japan running news

Thank you for your support of the Yokohama DeNA Running Club . Founded in 2013, the DeNA corporate team will be disbanded at the end of 2020. Beginning in 2021, DeNA will take a new approach toward supporting the activities of individual athletes who aim to compete at the international level. Despite the impact of the coronavirus crisis upon all our sports business, with its new approach DeNA hopes to continue to support competitive running in the medium to long-term future. Right now we are in the midst of making new contract offers to our existing athletes under the new model. We will continue to keep you informed about each athlete's plans for the next fiscal year and in every case will respect the athlete's wishes, whatever they may be. Head coach Tomoaki Kunichika and other members of the current team's staff will be retiring. We thank them for their contributions to the team's development. We hope to have your continued support in the future. Translator...

A minivan carrying staff and athletes from the DeNA corporate men's team was involved in a traffic accident June 10 while en route from Kanagawa to a training camp in Sugadaira, Nagano. According to a team representative, the minivan collided with a cargo truck, but the accident did not result in any serious injuries. The team members will have their physical conditions monitored while remaining in Sugadaira. DeNA executive advisor Toshihiko Seko is currently focusing on his duties as JAAF marathon development project leader and was not in the van at the time of the accident. With track races set to make a return in July after months of cancelations due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, corporate teams have begun to congregate in Sugadaira again to make use of its moderately high altitudes to get in base mileage. The DeNA team was set to begin its training today at between 1300 and 1500 m elevation in Sugadaira. The accident came as a surprise setback on the very first day o...

The DeNA Running Academy announced on June 10 that it will add a women's U-15 group aimed at junior high school students to its program beginning in August. Outsourcing the coaching to the Daiichi Seimei women's corporate team, the Tokyo branch of the program will be led by 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics marathoner Tomomi Tanaka , with former 5000 m national record holder Yasuko Harada handling the Hiratsuka program branch. Tanaka, who just retired from competition in February, commented, "I want to help develop athletes who can believe in the growth they are making toward achieving their dreams, and who will have the courage to take on the big challenges. I hope that this experience will help me continue to grow alongside them." The program is targeted toward girls in the first and second year of junior high school. Participants will be selected from among online applicants. For more information please see the program's website . source article: https://h...

Team captain Haruki Minatoya , Second Stage runner Shun Yuzawa and other 4th--years who helped lead Tokai University to its first-ever win at the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden graduated from Tokai at a ceremony at the university's Shonan Campus in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa on Mar. 25. "My greatest memory of these four years was, of course, winning the Hakone Ekiden this year," said Minatoya as Yuzawa smiled widely in agreement. Tokai beat four-time defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University by a margin of 3:41to take Japan's biggest win for the first time. The pair capped their four years pursuing Hakone dreams with the grandest of finales, but for both Minatoya and Yuzawa there were tough times along the way. "After I was named captain I couldn't run at all," said Minatoya. "It was really hard, and I was very sorry for what it meant for everyone else." At November's National University Ekiden Championships Minatoya started the Seventh Stage ...

On Nov. 13 Rikkyo University , which will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2024, announced its new "Rikkyo Hakone Ekiden 2024" project, naming DeNA corporate team runner Yuichiro Ueno , 33, as head coach of its ekiden program. A graduate of Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. and Hakone powerhouse Chuo University, Ueno has been well-known for his unique personality as well as his achievements both at those schools and at the SB and DeNA teams. He will leave DeNA at the end of November and take over at Rikkyo effective Dec. 1 to lead its ekiden team to qualify for the 100th Hakone Ekiden in 2024. He plans to remain active as an athlete, training directly alongside the athletes he will supervise. If successful it will be Rikkyo's first time qualifying for the Hakone Ekiden since 1968. For a school more than half a century removed from the Hakone frontlines Rikkyo's new development project is an ambitious one, and the appointment of the idiosyncratic Ueno as head coach...

Coached by JAAF Long Distance and Marathon Development Project team leader Toshihiko Seko , 62, the DeNA men's corporate team announced on Sept. 28 that it will no longer run ekidens. Last year it placed 3rd at the East Japan Corporate Ekiden, qualifying for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national championships where it placed a competitive 6th. However, this year it did not submit an entry for the Nov. 3 East Japan race, meaning it will not run the New Year Ekiden either. An official statement is expected to be released early next week. The DeNA team was founded in 2013. Including Seko, the majority of its staff and athletes came from the historic S&B corporate team following its dissolution. Prior to its termination S&B also stopped running ekidens. Led by 2012 London Olympics 10000 m 5th-placer Bedan Karoki of Kenya, the current team members will focus on their individual pursuits on the track and in the marathon in the coming seasons. The DeNA news followed shortly ...

