japan running news

Japan's biggest time trial meet was back for its 296th edition this weekend, with everything except the men's 5000 m on Saturday and 20 heats of that distance on Sunday at Yokohama's Nittai University Time Trials . In Saturday's main event, the men's 10000 m Heat 7, Justus Soget (Honda) just missed hitting the 27:28.00 qualifying mark for July's Oregon World Championships, running a 27:30.31 PB for the win. 2nd through 6th were all under 27:40 and 7th-place Nicholas Kosimbei (YKK) coming through in 27:44.68, making it one of the deepest races on the books at Nittai. Minato Oishi (Toyota) was the fastest Japanese man, 11th in 28:27.52. Helen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) had an easy win in the women's 5000 m Heat 2, the only runner under 15:30 in 15:27.96. 2nd in 15:52.14, Haruka Kokai (Daiichi Seimei) was the only other runner under 16:00. Desta Burka (Denso) won the women's 3000 Heat 4 in 9:01.75 by almost 5 seconds over Momoka Kawaguchi (Toyota J...

Two top international meets over the weekend featured some of Japan's best track athletes. Women's 10000 m year leader Yuka Takashima (Team Shiseido) ran in the Netherlands' FBK Games on Saturday. Far off the 31:33.33 PB she set last month at the Payton Jordan meet in California, Takashima managed only 33:08.76 for 12th of 13 finishers nearly two and a half minutes behind Ethiopian winner Gelete Burka 's world-leading 30:40.87. Racing for the first time since his debut at April's Boston Marathon , Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) ran the 5000 m Sunday at the Portland Track Festival. Clearing 13:30 for the first time since his Japanese national record two years ago, Osako was 3rd in 13:25.56 just over two seconds behind Kirubel Erassa (U.S.A.) and Morgan McDonald (Australia). Still three seconds shy of the 13:22.60 qualifying standard for August's London World Championships, Osako's performance means that at the time of writing the only Japanese ma...

by Brett Larner Japan-based Africans Gideon Ngatuny (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) and Yacob Jarso (Ethiopia/Team Honda) had their first meeting outside the country when they ran the FBK Games 5000 m in Hengelo, the Netherlands, on June 1. Ethiopian Ali Abdosh won in a world-leading 12:59.56 with Kenyan greats Augustine Choge, Eliud Kipchoge and Edwin Soi in a tight pack close behind, but neither Ngatuny nor Jarso could make a dent in the field. Ngatuny ran a season-best 13:12.02, just 0.41 seconds off his best and beating Jarso for the first time this season but well back from the top in 11th place. Ethiopian 3000 mSC national record holder Jarso's time of 13:21.79 was 2 1/2 seconds off his two week-old PB but good enough only for 15th. Complete results for the FBK Games 5000 m and other events are available here . (c) 2009 Brett Larner all rights reserved