japan running news

by Brett Larner Almost 2500 people started the fourth edition of Hida Takayama Ultramarathon on Sunday, both its 71 km and 100 km divisions featuring a tough series of hills peaking out at 1345 m, around 800 m above the start point, on scenic road courses through the mountains of Gifu prefecture.  Good weather meant new men's and women's records in both distances. A second-year ekiden team member at Ryutsu Keizai University , alma mater of marathon great Daniel Njenga and sub-27 track runner Josphat Ndambiri , 20 year-old Hiroumi Kamada made the news of the day in the 100 km, taking almost 18 minutes off the event record to win in 7:41:25 in his ultramarathon debut.  Kamada was so dominant that runner-up Wataru Iino , also under the course record, was nearly 15 minutes back in 7:55:49, with previous course record holder Kaname Miyagi a distant 3rd in 8:05:41.  Painfully shy during the award ceremony, in response to the MC's questions Kamada said, "It wasn...

http://kumanichi.com/lsports/kiji/20121128001.shtml translated by Brett Larner The 37th Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler takes place this Sunday, Dec. 2.  In the main race of the day, the Japanese-only open division, there is no shortage of exciting competition on tap with top corporate and university runners squaring off over 10 miles (16.093 km). 133 Japanese men make up the open division.  Among the major contenders for the victory are 2010 winner Ryuji Watanabe  (Team Toyota Kyushu) fresh from winning three stages at the Grand Tour Kyushu ekiden, and this year's 5000 m national champion Kazuya Deguchi  (Team Asahi Kasei).  Invited athletes  Kazuharu Takai  (Team Kyudenko), Tomohiro Shiiya  (Team Toyota Boshoku) and Yusuke Hasegawa  (Team S&B) are also likely to be caught up in the action. Noteworthy locals include defending champion Yuki Iwai  (Team Asahi Kasei), 2:08:38 marathoner Kazuhiro Maeda  (Team Kyudenko), 2012...

By Brett Larner The organizers of the 2012 Sapporo International Half Marathon have released the elite invited field of eight men and eight women for this year's 55th running, scheduled for July 1.  The 1:30 p.m. start time in recent years has meant slower times, but Sapporo remains Japan's deepest summer road race and always delivers. At the top of the men's field is Kenyan great Martin Mathathi  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), who set a searing course record of 58.56 on the aided Great North Run course last fall.  Sapporo will be Mathathi's next step along a course to a planned marathon debut at this December's Fukuoka International Marathon.  Alongside him are 2011 Fukuoka winner Josphat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.), national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku), and London Olympic marathoners Arata Fujiwara  (Miki House) and Ryo Yamamoto  (Team Sagawa Express), both of whom set half marathon bests at February's Marugame International H...

http://www.the-star.co.ke/sports/sports/61827-ndambiri-tops-meru-race-list Both Ndambiri and Karoki are based in Japan, Ndambiri with the Komori Corporation team and Karoki with S&B.  Ndambiri was just announced as a member of the 2012 Boston Marathon elite field.

by Brett Larner photos by Dr. Helmut Winter Ndambiri for the win. Click photo for video highlights courtesy of KBC TV.   Click here for a sequence of photos from throughout the race via KBC . In many ways the 65th Fukuoka International Marathon played out according to script, but in the details it worked out to be the most memorable edition since Samuel Wanjiru 's debut in 2007.  Longtime Japan resident and 10000 m all-comers record holder Josphat Ndambiri  (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) made a good transition to the marathon, winning his debut in a solid 2:07:36.  Veteran James Mwangi  (Kenya/Team NTN) took two minutes off his four-year-old PB to finish an elated 2nd in 2:08:38.  And in the Japanese men's race for an Olympic spot, what initially looked like a replay of amateur Yuki Kawauchi 's thrilling come-from-behind run at Tokyo in February turned into a brutal, knockdown battle of surges between pre-race favorites Kawauchi and former Hakone Ekiden...

