japan running news

1951 Boston Marathon champion  Shigeki Tanaka , Japan's first winner of the prestigious race and a survivor of the Hiroshima nuclear attack less than six years earlier, passed away on Oct. 4. He was 91. A memorial service will be held at 10:00 on Oct. 12 at 719 Joyake-cho, Utsunomiya.  photo © 1951 Leslie Jones, all rights reserved source article: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/e5e3fa8399e237317d641f433c17a90ac5371063 translated and edited by Brett Larner

Scheduled to happen Nov. 3 with a field of over 10,000 runners, the Hiroshima International Peace Marathon  has been canceled for the third year in a row due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The event's organizing committee announced the news saying, "While there are signs that activities within society are beginning to return, there is still uncertainty about the future course of the pandemic, and in our determination it would be difficult to put on an event with over 10,000 participants in a way that could guarantee the safety of all those involved." The Hiroshima International Peace Marathon starts and finishes at Balcom BMW Stadium in western Hiroshima, running around the Commerce and Industry Center. Over 10,000 runners from across the country take part across the event's 10 km, 5 km, 1 km and wheelchair 5 km divisions, but since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 it has now been canceled for three straight years. Translator's note: The ...

Ahmed Salah and Takeyuki Nakayama duel at the 1985 Hiroshima World Cup marathon.

At a press conference in Hiroshima on Mar. 20 national 100 yen shop chain Daiso Sangyo announced its sponsorship of the new Daiso women's ekiden team beginning Apr. 1 this year. The new team's inaugural head coach will be local Sera H.S. coaching legend Shinya Iwamoto , 53. The team's initial roster will include five 18-year-old athletes who graduated from high school this month, three of them from Sera including the team's star runner Koto Hiramura . Iwamoto was born in Higashi Hiroshima. As a senior at Sera H.S. he won the Fourth Stage at the National High School Ekiden, going on to attend Fukuoka University. After graduating he became a junior high school teacher before becoming head coach of the Sera boys in 2004. In 2006 Sera won the National High School Ekiden for the first time in 32 years. In 2010 Iwamoto became the Sera girls' head coach as well, and in 2015 the school became only the second in history to win both the boys' and girls' nati...

The Chugoku Denryoku and Mazda men's corporate teams raced each other to new heights at the 56th Hiroshima Corporate Ekiden , each taking over two minutes off the course record Mazda set just last year. 5 of the race's 6 stages saw new records with runners from both teams breaking the record on 3 of them. Mazda's Kenji Yamamoto took an early lead on the opening stage, but on every remaining stage the two teams swapped position, Mazda never more than 13 seconds in front and Chugoku Denryoku never more than 28.  Chugoku Denryoku anchor Kaido Kita was down 13 seconds when he took the tasuki, but with only 5.49 km to work with he managed to turn that around and open 17 seconds on Mazda anchor Shori Arai after catching him. Mazda's record for the 43.82 km course was 2:08:10. This year Chugoku Denryoku won in 2:05:52 with Mazda running 2:06:09. 3rd-placer Chudenko was also just off the record at 2:08:20, briefly taking the lead on the Second Stage thanks to a stage ...

by Brett Larner click here for video highlights of the first 19 years of the National Men's Ekiden Ekiden season rolls on for a few weeks more, but Sunday's 20th anniversary National Men's Ekiden marks the end of the month-long run of national championship ekiden races.  Teams made up of the best J.H.S., H.S., university and pro runners from each of Japan's 47 prefectures race over 48.0 km in 7 stages through the streets of Hiroshima, with NHK's live commercial-free broadcast showing many of Japan's future stars to a national audience for the first time.  Follow @JRNLive for live coverage starting at 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 18. There's so much growth happening right now in Japanese men's distance running that there's almost no point filling a preview with details about which teams are packed with talent.  Most of them are.  Hometown Hiroshima is not fooling around with its lineup, featuring 27:38.99 man Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei), 2015 Hako...