japan running news

One of the only non-championship ekidens to happen this season, the Okutama Keikoku Ekiden was held for the 82nd time Sunday on its traditional hilly road course along a river gorge in the mountains west of Tokyo. One of the oldest and most old-fashioned ekidens in Japan, 43 women's teams of three runners each and 152 men's teams of six runners each competed, women covering a total of 11.1 km and men 44.8 km. In the women's race, running less than 48 hours after racing the 10000 m at Friday's National Championships, Futtsu Select Team  anchor Haruka Yamaguchi  started 49 seconds back from the lead in 5th. With only 3.8 km to work with she ran a new stage record of 12:34 to move into 1st and open a 40-second margin of victory. In the men's race, Akihiro Kaneko got New Year Ekiden-bound Comody Iida corporate team off to a good start with a 21:07 record for the 7.4 km First Stage. Comody Iida held the lead start to finish against Hakone Ekiden regulars Takushoku Un...

The Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon is always one of Japan's deepest races of the year on the men's side, its 2012 running setting a world record for the most men under 64 minutes in a single half marathon in history. On the women's side the field is always smaller but still home to the 1:07:26 Japanese national record set by Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) back in 2006. Edna Kiplagat (Kenya), Sara Hall (U.S.A.) and Betsy Saina (Kenya) lead the women's international field, two-time defending champ Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) giving Marugame a miss this year. Fresh off a 1:09:14 PB at last month's Sanyo Ladies Half, Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) leads a trio of Japanese women with recent sub-1:10 times, something that has become a puzzling rarity lately. Fukushi is also back, her recent best of 1:12:04 a long way from her best days. Speaking of which, world record holder Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea) will be looking to break 60 minutes for the first time since 2015...

25 teams from 11 prefectures took part in the 70th anniversary running of the 5-stage, 73.7 km Towada Hachimantai Ekiden on Aug. 7. Saitama's Yachiyo Kogyo corporate team scored its first-ever victory in 3:50:00. ND Software took 2nd and Subaru 3rd, with two-time defending champion Yakult falling to 4th. Kazuno T&F Assoc. was the top local team at 10th overall. The race began at 8:00 a.m. on the shores of Lake Towada in Aomori. Mid-race temperatures around 30 degrees were recorded in Kazuno, but despite the heat and strong sunlight the athletes on each team gave it their best to ensure their tasuki would make it to the next runner. On the tough and hilly 13.6 km First Stage Yachiyo Kogyo's Abiyot Abinet took an early lead. Yakult rookie Yuji Asaishi was only 7th. On the downhill 13.4 km Second Stage Yakult's Bernard Kimani ran the fastest time on the stage to move into 3rd, but Yachiyo Kogyo's Takahiro Yagihara ran a strong stage 3rd-best time to maint...

The final meet in Japan's Hokuren Distance Challenge series, Thursday's Abashiri meet was set up to give people one last chance to clear the qualifying standards for next month's London World Championships ahead of the fast-approaching deadline. Temperatures were far above normal for northern Hokkaido through much of the day, the mid-afternoon peak reported at over 36C at the time of the men's 800 m A-heat and still at 25C at the start of the five standard-chasing races in the evening. 網走女子5000A https://t.co/GquthBd13K — ホクレン・ディスタンスチャレンジ2017 (@hokurendc2017) July 13, 2017 The best race of the day was the women's 5000 m A-heat. With two women already confirmed for London the third spot on the team was up for grabs. First in line under the JAAF's criteria for addition, top three at Nationals and under the 15:22.00 standard, was 16-year-old Shuri Ogasawara (Yamanashi Gakuin H.S.), 3rd at Nationals in an U18 national record of 15:23.56. Next in line would...

by Brett Larner Just 17 years old, 2016 Bydgoszcz World U20 Championships men's 5000 m bronze medalist Wesley Ledama of Kenya turned up at Akita's Towada Hachimantai Ekiden running for the Subaru corporate team to rock a new record on the 13.6 km First Stage.  Hammering experienced 32-year-old Ethiopian Kassa Mekashaw (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) into the ground, Ledama took almost a minute and a half off the 39:49 stage record set last year by Kenyan Charles Ndungu (Team Komori Corp.) as he handed off in 1st in 38:28.  Mekashaw likewise broke the record, next into the first exchange zone in 38:35, with Yuki Takamiya (Team Yakult A), the top Japanese man at this year's Tokyo Marathon and winner on Towada's First Stage in 2014, 3rd in 40:27. Both Yachiyo Kogyo and Yakult ran down Subaru on the 13.4 km Second Stage, stage record holder Bernard Kimanyi (Team Yakult A) coming just 2 seconds short of Shota Kai (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) for the lead at the second exchange zon...

