japan running news

Racing her second 5000 m in five days, national record holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) continued to build back from injury with a 3rd-place finish in 15:18.77 at Wednesday's Hokuren Distance Challenge Kitami meet , 11 seconds up on what she ran Saturday in Abashiri . Pacer Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) gradually built up in speed, wearing down the lead pack but Hironaka staying with her as fast as it got. Joan Kipkemoi (Kyudenko) and Eva Cherono (Toto) had a stronger kick over the last 200 m, going 1-2 in 15:15.55 and 15:16.35, but Hironaka's performance increased the chance she'll be ready for the 10000 m at next month's Budapest World Championships. Marathoner Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) also had a quick turnaround from his 13:27.79 PB in Abashiri, tailing 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Juntendo Univ.) most of the way through the 5000 m before going for a long surge. Miura started to close over the last 200 m, but going into the home straight Akasaki threw...

The fastest Japanese man inside the qualifying window for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials not to have hit any of the qualifying criteria, Kento Nishi (Osaka Gas) got it done with a 2:10:01 win at the Nagano Marathon less than two months after his 2:08:11 PB at February's Osaka Marathon. Nishi, Kensuke Horio (Kyudenko) and Kenji Yamamoto (Mazda) all needed to run in the mid-2:11 range to qualify via the two-race sub-2:10 average route, and when 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Michael Githae (Suzuki) took the race out on mid-2:10 pace it was exactly what they could have hoped for. Githae did all the work as others in range of qualifying like Reo Kuniyuki (Otsuka Seiyaku), Shogo Kanezane (Chugoku Denryoku) and Daisuke Hosomori (YKK) dropped off the lead pack. A surge from Horio after halfway cut the lead group down to just Githae, the three qualifying hopefuls, and Yamamoto's teammate Shun Sadakata (Mazda), and it stayed that way until Githae attack...

Patrick Mathenge Wambui  (NTT Nishi Nihon) ran a PB of nearly a minute to win the 2021 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships men's race Sunday in Yamaguchi. Wambui had pressure until almost 20 km from 2016 national cross-country champion  Takashi Ichida  (Asahi Kasei) before kicking away for the win, crossing the line in a world-leading 1:00:12 to take 6 seconds off the course record. Ichida was next in 1:00:19, a PB by almost two minutes, the fastest Japanese time on the corporate nationals course by 13 seconds, and the fourth-fastest ever by a Japanese man.  Benard Kimani  (Comody Iida) was the only other man under 61 minutes at 1:00:30 for 3rd, with the top 26 all breaking 62 minutes. Further back, 48-year-old Satoshi Emoto  (Mitsubishi Okazaki) ran 1:06:28, bettering Martin Rees '  age 48 world record by 1 second. Last year's Nagoya Women's Marathon runner-up Yuka Ando  (Wacoal) dominated the women's race, running each 5 km split pr...