japan running news

What do you know, it's another big weekend. The last chance for Japan's marathoners to go the easy route for qualifying for September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials by placing among the top six Japanese finishers at the Nagoya Women's Marathon and Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon. Traditionally they're a week apart with Nagoya marking the end of the season, but with the Tokyo Marathon moving the Lake Biwa's usual date the first Sunday in March due to the impending Imperial succession the JAAF has opted to stage Nagoya and Lake Biwa back-to-back the same day.

In the morning comes Nagoya. The upper end of the domestic field took a hit with the expansion of Tokyo's women's field this year, but there's no shortage of talent from 2:24 on down. Only nine women have qualified for the MGC Race to date, but given the depth of the field it'll be a true shock if nobody hits the standards. #1-ranked Japanese woman Reia Iwade (Under Armour) already has …

For years the Hakone Ekiden has been a Day One blowout, the uphill Fifth Stage that ends it basically deciding the winner on Day Two. Last year 2014 winner Toyo University won Day One only to fall victim to the superior depth of Aoyama Gakuin University, which ran Toyo down to score a fourth-straight win at Japan's biggest race.

This year Toyo again took the Day One title, opening an almost insurmountable 5:30 lead over AGU. Bigger problems faced it, though, in the form of #1-ranked Tokai University just 1:14 behind. Tokai head coach Hayashi Morozumi was one of Japan's most successful high school coaches while at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S., beneficiaries of his cross-country-based principles including current marathon national record holder Suguru Osako. Since arriving at Tokai it has taken him time to get his system up and running for college-aged athletes, the last few seasons exceeding AGU on paper but coming up short at the main event.

But today was Tokai's day. To…