by Brett Larner The Golden Games in Nobeoka are the main spring Japanese meet for distance runners, held in Japan's Eugune, the Asahi Kasei team's home of Nobeoka .  Fans line the track, banging on the metal sponsor boards with sticks to produce a wall of sound that pushes runners to some of the best Japanese times of the year, every year. This year a lot of the big names will be chasing Olympic qualifying times in the United States, but the 5000 m and 10000 m still have deep lists of upper-tier Japanese and Japan-based African talent.  Last year two-time World Championships medalist Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko) paced Kenta Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei) and Yuta Shitara (Team Honda) to two of the fastest Japanese 10000 m times ever.  This year both Tanui and Shitara are back in the 10000 m along with Shitara's twin brother Keita Shitara (Team Konica Minolta), 61-minute half marathoner university teammates Keisuke Nakatani and Naoki Kudo (Komazawa Univ.) and former ...

by Brett Larner click here for Day Two results and report The last major track meet of the year on the Japanese calendar, the National Corporate Track and Field Championships kicked off in near-secrecy on Sept. 25 at Gifu's Nagaragawa Field with the men's and women's 10000 m races.  Organizers hit back at the increasing number of fans turning up at their meets and sharing pictures and videos on social media with a ban on use of all cameras including phones unless owners registered with them in advance and paid a fee.  Most fans gave the meet a miss as a result, with relatively empty stands and lack of online chatter seeming to indicate success in organizers' attempts to prevent their work from becoming popular among the general public. Beijing World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko) outran a solid field of Japan-resident Africans to win the men's A-heat in 27:37.13 six seconds ahead of runner-up James Mwangi (Team NTN).  Bernar...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/akita/news/20150807-OYTNT50234.html translated by Brett Larner Carrying the tasuki over five stages covering 73.7 km from Lake Towada to Hachimantai, the 68th running of the Towada Hachimantai Ekiden took place August 7 in Akita prefecture, with the Yakult A team from Tokyo scoring its first win in 3:45:46, the sixth-fastest time in the event's history.  The top team from Akita, the Akita Track and Field Association team, finished 13th, three places better than last year.  The local Kazuno Track and Field Association team was 20th of 27 teams overall. The race began at 8:00 at Lake Towada in Towada, Aomori.  Running on a tough course featuring 818 m total elevation difference made all the tougher by blistering sunshine under cloudless skies, many athletes collapsed after finishing their stages.  Charles Ndungu (Team Komori Corp.) ran a new stage record of 39:49 on the hilly 13.6 First Stage to open a lead of over one minute o...

by Brett Larner Along with the Berlin Marathon , where Moscow World Championships bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) turned in the fastest Japanese women's performance overseas so far this year at 2:26:25 for 6th and 2014 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon winner Kazuki Tomaru (Team Toyota) cracked the top ten with a 2:11:25 PB, the fall season got underway for real all across Japan. The university ekiden circuit kicked off with the Kansai Region University Women's Ekiden on Saturday, where for the second year in a row Osaka Gakuin University beat national champion Ritsumeikan University .  The two schools traded the lead for the first four of the race's six stages before Osaka Gakuin got free on the Fifth Stage, ultimately winning by 7 seconds in 1:38:53.  The Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden followed on Sunday, with Daito Bunka University taking the lead on the Second Stage to run unchallenged all the way to the finish in a course record 1:38:22. ...