by Brett Larner Domestic favorite Yuki Kawauchi declaring his readiness to go for a PB, at the Fukuoka pre-race press conference, Dec. 2. The 65th annual Fukuoka International Marathon is set for this Sunday, Dec. 4, an all-important Olympic selection race for Japanese men and the last chance of the year for the small international field to set an Olympic-standard time.  The race will be broadcast live and nationwide starting at noon Japan time on TV Asahi.  If you're not in Japan to see it you should still be able to watch live online via Keyhole TV.   Click here for more on getting and using the Keyhole player.   Local broadcaster KBC should also have live splits available on its Fukuoka website . What kind of race can we expect?  In the last five years Fukuoka has followed a consistent pattern of one marquee athlete (Haile Gebrselassie, Samuel Wanjiru, Tsegay Kebede, Jaouad Gharib), a small padding of second-tier foreign competition, and the domestic ...

by Brett Larner Race broadcaster KBC has published the sixteen-man elite field for the 65th anniversary of the Fukuoka International Marathon , scheduled for Dec. 4.  The first of the three domestic selection races for the Japanese men's marathon team for the London Olympics, Fukuoka's organizers have gone an unusual route in setting up the overseas field with not a single invited Kenyan or Ethiopian athlete.  2005 Fukuoka winner Dmytro Baranovskyy  (Ukraine) has run the fastest three times of his career in Fukuoka and returns to lead the foreign contingent along with Russian national record holder Aleksei Sokolov  and last year's runner-up Dmitriy Safronov , also Russian. Moroccan Ridouane Harroufi  is the lone African among the invited athletes.  Perhaps of greatest interest, Ireland's Alistair Cragg  will be looking to finish his first marathon with a mark that does justice to his excellent 1:00:49 half marathon from this past spring.   Fran...

by Brett Larner The East Japan regional qualifiers for December's National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden Championships and the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden men's national corporate championships took place Nov. 3 in Saitama, northwest of Tokyo.  Run in perfect conditions, there were new records on five of the seven men's stages and four of the six women's stages with the winning men's team just three seconds off the overall course record. 27:38 man Yuki Sato  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) set the tone for the day, taking 52 seconds off the record for the 11.6 km first stage and winning by a margin of 36 seconds after leading wire to wire.  The entire field was aggressive, with the top nine all clearing the old stage record of 33:52.    27:41 man Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Konica Minolta) nearly closed the gap on the 15.3 km second stage, coming within 10 seconds of leader Hiroyuki Ono  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and breaking his own stage record by 21 seconds. Much of t...

by Brett Larner A midsummer tuneup for corporate, university and amateur teams training in northern Japan to escape the heat and humidity, the Towada Hachimantai Ekiden saw its 64th running on Aug. 7.  Team Honda, led by 2010 Tokyo Marathon winner Masakazu Fujiwara , took the team title as it covered the five stage, 73.8 km course in 3:48:38. Honda started the race in 3rd and gradually worked its way to within 21 seconds of the lead by the end of Fujiwara's stage second-best run on the 16. 3 km Third Stage.  Fourth Stage runner Minoru Ikebe  ran a stage best time to overtake leader Nihon University for 1st.  Honda anchor Takashi Toyoda  was only sixth-fastest on the brutal uphill Fifth Stage but still held on for the win after Nihon's anchor Shingo Hayashi  struggled and finished 12th on stage time. Hayashi in turn barely held off Toyo University's brilliant uphill specialist Ryuji Kashiwabara , who took Toyo from 8th to 3rd and from nearly five minut...

by Brett Larner With organizers sticking by the 1:30 p.m. start time they introduced last year and temperatures in the high 20's with humidity around 80% there was little chance of fast times at this year's Sapporo International Half Marathon despite excellent fields on both the men's and women's sides. 2010 World Half Marathon champion Florence Kiplagat (Kenya) led wire-to-wire to win the women's race in 1:10:29, with defending champion Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) holding off course record holder Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Aidem) to pick up his third Sapporo title in 1:01:47. Kiplagat's win was a virtual forgone conclusion, but she had company through the first half of the race from Japan-based Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) in Chepyego's first half marathon. The pair went through the downhill first 5 km in 15:55 and 10 km in 32:54 before Kiplagat picked things up to put Chepyego away. Kiplagat indicated after the race that she plan...

