japan running news

by Brett Larner



His career marked by more ups and downs than virtually any other elite marathoner, London Olympian Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) pulled yet another surprise comeback out of nowhere on a week's notice to win the hot and humid Hokkaido Marathon in Sapporo on Sunday.  One of only five Japanese men to ever win a marathon outside Japan under 2:10, after a mid-race surge Fujiwara's strategy evoked his course record-setting 2010 Ottawa Marathon win, waiting until the final km before going for a long surge over a group of five including his training partner and 2010 Hokkaido winner Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Arata Project), 2015 Nagano Marathon runner-up Tomohiro Tanigawa (Team Konica Minolta) and others.  Fujiwara crossed the finish line to claim his second career marathon victory in 2:16:49, one of the slower winning times in recent Hokkaido history but a full 11 seconds over Njui in the final kilometer.

Njui held off Tanigawa, who previously felt the sting of Fujiwara's fi…

by Brett Larner

This year's 29th edition of the Hokkaido Marathon features an all-Japanese invited elite field led by sub-2:11 men Hideaki Tamura (Team JR Higashi Nihon) and Ryosuke Fukuyama (Team Honda) and 2011 World Championships marathoner and defending women's champion Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease).  The race will take place simultaneously with the Beijing World Championships women's marathon.

Hokkaido Marathon
Sapporo, Hokkaido, 8/30/15
click here for detailed field listing

Men
Hideaki Tamura (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:10:54 (Biwako 2013)
Ryosuke Fukuyama (Honda) - 2:10:59 (Biwako 2013)
Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta) - 2:11:39 (Nagano 2015)
Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) - 2:12:11 (Nobeoka 2014)
Tatsunari Hirayama (Yasukawa Denki) - 2:12:38 (Nobeoka 2013)
Yu Chiba (Honda) - 2:13:19 (Beppu-Oita 2013)

Women
Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease) - 2:24:57 (Osaka Women's 2012)
Chieko Kido (Canon AC Kyushu) - 2:29:08 (Osaka Women's 2015)
Aki Odagiri (Tenmaya) - 2:30:24 (Nagoya…

http://www.jiji.com/jc/zc?k=201204/2012041700066&g=spo
http://www.jiji.com/jc/zc?k=201204/2012041700070&g=spo

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Mayumi Fujita (Team Juhachi Ginko) finished 7th at the 2012 Boston Marathon, giving herself a modest assessment as she said, "The conditions were really bad, so more than being a measurement of my own ability I was just lucky to finish."  Due to the heat at this year's Boston the race got off at a very slow pace.  Fujita opted to handle the situation by running steadily in hopes that, "by waiting and hanging on it would be first-come-first-serve at the finish."  Letting the pack go when the pace accelerated, in the later stages of the race she picked off other athletes one by one as she advanced through the field, ultimately finishing as the first non-African.  Looking to the future she said, "I'd like to become more competitive.  I think I can get to the 2:26-2:27 level."

Making his marathon debu…

by Brett Larner

Traditionally held one week apart, the world's two top 30 km races, the Kumanichi 30 km in southern Japan and the Ome 30 km in Tokyo's mountainous western suburbs, were both held Feb. 19 this year.

With over 17000 runners in this year's field Ome has long been a popular mass-participation event along with hosting an elite race, but Kumanichi has typically been an elite-only event with only a few dozen men and a handful of women.  Keeping with the explosion of mass-participation events, this year Kumanichi incorporated a new amateur full marathon, the Kumamotojo Marathon with a field of 10000, while keeping the small elite 30 km division on a new course covering most of the marathon course.  The leading candidate for the London Olympics 10000 m squad, Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta) took things in stride in his second Kumanichi appearance, splitting a solo 14:25 for the first 5 km well ahead of world record pace.  Although he slowed progressively for t…

2010 Hakodate Half Marathon
click here for complete results
Women
1. Kaori Yoshida (Amino Vital AC) - 1:12:48
2. Eri Hayakawa (Amino Vital AC) - 1:16:24
3. Erina Muta (Team Noritz) - 1:16:49

Men
1. Yuko Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:04:06
2. Takehiro Arakawa (Asahi Kasei) - 1:04:11
3. Daisuke Matsufuji (Kanebo) - 1:04:13

2010 Ichinoseki International Half Marathon
click here for complete results
Women
1. Kana Nomura (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 1:19:31

Men
1. Akinori Iida (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:37
2. Masaru Yamaki (Josai Univ.) - 1:04:42
3. Hideaki Tamura (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 1:04:44

by Brett Larner



Tokai University took the top spot at the 2010 National University Ekiden Kanto Region Qualifier track meet June 26 at Tokyo's National Stadium. With the top six schools at last year's Nationals seeded for this year's championships on Nov. 7, other schools across the country must compete in regional qualifier meets this month to requalify. Consisting of four 10000 m heats of forty runners, each made up of two runners from twenty schools, the combined times of the eight runners from each school are used to determine the team scores at the Kanto Region Qualifier. The five fastest overall schools go on to Nationals.

Tokai came out first on a windy but rain-free evening thanks to strong showings from Heat Four sophomore aces Akinobu Murasawa and Tsubasa Hayakawa along with a Heat Three win from star frosh Daichi Motomura. Joining Tokai at Nationals will be Josai Univ., Kokushikan Univ., Teikyo Univ. and Nittai Univ. Takushoku Univ. missed out on making the cut de…