JAAF Board of Directors member and Marathon Development Project leader Toshihiko Seko , 62, was given an official warning by the JAAF after making inappropriate comments to a female TV announcer. Seko acknowledged having made the remarks and expressed regret, saying, "I'd like to exercise more caution about what I say." According to the JAAF and the DeNA corporation where Seko serves as executive head coach of the men's ekiden team, at an afterparty following April's Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon where he was working as a guest commentator, Seko made inappropriate remarks toward a female TV announcer who was also attending the party. The announcer reported the incident to the network, who reassigned her superiors who had told her to attend the party. The DeNA corporate headquarters PR office confirmed in an interview that Seko had made the inappropriate remarks and that as an employer it had given him an official warning and apologized to the TV network where t...

Qualification for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships got underway on the Nov. 3 holiday in Japan's most competitive region, East Japan, with the 58th East Japan Corporate Men's Ekiden Championships . Running without half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara , 2015 winner Honda returned to the top with an exciting anchor stage win in 3:47:55 for the 7-stage, 77.5 km course. The Hitachi Butsuryu team's leading man Yuki Muta got them off to a good start on the opening stage, but a 1-2 punch from DeNA 's Kenta Murozuka and Bedan Karoki put DeNA 20 seconds ahead of the early leaders. 7th on the First Stage, Honda worked its way up to 3rd by the end of the Third Stage just a second behind Hitachi Butsuryu. Honda moved into 2nd on the next stage, but its gap to leader DeNA stayed steady at 21 seconds. Fujitsu passed Hitachi Butsuryu for 3rd thanks to a stage win from Ken Yokote , and a new stage record of 22:52 for the 7.8...

https://www.iaaf.org/news/report/jepchirchir-breaks-world-half-marathon-record The Ras Al-Khaimah Half was the fifth-straight win for Tokyo-based Bedan Karoki (DeNA RC), having won two track races in 24 hours at November's Nittai University Time Trials meet , the first a 10000 m in 27:07.30, a brilliant win in the most competitive January race in the world, the New Year Ekiden's 8.3 km Second Stage , and a tune-up for RAK with a win at the 10 km Discovery Cross meet in Kenya late last month.  Karoki is set to debut at April's London Marathon after a DNS there last year. photo © 2017 Dr. Helmut Winter all rights reserved

http://www.kenyanathlete.com/2016/08/why-kenyas-10000m-runner-bedan-karoki.html Bedan Karoki runs for the Shibuya-based DeNA corporate team where he is coached by 2:07 marathoner Tomoaki Kunichika and overseen by the legendary Toshihiko Seko .  Karoki is an early morning regular on the cross-country loop in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park.

by Brett Larner It’s an interesting and exciting time in Japan’s corporate leagues. Over the last five years there has been an unprecedented explosion of quality and depth at quality on the university scene at the hands of young, innovative coaches, on which more in a JRN feature next month, and its impact is starting to be felt at the more conservative corporate level. Last year’s New Year Ekiden national corporate men’s championships winner Toyota had an average age of 23.2, just out of university, for its 7-man team. First-year pros Shinobu Kubota (Toyota), Suguru Osako (Nissin Shokuhin) and twins Keita Shitara (Konica Minolta) and Yuta Shitara (Honda) were some of the day’s overall big players. This year there has been an even bigger influx of major talent ahead of the New Year Ekiden’s 60th running, with the celebrated Asahi Kasei team’s new star Kota Murayama breaking the 10000 m national record in 27:29.69 and cracking the all-time Japanese top 10 for 5000 m, h...

by Brett Larner Following other regional corporate league ekiden winners Honda (East Japan), Toyota (Chubu), YKK (Hokuriku), Otsuka Seiyaku (Kansai) and Mazda (Chubu), the Asahi Kasei team brought the qualification round for the 60th anniversary New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships to a close with a win by more than a kilometer at Monday's Kyushu Corporate Ekiden. The Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden is the primary reason for the existence of Japan's men's corporate team leagues and a nationally-televised event.  It is also one of the few championship ekidens without a seeded bracket, meaning that every team, even the winner, must run one of the November regional qualifying ekidens to re-qualify the next year.  This has a direct impact on Japanese men's ability to run fall marathons outside Japan. With a huge group of new team members this year Asahi Kasei did what every team should, using its regional qualifier as a way to get its rookies used...

http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20151104k0000m050015000c.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 朝チャン！ 東日本実業団駅伝 「いつも追いかけている仕事の警視庁。この日ばかりは必死で逃げます！」←思わず笑ってしまった(^O^) pic.twitter.com/nKLg7mMNcs — ku_min (@kunkun_san) November 3, 2015 Running from the Saitama Prefectural Government offices to Kumagaya Sports Park Field, 27 corporate men's teams raced the 56th running of the seven-stage, 77.5 km East Japan Corporate Ekiden on Nov. 3.  The local Honda team won for the first time in 3:47:09 after anchor Yuki Matsumura made up a 52-second deficit to run down leader Nissin Shokuhin .  Nissin Shokuhin finished 2nd for the fourth year in a row, with DeNA taking 3rd and Konica Minolta , in search of a fourth-straight win, finishing on 4th.  The top 15 teams qualified for the 60th running of the New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships on Jan. 1.  The new ND Software team was the 16th finisher, just missing making its New Year Ekiden debut by 3 second...