by Brett Larner The corporate regional spring track championships wrapped up this weekend with the East Japan Jitsugyodan T&F Championships in hot, humid and windy Kumagaya, Saitama. The big news at the meet came in the women's 5000 m, where 10000 m junior national record holder Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno) emerged from nearly four years of illness and injury to take her first competitive win in memory, running 15:37.50 to beat Kenyan Felista Wanjugu (Team Univ. Ent.) and World Championships marathon team leader Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei). Although still short of a World Championships B-standard, Kinukawa's run was her first time under 15:40 in almost four years and a large step in the right direction ahead of next month's National T&F Championships. After the race Kinukawa, who was a star at Sendai Ikuei H.S. at the same time as the late Samuel Wanjiru (Kenya), told journalist Tatsuo Terada , "I didn't think I was ready to run like this. ...

Jeilan outkicks Tanui and Ndambiri for the Shizuoka 5000 m win. Click here for more photos. by Brett Larner 2006 World Jr. 10000 m and 2008 World XC Jr. champion Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) outkicked 2011 World XC runner-up Paul Tanui and 10000 m Japanese all-comers record holder Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) for the win in the 2011 Shizuoka International Track and Field Meet 5000 m on May 3 at Shizuoka's Ecopa Stadium. Jeilan sat back in the all-Kenyan lead pack until late the race, responding to a charge from Tanui over the last lap and kicking hard in the last 100 m to take the win a week after a disappointing 10000 m performance at the Hyogo Relay Carnival. Jeilan's time was less than 1 second off his 5-year-old PB and is the second-fastest in the world so far this year, putting him in contention for the Ethiopian team for August's World Championships. Despite losing out in the last sprint, Tanui set a new PB. 4th placer Edward Waweru (Ke...

by Brett Larner After most of its spring road season was cancelled in the wake of the Mar. 11 disasters to strike its northeastern region, a sign came that Japan's running community has started to get back on its feet in the form of the release of the entry lists for the first major domestic track meet of the season, the Apr. 9 Kanaguri Memorial Meet in Kumamoto on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu. The A-heats of the men's and women's 5000 m promise much of the best action. In the men's 5000 m, along with Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.), Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) and a host of other top Japan-based African talent, two runners will receive special focus. Hakone Ekiden star Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.) kicks off his senior year with the stress of his home prefecture Fukushima being the site of Japan's ongoing nuclear troubles. Having run 28:23 for 10000 m last fall as a high school student in earthquake and tsunami-hit Senda...

by Brett Larner 2010 National Jitsugyodan T&F Championships - Top Results click here for complete results Men's 5000 m Heat Three 1. Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) - 13:56.08 2. Kenta Murotsuka (SDF Academy) - 13:56.13 3. Yuki Matsuoka (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 13:56.61 4. Hiroki Kadota (Team Kanebo) - 13:56.62 5. Takamasa Uchida (Team Toyota) - 13:56.79 6. Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 13:57.01 7. Tsubasa Maeda (Team YKK) - 13:58.44 8. Hidehito Takamine (Team Fujitsu) - 13:58.73 9. Yoshikazu Kawazoe (Team Asahi Kasei) - 13:59.28 10. Hitoshi Nishi (Team Sagawa Express) - 14:03.99 Women's 5000 m Heat One 1. Ann Karindi (Kenya/Team Toyota Jidoshoki) - 15:59.42 2. Kaori Urata (Team Tenmaya) - 16:00.14 3. Shoko Mori (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 16:00.20 4. Mika Yoshikawa (Team Panasonic) - 16:00.38 5. Tomoka Inadomi (Team Wacoal) - 16:00.38 6. Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Giken) - 16:00.43 7. Felista Wanjugu (Kenya/Team Universal Ent.) - 16:02.72 8. Hiroko Shoi (T...

