japan running news

interview by Brett Larner


Hara and Deki at the Aoyama Gakuin University ekiden team's dormitory, 2/29/12.

Aoyama Gakuin University junior Takehiro Deki has been one of the bigger surprises on the Kanto region university men’s circuit over the last year and a half. He emerged from nowhere at the October, 2010 Takashimadaira 20 km road race to tie the 58:51 course record held by former Tokai University great Hideaki Date, then followed up with an upper-echelon mark of 1:07:50 for 23.2 km on the Hakone Ekiden’s most competitive stage to prove Takashimadaira wasn’t a fluke. Since then he has steadily improved over shorter distances, but his greatest aptitude has continued to be for longer distances with another win at Takashimadaira and a 1:07:26 on the same Hakone stage, the all-time #8 mark and the 4th-best ever by a Japanese runner.

Following Hakone came the surprising news that Deki would make an early marathon debut at age 21 at this year’s Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the final O…

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp201102220241.html

translated by Brett Larner

Making a bid for places on the national team for this summer's World Championships in Daegu, Korea, two members of Team Chugoku Denryoku, Naoki Okamoto and Hideaki Date, will be on the starting line of this Sunday's Tokyo Marathon. For Okamoto, 26, it will be his second marathon. The 25 year old Date will be making his debut. Since 2001 every World Championships and Olympics men's marathon team has featured members of the Chugoku Denryoku team, and these two young athletes are now charged with carrying on the team's legacy.

"It wasn't sweet." That is how Okamoto looks back on his debut at last year's Tokyo Marathon, where he finished 23rd in 2:23:06. Coming to the race with problems with his right Achilles, Okamoto was in questionable condition to run a marathon and, combined with the freezing cold rain at last year's Tokyo, fell off the lead pack just before 30 km. He …

by Brett Larner

Last weekend's Osaka International Women's Marathon and this weekend's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon and Meigi Ekiden mark the transition from ekiden season to Japan's short but dense late-winter marathon season. Six elite marathons are crammed into a seven-week span, but there is more. In February and March Japan hosts an array of competitive 10 milers, half marathons and 30 km road races both as marathon tune-ups and target races for those focusing on the intermediate distances. While the pointy ends of these races may often be somewhat blunted relative to smaller but wealthier races in Europe and the Arabian peninsula, many of the Japanese races top the worldwide lists in overall quality and depth. The conclusion of the Kyoto City Half Marathon last year as Kyoto prepares to host a large-scale full marathon means other races stand to benefit, as was clear at last weekend's Osaka Half Marathon where six men broke the course record.

Feb. 7 sees two co…

by Brett Larner

Japanese teams performed strongly at the 10th Asian Cross Country Championships in Bahrain on Mar. 1, bringing home three individual medals and team medals in three of the four team categories. Running against teams of African mercenaries masquerading as national teams belonging to Qatar and Bahrain, the Japanese senior women's team brought home the gold medal led by Aya Nagata's individual bronze medal performance, with Tomoka Inadomi and Risa Shigetomo rounding out the scoring positions in 4th and 5th.

The junior men's scorers placed identically, Shota Hattori earning a bronze medal and his teammates Yuki Oshikawa and Kyohei Nishi coming 4th and 5th, but the team received only the silver medal as they were beaten by one point by a Bahraini team made up of two Kenyans and one Ethiopian.

The junior women's team also won silver, again with a bronze medal run from Aki Odagiri followed by team scoring 4th and 5th placings by Rei Ohara and Sairi Maeda. Like th…

by Brett Larner


Less than a week after a brilliant run in the Izumo Ekiden, Toyo University senior Tomoya Onishi barely missed becoming the second university student to break the hour mark on the Takashimadaira Road Race's 20 km course, winning his second straight Takashimadaira title in 1:00:05.

Takashimadaira serves as an early-season tuneup for Tokyo-area universities, with three or four schools sending a mix of ace runners wanting a controlled time trial effort on the roads and B-squad members who did not run in either the previous week's Izumo Ekiden or the previous day's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai [Qualifying] 20 km but still have a chance of making the final team for Hakone.

Toyo fielded a full squad including half its team from the Oct. 13 Izumo Ekiden, but gave star first-year Ryuji Kashiwabara and Izumo team members Hiroyuki Uno and Masaya Mori a rest. Izumo Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University sent a smaller group, none of whom had run Izumo. Kanagawa University and Sh…

by Brett Larner

5000 m national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica-Minolta), women`s 1500 m national record holder Yuriko Kobayashi, university star Yuki Sato (Tokai University) and Sato`s former teammate Hideaki Date, making his professional debut with Team Chugoku Denryoku, are scheduled to headline the Japanese contingent at the May 4 Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University. Stanford has historically been an important meet for Japanese runners, with marks including Toshinari Takaoka`s 10000 m national record set at the meet.

Japanese entrants by event:

Men`s 800 - Heat 3
Taiki Tsutsumi (Team Acom), PB: 1:49.22

Men`s 1500 - Heat 2
Yasuhiro Tago (Team Chugoku Denryoku), PB: 3:40.36

Men`s 10000 - Heat 1
Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica-Minolta), PB: 27:50.20
Yuki Sato (Tokai University), PB: 27:51.65
Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo), PB: 27:53.92
Yuki Nakamura (Team Kanebo), PB: 28:12.37
Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku), PB: 28:15.52
Suehiro Ishikawa (Team Honda), PB: 28:18.30
Hide…

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp200802220082.html

translated by Brett Larner

Tsuyoshi Ogata (Team Chugoku Denryoku) left for New Zealand on Feb. 21 to attend a Rikuren-sponsored training camp where he will begin preparations for this summer's Beijing Olympics. Membership on the Olympic marathon team will be announced Mar. 10, but, Ogata says, "To have good results in summer races this is the most important time to train hard. I'm just going ahead with preparations without worrying about the selection."

Ogata was 5th at last summer's Osaka World Championships. His Chugoku Denryoku teammate Atsushi Sato was the top Japanese finisher at December's Fukuoka International Marathon, meaning that he will probably also be selected for the team. The 3rd and final chance for runners to qualify will be the Biwako Mainichi Marathon on Mar. 2., so Ogata's fate will not be decided until after that race. "I'm not worrying about it," he said. "I'l…

by Brett Larner

1st Stage: 21.4 km
The 1st stage began with a slow pace of 3:06 per km. 5 km passed in 15:21, 10 km in 31:06 and 15 km in 46:16 with all twenty runners still together. As the 16th km escalated to 2:53, rookie *** of defending champions Juntendo University was the first to drop off with leg pains which almost caused him to stop around 17.5 km. Toyo University`s Tomoya Onishi launched the first attack at 16.5 km, dropping four teams besides Juntendo. Over the next 4 km attacks by East Japan Select Team member *** of *** University, Naoki Sato of Josai University and *** of Komazawa University whittled the pack down to 10. Onishi made his final move with 700 m to go, but Sato was able to respond, taking 1st with 200 m left. (Koma) and *** of Waseda University took the exhausted Onishi just before the handoff zone.

1. Josai: 1:04:37 (Naoki Sato, 2nd yr.)
2. Komazawa: 1:04:40 (***)
3. Waseda: 1:04:41 (***)
4. Toyo: 1:04:41 (Tomoya Onishi, 3rd yr.)
5. Chuo: 1:04:42 (***)

2nd Stage: …