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00289305.html http://dena.com/running/news/2015/04/04-01.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Karoki and Seko backstage before the announcement. In the wake of Monday's Japan Industrial Track and Field Association press conference formally announcing the corporate federation's new Project Exceed 100 million yen [~$1 million USD at normal exchange rates] bonus program for a new Japanese marathon national record in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the DeNA corporate team held a press conference Tuesday at the DeNA offices in Shibuya, Tokyo to announce that its star runner, 2015 World Cross Country Championships silver medalist Bedan Karoki , has filed the necessary paperwork to transfer his citizenship from Kenya to Japan.  "Please look kindly upon me as I strive to bring Japan gold," Karoki said. Appearing at the press conference alongside Karoki were DeNA CEO Isao Moriyasu , executive head ...

On March 30, the Tokyo-based DeNA corporate team held a press conference to announce new members Kenta Murozuka  and Hiroki Sugawa .  Team management also announced that legend  Toshihiko Seko  will make a comeback to competitive marathoning after a 26-year absence in hopes of making the 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon team, switching roles from his current position as the team's head coach to becoming one of its twelve athletes. With the start of the new fiscal year today the team's roster page was updated to include the new team members and reflected Seko's new position on the team. Seko's athlete profile includes the following: Profile Born July 15, 1956 in Kuwana, Mie.  During his career he won ten out of his fifteen domestic and international marathons.  On the track he was also dominant, giving the Japanese national records a beating over an impressive range from 5000 m to the marathon and setting then-world records over 25,000 m a...

http://www.nation.co.ke/sports/athletics/Karoki-in-favour-of-searing-pace/-/1100/1929848/-/4huomuz/-/index.html Note: The photo caption in the linked article incorrectly identifies the athletes on the Kenyan 10000 m squad.  Kyushu-based Paul Tanui  (Team Kyudenko) is third from the right in red, while Tokyo-based Bedan Karoki  (DeNA RC) is rightmost in blue.

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20130718-1159625.html translated by Brett Larner Late last week in Tokyo the DeNA Running Club held its first public coaching session since the team was founded in April.  DeNA head coach Toshihiko Seko  (57) greeted fifteen amateur runners who responded to ads for the session, joking, "Let's have a good time running today.  This is a class, but the training session will be pretty leisurely.  School will really be in session when we go drinking afterwards." The session started at 7:00 p.m. in the busy Udagawacho shopping district of Shibuya, heading up Spain Hill to Yoyogi Park.  Meeting up with other runners already waiting in the park, the group ran together in Yoyogi Park before returning to the Tip.X Tokyo training gym in Udagawacho.  Altogether the session took around 1 1/2 hours. The DeNA Running Club formed to absorb the remnants of the S&B Foods team.  "DeNA was kind en...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20130404/ath13040405010000-n1.html http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/sports/other/headlines/article/20130403-00000012-spnavi http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/p-sp-tp0-20130404-1107367.html translated and edited by Brett Larner click here  and here for photos of the flamboyant DeNA uniform Inheriting the remnants of the historic S&B corporate team following its disbanding at the end of March, the new DeNA Running Club  introduced its uniform at a Tokyo-area press conference on April 3. With regard to the uniform's colorful design, supervising head coach Toshihiko Seko said, "They're going to have to be just as flashy in their running to pull off a uniform like this." This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late  Kiyoshi Nakamura , the mentor who led Seko to marathon greatness.  DeNA ace Yuichiro Ueno  plans to run his marathon debut this year.  "We're combining the old and the ...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2013/02/24/kiji/K20130224005268200.html http://dena.jp/press/2013/02/post-125.php translated and edited by Brett Larner With Team S&B 's longstanding sponsorship set to be eliminated at the end of next month due to a streamlining of operations,  Kensuke Takezawa , 26, announced that he will not join the rest of the team in moving to new sponsor DeNA .  His plans remain undecided. A 2008 Beijing Olympics track team member, Takezawa commented, "My path forward is something that I ultimately want to find by myself, under my own strength, and for this reason I've decided not to move with the team.  I need to re-examine myself and carefully consider the best course of action." The new DeNA team will become an official entity on April 1.  Previous announcements had said that all athletes and staff from the S&B team would transfer together. Kensuke Takezawa : Born Oct. 11, 1986 in Hyogo. 3000 m: 7:49.26    ...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2013/01/11/kiji/K20130111004955310.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Their ultimate goal is the stuff of dreams: a medal.  With their current sponsorship set to expire at the end of March, all twelve athletes and staff members on the S&B Foods team appeared at a Tokyo-area press conference on Jan. 10 to formally announce their new contract with cell phone video game maker DeNA.  Team DeNA supervising head coach Toshihiko Seko , who made the Japanese men's Olympic marathon team for Moscow in 1980, Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988, was clear about his grand ambitions for the new project: "We are going to produce athletes who can win a medal in the marathon at the Olympics.  With the Olympics coming to Tokyo in 2020 we're not interested in anything else.  I hope others will share in this dream." As a starting point, the team's first goal is to win the New Year Ekiden national championships within three yea...