenge in climbing up through the ranks toward the front end of the field. A graduate of running-oriented Kobayashi H.S. where he ran the National High School Ek...

by Brett Larner photo courtesy of Remo System Arata Fujiwara will be the best Japanese man to have ever run the ING New York City Marathon. That’s a safe statement to make considering that the best Japanese marathoners are never able to run New York due to the demands of the regional corporate ekiden qualifiers held in early November. But Fujiwara had dreamed of running New York since his high school days in Nagasaki, and he found his own solution for the dilemma of not being able to run: despite being one of Japan’s best current marathoners, with a 2:08:40 PB, two runner-up spots at Tokyo and a 3rd at Fukuoka that put him into the Berlin World Championships, he quit his corporate team cold this spring in order to be free to race where and when he wanted. And that meant New York. First off the bat in his new solo career was a dry run, May’s Ottawa Marathon, a race with the same time difference from Japan as New York and a similar course, hilly with a combination of sharp curves and lo...

by Brett Larner photos by Brett Larner except Deriba Merga and Arata Fujiwara by Yasunori Sakamaki In his first race since his unprecedented departure from Team JR Higashi Nihon at the end of March, Arata Fujiwara won the 2010 Ottawa Marathon on May 30. Fujiwara broke the existing course record by one minute two seconds, outkicking Kenyan Laban Moiben and junior world record holder Bazu Worku of Ethiopia to win in 2:09:33.4. His time on the difficult course was the fastest of the year by a Japanese man and came three months after his 2nd place finish in sleet and wind at February's Tokyo Marathon. A slower than expected first 10 km over challenging hills through Quebec scuttled the expected attack on the Canadian all-comers record on 2:08:32 from last fall's Toronto Waterfront Marathon, but the top four men all broke the previous course record of 2:10:35. Two of the three pacemakers dropped off far earlier than planned, leaving Kenyan Festus Langat to do the rest of the wo...

http://runottawa.ca/index.php/en/media/media-centre/2010/05/19/550 Arata Fujiwara (Proposer Japan) makes his racing debut since going independent last month at the May 30 Ottawa Marathon . 2010 Ottawa Marathon Elite Field - Top Entrants click here for complete elite field listing Men Bazu Worku (Ethiopia) - 2:06:15 (2009) Philip Manyim (Kenya) - 2:07:41 (2005) Teferi Wodajo (Ethiopia) - 2:07:45 (2009) Arata Fujiwara (Japan) - 2:08:40 (2008) Hussan Adelo (Ethiopia) - 2:09:09 (2010) Hillary Kimaiyo (Kenya) - 2:09:54 (2008) John Njoroge (Kenya) - 2:10:00 (2006) Wegayehu Girma Tefera (Ethiopia) - 2:10:09 (2010) Gebo Burka Gameda (Ethiopia) - 2:10:18 (2009) David Cheruiyot (Kenya) - 2:10:36 (2007) Women Rose Kerubo (Kenya) - 2:29:22 (2007) Lioudmila Kortchaguila (Canada) - 2:29:42 (2007) Alemitu Abera (Ethiopia) - 2:31:01 (2010) Merima Mohammed (Ethiopia) - 2:33:56 (2009) Radiya Adlo (Ethiopia) - 2:35:00 (2009) 10 km click here for complete elite field listing Men Deriba Merga (Ethiopia) -...