japan running news

by Brett Larner

Kebede vs. Mogusu - click for preview video

Update 12/5: 2005 World Championships bronze medalist and 2004 Fukuoka winner Tsuyoshi Ogata (Team Chugoku Denryoku) has withdrawn due to illness.

The 63rd Fukuoka International Marathon takes place this Sunday, Dec. 6. With the puzzling and almost total absence of elite Japanese runners this year the focus is rightfully on the foreign field, and the Japanese media are setting up the race as a two-man show. In the one corner, Beijing Olympics bronze medalist Tsegaye Kebede (Ethiopia) returns after setting the Japanese all-comers record of 2:06:10 at last year's race and then going on to take his PB down to 2:05:20 at the London Marathon in April. In the other, the popular and likeable Kenyan Mekubo Mogusu (Team Aidem), who became a star before graduating from Yamanashi Gakuin University this past April thanks to four years' worth of suicidal Hakone Ekiden runs and a hat-trick of sub-hour half marathons during his junior …

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20090512k0000e050013000c.html
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/flash/KFullFlash20090511085.html
http://www.kfb.co.jp/news/index.cgi?n=2009051212

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On May 11 the Japanese University Athletics Association announced the 30-member team for July's World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia. Among the young men and women on the team are a number of Beijing Olympians, among them 400 m runner Yuzo Kanemaru (Hosei Univ.), and sprinters Momoko Takahashi (Heisei Gakuin Univ.), Mitsuharu Abiko and Hitoshi Saito (both of Tsukuba Univ.). Racewalker Masumi Fuchise (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) will join the team as preparation for August's World Championships in Berlin, and popular Hakone Ekiden star Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.) will lead the men's long distance track contingent in the 10000 m. Sota Hoshi (Komazawa Univ.) will be the top Japanese man in the half marathon.

National team head coach Mitsugi Ogata co…

http://www.kahoku.co.jp/news/2009/05/20090510t14030.htm
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/f-sp-tp0-20090510-492731.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On a Rikuren-certified 21.0975 km course starting at the Sendai Civic Track and Field Grounds in Sendai's Miyagino Ward and ending in front of City Hall in Aoba Ward, Berlin World Championships marathon team member Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) ran 1:08:50 to win the 19th Sendai International Half Marathon on May 10. The mother of a nearly three year old daughter, Akaba's first win in Sendai fittingly came on Mother's Day.

Running in cloudy but warm and humid conditions which saw few athletes clock their best times, Akaba dropped the three others in the lead pack after only 8 km. 2nd place finisher Julia Mombi (Team Aruze) was over 2 1/2 minutes behind, while Hiroko Shoi (Team Nihon ChemiCon) came up from 45 seconds behind at 10 km to take 3rd, just missing catching Mombi but earning one of the only PBs in the top 10.…

by Brett Larner

The 19th edition of the Sendai International Half Marathon takes place May 10. The second of Japan's three selection races for its World Half Marathon national team, Sendai features some of the country's top pro and university runners on both the women's and men's side along with a good number of Japan-resident Kenyan aces. Setting Sendai apart from the other Japanese half marathons with the 'international' title is its policy of inviting groups of three amateur runners from Sendai's sister cities around the world rather than professionals.

Unquestionably the main attraction at this year's race is the season debut of Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren). Akaba's spectacular 2008 began with her running 1:08:11 to win the Jitsugyodan Half Marathon and break the course record set by Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex). Her time made Akaba the third-fastest Japanese woman ever, and she went on to duplicate the feat over 5000 m and 10000 m. She ran in both…

by Brett Larner

As he kicks off his second year of professional running, Ethiopian steeplechase national record holder Yacob Jarso (Team Honda) continues to solidify his hold on the title of best African on the Japanese pro circuit. For the second time this month Jarso outkicked rivals Josephat Ndambiri (Team Komori Corp.) and Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) to win, this time with an extended push over the last lap of the Hyogo Relay Carnival Grand Prix 10000 m in Kobe on Apr. 26. Strong winds and high temperatures following a storm front kept times comparatively slow, but although his winning time of 27:38.67 cleared the World Championships A-standard of 27:47.00 Jarso was unsatisfied. "In my country," he told reporters following the race, "this kind of time is not good enough to make the national team. I must try harder next time."

World Cross Country Championships team member Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) was the only Japanese runner to try to run …

http://www.kahoku.co.jp/news/2009/04/20090415t14022.htm
http://www.sendaihalf.com/jp/document/2009news0414a3.pdf

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The 19th edition of the Sendai International Half Marathon takes place May 10. Headlining the women's and men's fields are Beijing 5000 m and 10000 m Olympian Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) and 2004 Athens Olympics men's marathon 6th place finisher Toshinari Suwa (Team Nissin Shokuhin). Akaba made her marathon debut this year at the Osaka International Women's Marathon, finishing 2nd overall. This will be her fourth time running Sendai. Suwa was 7th in the 2007 Osaka World Championships marathon and continues to be one of the strongest of Japan's marathon men.

