japan running news

by Brett Larner

In the absence of any serious competition, Madoka Ogi (Team Juhachi Ginko) won the women's race at the Rock 'n' Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon Sept. 5. Ogi's time of 1:14:17 was unremarkable but good enough to win by a margin of nearly a minute and a half over a field which included Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Constantina Dita (Romania) and world trail running champion Fiona Docherty (New Zealand). Along with Seattle winner Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz), Ogi is the second Japanese woman to win a Rock 'n' Roll-brand half marathon this year. Japanese men also fared decently in Virginia Beach, taking five of the top ten spots led by 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) in 1:03:57 for 4th behind Kenyan Yusuf Songoka's 1:02:46 winning performance. Click here to read the official press release on Songoka and Ogi's wins.

Across the ocean, formerly Japan-based Africans took both of the top spot…

http://www.iaaf.org/WHM09/news/kind=100/newsid=54596.html

by Brett Larner
As in past years, Rikuren selected top male and female finishers from this year's Jitsugyodan Half Marathon corporate championships to run in the 2009 Great Scottish Run half marathon in Glasgow, Scotland on Sept. 6. Leading the way with a 3rd place finish in the women's race was 2008 Shanghai Half Marathon winner Megumi Seike (Team Sysmex). 2009 Miyazaki Women's Half Marathon winner Maki Suzawa (Team Kyocera) was 5th in 1:18:24. Caroline Cheptonui Kilel of Kenya took the women's race in a solid 1:09:03. In February Kilel took the stage best honors on the third leg of the final Yokohama International Women's Ekiden before crashing in March's Nagoya International Women's Marathon.
A sizeable Japanese contingent in the men's race also took four of the top ten spots, with Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) the best Japanese man in 5th. Former Team Honda ace Hailu Mekonnen of Ethiopia was the runner-up in 1:01:29, ten seconds behind win…

by Brett Larner


Yuki Iwai reaches the finish of the 2009 Asahi Ekiden in world record time. Click photo for video highlights. The clip of Iwai's run begins at time index 8:16.


Still smarting from landing 3rd in the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden's sprint finish, Team Asahi Kasei came up from 3rd place to win the 60th Asahi Ekiden on Jan. 12 thanks to a stage-record run by anchor Yuki Iwai. Iwai covered the 16.7 km 7th stage in an astonishing 45:35, with the next fastest runner clocking 47:27. Iwai's pace was just under 2:44 / km, equivalent to 40:57 for 15km. The 15 km world record of 41:29 is held by Kenyan great Felix Limo. It was Team's Asahi Kasei's 3rd-straight Asahi Ekiden win and its 27th in the event's 60 runnings.

Team Asahi Kasei rival Team Honda was highly focused on the win after a dismal showing at the New Year Ekiden, taking two stage best titles. After leading the second half of the race on the strength of a stage-best run by Ethiopian ace Hailu Mekonnen th…

by Brett Larner

Two weeks after running a course record 1:00:11 to win the Nagoya Half Marathon in his debut at the distance, Team Nissin Shokuhin's Masai Kenyan ringer Gideon Ngatuny won Kyushu's elite Kumamoto Kosa 10 Mile Road Race, clocking 45:15 and beating runner-up Hailu Mekonnen of Team Honda by 44 seconds. Teammates Samuel Ndungu and Jacob Wajuki of Team Aichi Steel came in together in 46:32 to round out the top positions.

Curiously, Kumamoto Kosa organizers scored the four African runners, all of whom are based in Japan and run professionally for Japanese teams, in a separate 'International Division' with a one-minute head start over the 'General Division,' which was made up exclusively of professional Japanese runners including many of the African runners' nominal teammates. Although the International Division ran first and the 'winner' of the General Division, Ngatuny's fellow Nissin runner Kosaku Hoshina, clocked only 46:40, slower th…