japan running news

It looked like it was going to be a big weekend, and it delivered. For the 3rd time in his career Suguru Osako broke the men's marathon NR, running 1 second under the standing record to take 4th in the Valencia Marathon in 2:04:55. All the way to 40 km he was steady on 2:58/km, 2:05:10 pace, and like a surprising number of other people in both the men's and women's races, there was a massive jump over the last 2.195 km from his projected finish time to his actual one. His run put Osako back on top of the Japanese charts, put the average of Japan's 10 fastest marathon times of the year under 2:06 for the first time, and got him into the L.A. Olympics marathon trials. Valencia has been trying to get top-tier Japanese athletes to come for years, and now that they finally managed to do it it paid off in a big way. Expect more next year. Back home, former Takushoku University captain Derese Workneh won a 3-way race against Toyota teammates Kazuya Nishiyama and Bedan Ka...

Everything in Japanese marathoning is already about qualifying for the MGC Race, Japan's trials race for the L.A. Olympics. Scheduled the same day as the Fukuoka International Marathon, the Dec. 7 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon counts the same weight as Fukuoka, Tokyo and Osaka in men's qualification, with trials spots up to be had by the first 6 Japanese men under 2:09:00 and the first Japanese woman under 2:27:00. The only real contender to do that among the women is Mizuki Nishimura , running her first marathon off a 1:41:42 CR at the Kumanichi 30k in February. Given the Tenmaya corporate team's track record of success in the marathon, including the current women's NR of 2:18:59, her chances are pretty good. Ayumi Morita ran a 2:31:38 PB in Tokyo last year, but it's a big jump for her to get down to 2:26 and it'll mostly be a question of whether Nishimura executes the same way she did at Kumanichi. For men there are 6 under 2:09:00 in the last 3 years, with Ryoma T...

As if the results in Marugame weren't enough, university runners played a major role in the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon too. Expectations were that last year's Osaka Marathon winner Kiyoto Hirabayashi , captain of this season's Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden winner Koku Gakuin University and who set the collegiate and debut marathon records of 2:06:18 in winning Osaka, was going to dominate the race and the massive lead pack keyed off him most of the way. By Beppu standards pacing was fast, skimming just under 3:00/km through a 1:03:17 first half and 1:29:48 at 30 km. The lead pack was still 9-deep at that point, with Kenyans Vincent Kipchumba and Dominic Nyairo , last year's winner Derese Workneh , and 6 Japanese men, 2 from Koku Gakuin, 2 from Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University and 2 from the corporate leagues. Hirabayashi was quick to attack after the pacers stopped at 30 km, shaking off everyone except Kipchumba, 2:06:57 man Shohei Otsuk...