japan running news

by Brett Larner

@JRNHeadlinespic.twitter.com/uqE9UrqAYw — John O'Regan (@johnoregan777) November 29, 2016
Hideaki Yamauchi become the fourth Japanese man in the last ten years to win the IAU 100 km World Championships, coming from three minutes behind to outrun South Africa's Bongmusa Mthembu, Italian three-time world champion Giorgio Calcaterra and others to win Sunday's race in Los Alcazares, Spain by nearly six minutes.  Yamauchi's winning time of 6:18:22 was the fifth-fastest ever for the 100 km distance, making him the all-time #4 man worldwide just behind world record holder Takahiro Sunada.  Yamauchi's teammates Kaitaro Toike and Yoshiki Takada took 8th and 23rd, giving Japan the team silver medal by a slim margin behind South Africa.  The U.S.A. team took bronze on the strength of two top five finishes.

No Japanese women scored individual medals, but with a 5-6-7 finish separated by only 17 seconds the trio of Mikiko Ota, Aiko Kanematsu and Chiyuki Mochizuki …

by Brett Larner

Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) came into 2014 off a legendary year that saw him set 3 world records, running 2:09 marathons 14 days apart, 2:08 marathons 42 days apart and 4 sub-2:10 marathons within one calendar year.  His main goals for 2014 were clear enough: a sub-2:08 and a gold medal at October's Asian Games.  And, not content with 11 marathons last year, this year he turned it up to 13, going sub-2:20 in all of them to surpass American great Doug Kurtis' best of 12. Italian Giorgio Calcaterra ran 16 sub 2:20 marathons in 2000, but only 6 were sub-2:17.  All 13 of Kawauchi's cleared 2:17, 9 of them faster than Calcaterra's 2000 best of 2:13:15.


Kawauchi started off with the race he identified as his best of the year, a solo 2:10:14 course record at the amateur-level Kumamoto-jo Marathon without pacers, competitors or special drinks.  Running by feel he went far faster than planned, an effort that he paid for 2 weeks later at the Lake Biwa …

by Brett Larner

For the second-straight year, Shinji Nakadai (Harriers AC) was the top Japanese man at the IAU 100 km World Championships, held this year in Winschoten, Netherlands.  The defending individual men's world champion, Nakadai made no attempt to follow the reckless early pace set by eventual winner Giorgio Calcaterra, who averaged as fast as 3:42/km in the first stages of the race.  Neither did any of the other athletes in the field, as Calcaterra took the world title by a margin of over 15 minutes.  The strong American squad kept three men in the top pack throughout the race and ended up taking the individual silver and bronze medals as well as team gold led by veteran Michael Wardian.  Nakadai faded after 80 km, taking 5th in 6:48:32, but thanks in large part to a solid 10th-place run by teammate Yoshiki Takada Japan was able to nail down the team silver medal by just 1:51 over Calcaterra's Italy squad which went home with bronze.

The women's race saw a simila…

by Brett Larner

Click here for photos from the 100 km World Cup.

Japan's Yasukazu Miyazato upset defending world champion Giorgio Calcaterra of Italy to take the men's 100 km title at the 2009 IAU 100 km World Cup in Belgium on June 19. The Japanese men likewise took the team title thanks to Masakazu Takahashi's 5th place and Mitsuru Shinohara's 11th place finishes. All three Japanese men broke the 7 hour mark, and the team's 4th and 5th men Toru Sakuta and Shinji Nakadai were both in the top 25.

The course consisted of five loops of approximately 20 km each. Brazil's Marcio De Oliveira took the early lead, covering the first loop in 1:28:17. A chase pack including Miyazato, Takahashi, Calcaterra, Daniel Oralek of the Czech Republic and Italian Antonio Armuzzi sat nearly a minute back. On the second loop De Oliveira accelerated while Oralek and the two Japanese runners held a steady pace. The two Italians lost contact with the chase pack.

By the end of the third lo…