In the women's race, last year's runner-up Julia Mombi (Team Aruze) and 3rd place finisher and Sendai native Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon) will return. Joining them are 2009 Osaka Half Marathon winner Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC) and former world-cla…

by Brett Larner

Kenyans Joseph Gitau (Team JFE Steel) and Danielle Filomena Cheyech (Team Uniqlo) held off fast-closing Beijing Olympics marathoners Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya) to win the 2009 National Jitsugyodan Half Marathon Championships. Conditions were ideal and led to fast times overall, with most of the top ten runners in both the men's and women's races clocking new PBs. Gitau, nursing a heavily taped left knee, broke away just before 15 km to take the win in 1:01:23 with an extended push, while Cheyech improved on her PB in the runner-up position at last year's Jitsugyodan Half by leading start to finish and clocking a new PB of 1:08:44.

Top Japanese finishers Sato and Nakamura secured places on the national team for this year's World Half Marathon Championships should they choose to run. Sato, who used the race as final preparation run for next month's London Marathon where he will try to secure a spot on the Wor…

by Brett Larner

click here for race photos

The Men`s Race
Mekubo Mogusu of Yamanashi Gakuin University successfully defended his title at the 2008 Sapporo International Half Marathon, winning in a time of 1:00:52. Mogusu, in peak shape after a recent 10000 m PB of 27:27 and a half marathon course record at the Kanto University Championships, set out hard and gapped the entire field within the first 100 m. Only Chuo Gakuin University senior Masato Kihara pursued Mogusu, hanging behind the course record holder through the first 4 km. It was a familiar pattern as Kihara had also pursued Mogusu at last year`s Yosenkai 20 km road race and this year`s Hakone Ekiden 2nd stage.

Although Mogusu showed signs of maturity in his running during 2007 after two years of spectacular failures, in Sapporo he fell victim to a fatal flaw he has displayed time and again, an inability to cope with competitors running near him. While he claimed afterwards to have been pursuing a world record, Mogusu responded t…

by Brett Larner

After an earlier preliminary announcement of its invited elites, the Sapporo International Half Marathon has released the complete field for this year`s 51st running on Sunday, June 15. Normally held in July, this year`s competition was moved to June due to the upcoming G-8 summit in Toyako, near Sapporo. Considering the dramatic difference in Japan`s weather between mid-June and mid-July, the date change will probably help to put the course records up for grabs. The Japanese runners in the field have the added motivation that the top domestic man and woman will be selected for the Japanese team at this fall`s World Half Marathon Championships.

By far the favorite in the men`s race is defending champion Mekubo Mogusu (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.). Mogusu ran a solo 59:54 to win last year`s race in course record time. This year he comes fresh from setting a sizeable PB in the 10000 m and breaking his own course record in the half marathon at last month`s Kanto Regional Univers…

by Brett Larner

Athens Olympic marathon gold medalist and Japanese marathon national record holder Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) successfully defended her title at the Sendai International Half Marathon on May 11, running 1:08:25 to beat her time from last year`s race by 29 seconds and erase doubts about her fitness level after a spring filled with minor setbacks. The Sendai course, which features a 35 m elevation gain over the final 9 km, played to Noguchi`s strengths as she employed a similar strategy to that she used in winning last November`s Tokyo International Women`s Marathon.

Noguchi went out hard, running course record pace through 15 km despite the cold, rainy conditions which blanketed most of Japan over the weekend. Despited dropping off record pace, she applied pressure on rival Julia Mombi (Team Aruze) of Kenya over the length of the uphill, finally breaking away with an attack around 20 km. Mombi held on to finish 2nd in 1:08:31, a sizeable PB over her previous best mark o…

by Brett Larner

On May 8, the Sendai International Half Marathon released the names of the invited runners for this year`s 18th edition, to be held May 11 in Sendai. Headlining the field are Japanese national marathon record holders Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) and Toshinari Takaoka (Team Kanebo).

Noguchi will be using Sendai as a tune-up for the Beijing Olympics after a spring season which saw her drop out of her other preparatory races after a series of minor setbacks. She is the defending champion, having won last year`s Sendai in a strong 1:08:54, and is also the overwhelming favorite in a somewhat limited women`s field which includes only one other Japanese runner with a PB under 1:10. Her strongest competition will likely come from Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon), a member of Japan`s team at last year`s World Road Running Championships, and Kei Terada (Team Tenmaya), 2nd place finisher at last year`s Universiad Half Marathon Championships. Machida`s teammate Hiroko Shoi also ha…