by Brett Larner Despite thunderstorms bringing heavy rain that shut down highways and roads in the area, the Honda corporate team came through with its second-straight win today at the 67th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden in Akita.  The rain may actually have helped the situation by alleviating Towada's normal summer heat as times were fast across the board compared to other years.  None was faster than Honda's William Malel (Kenya), who covered the 13.4 km, 180 m downhill Second Stage in 35:27 and took an incredible 45 seconds off the stage record set just last year.  Malel started the Second Stage in 7th, but by the time he handed off to Honda's third man Hiroaki Sano he had a lead of 33 seconds and from there Honda never looked back. Sano, the top Japanese man at last year's Chicago Marathon, extended the lead to 1:29, running 46:23 for the 16.2 km Third Stage.  Honda's Keita Baba ran 49:17 for the 16.4 km Fourth Stage, its fastest mark by over a minute, to pu...

by Brett Larner Alongside Bedan Karoki 's Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon course record , Murayama twins Kenta and Kota 's Kanto Regional University Championships 10000 m double victory and Yoshihide Kiryu 's 10.05 national university record , four of the six regional corporate leagues held their track and field championships over the weekend.  Moscow World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Paul Tanui (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) fronted the corporate regionals' best race with a world-leading 27:16.75 to win the Kyushu region  men's 10000 m over the Koichi Morishita -coached Kenyan Jeremiah Karemi  (Team Toyota Kyushu), 2nd in 27:41.81, and Ethiopian Melaku Abera  (Team Kurosaki Harima), 3rd in 27:42.35. Four of the eight Japanese men to have run sub-2:10 marathons so far this year were also in the race,  Masato Imai  (Team Toyota Kyushu), 2nd in 2:09:30 at February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, topping the group 5th overall in 28:34.75.   Kohei Matsu...

by Brett Larner photo by a_yamako videos by Ekiden News Perfect conditions brought fast times at one of the best distance meets on the Japanese spring calendar, Saturday's Golden Games in Nobeoka.  With a focus on 5000 m, almost every heat saw four out of the top five run PBs.  Kenya Pauline Kamulu  (Team Toto) soloed her way to a one-second best of 15:29.55 in the women's 5000 m A-heat, with runner-up  Miho Shimizu  (Team Hokuren) in 15:36.03 leading three Japanese women to PBs under 15:40. Newcomers Bernard Kimani  (Team Yakult) and James Mwangi  (Team NTN) continued their climb up the ranks of the Japan-based Africans, beating World XC junior silver medalist Leonard Barsoton  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) in PBs of 13:14.64 and 13:16.06 with Barsoton 3rd in 13:21.44 in the men's 5000 m C-heat.  The lone Japanese man in the heat, 2014 World Half Marathon team member Masato Kikuchi  (Team Konica Minolta), ran 13:35.18 for 6th, yet anot...

by Brett Larner videos by okukon With the Tuesday national holiday making it something of a perforated long weekend it was a busy one on the Japanese track circuit with a national record and a handful of world-leading performances. Decathlon national record holder Keisuke Ushiro  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) topped the list with a new national record at the decathlon National Championships on the 26th and 27th in Wakayama.  On track to break his old record by more than 100 points at the end of the first day, Ushiro continued strong the second day.  With a solid 1500 m announcers predicted 8300 could be in range, but with just a 4:45:53 Ushiro came in with a breakable new record of 8143 that put him 4th in the world so far this season and left him the potential for more. Shortly after Ushiro's record, relative unknown Bernard Kimani  (Kenya/Team Yakult) brought the first world-leading mark of the weekend with a 13:18.92 to win the Nittai University Time Trials 500...

by Brett Larner Ekiden season got off to an early start with the 66th running of Akita's Towada Hachimantai Ekiden on Aug. 7.  The Honda  corporate team, less Moscow World Championships marathoner Masakazu Fujiwara  and other A-list members, outran rival Yakult  for the win after a slow start.  The Yakult A team led for the first three of the day's five stages thanks in part to a superb stage record of 36:12 on the 13.4 km Second Stage by new Kenyan ace Bernard Kimani , while Honda fell as low as 4th.  On the 16.4 km Fourth Stage new Honda recruit Wataru Ueno , a graduate of Komazawa University and Sendai Ikuei H.S., had a strong corporate ekiden debut as he made up the 30-second gap to leader Yutaro Fukushi  of Yakult before opening a lead of nearly two minutes. With Fukushi having fallen to 3rd behind Komori Corporation , Yakult anchor Soji Ikeda , another Komazawa alum, did his best to run down Honda's Hayato Saito  on the tough uphil...