by Brett Larner Alongside sprinter Chisato Fukushima 's new women's 200 m national record at the May 3 Shizuoka International Track and Field Meet , Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) was in a familiar position in the men's 5000 m, one step ahead of countryman Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) with a meet record and world-leading 13:09.19 win. Mathathi, just six days from his half-marathon debut at Sunday's Sendai International Half Marathon, was also under the old meet record as he finished 2nd in 13:10.94. 3rd placer Jonathan Ndiku (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) set the 3rd-fastest time so far this year, 13:19.84, while 4th place John Thuo set a slim PB of 13:21.02. 5000 m Japanese national champion Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) had a surprise win over Saku Chosei high school teammate Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) with the fastest time this year by a Japanese man, 13:24.75. The next five Japanese after Sato all set PBs, among them Tokai Universi...

by Brett Larner In the grand prix events on day two of the 2010 Hyogo Relay Carnival , Bukkyo Univ. third-year Hikari Yoshimoto showed that her anchor stage win at last November's International Chiba Ekiden was no fluke as she nearly ran down winner Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) in the women's 10000 m and set a new national university record in the process. Fukushi, the 3000 m, 5000 m and half marathon national record holder, won in a solid 31:29.03. Yoshimoto, in her first track 10000 m, was just steps behind in 31:30.92, a time which broke the 15 year-old Japanese university record and which would have put her in the top 20 worldwide last year. The pair outran top-ranked Kenyan Doricah Obare (Team Hitachi), who was 3rd in a PB of 31:37.07. The trio's times were the 2nd, 3rd and 4th-fastest in the world so far this year and no other women broke 32:15, making Yoshimoto's debut all the more impressive. In the men's 10000 m John Thuo (Kenya/Team Toyota) outkicked J...

by Brett Larner The second big Japanese meet of the season takes place this weekend at the 58th Hyogo Relay Carnival . The main draw in the distance events is Sunday's grand prix 10000 m A-heat. On the men's side sub-27 men Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) and Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) will once again be pushing each other into new territory as they go after Mathathi's meet record of 27:08.42 from 2005. They'll have company in the form of sub-28 minute men John Thuo (Kenya/Team Toyota), Jeilan Ibrahim (Ethiopia/ Team Honda), Paul Tanui (Kenya/Team Kyudenko), Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Aidem), Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku), Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) and Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu). The women's 10000 m is should be a solo run for 3000 m, 5000 m and half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal), but Julia Mumbi (Kenya/Team Universal Entertainment), Doricah Obare (Kenya/Team Hitachi) and a number o...

by Brett Larner Ethiopian Nahom Mesfin (Team Kanebo) and 1500 m national record holder Fumikazu Kobayashi (Team NTN) got the track season started off with a duel over 1500 m at the Kanaguri Memorial Track Meet April 10 in Kumamoto. With a PB performance Mesfin came out a step ahead as both runners broke Kobayashi's 5 year old meet record. Kenyan Ann Karindi (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) fell 0.11 seconds short of the women's 1500 m meet record but still set a PB of 4:09.41 and beat national record holder and teammate Yuriko Kobayashi by 9 seconds. The other meet record of the day came in the high school boys' 5000 m, where Takashi Ichida (Kumamoto H.S.) ran 14:11.75 to break the existing meet record by 6.5 seconds. The old record holder, Ikuto Yufu (Komazawa Univ.), made his university debut in the men's 5000 m where he was 8th in a creditable PB of 13:53.20. Kenyan Josephat Ndambiri (Team Komori Corp.) took an unsurprising win in the men's 5000 m as Kenyans went ...

by Brett Larner The 2010 Japanese track season starts tomorrow at Kumamoto's Kanaguri Memorial Track and Field Meet , named after Japan's first Olympic marathoner Shizo Kanaguri. Many of the country's top pro, university and high school runners will open their seasons in the meet's 5000 m and 1500 m events. The men's 5000 m may be the most competitive of the meet, with top Japanese-based Kenyan Josephat Ndambiri (Team Komori Corp.) and three of the best young Japanese runners, Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu), Kensuke Takezawa (Team S&B) and Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B). Along with Mitsuya, Kenyan Mekubo Mogusu (Team Aidem) will be looking for a good season-starter after a failed marathon debut. Kenyan high school student Titus Waruru (Chinzai H.S.) doesn't have a strong PB but has been tearing up the high school road circuit over the last year and could run something big. The women's 5000 m is likely to be a battle between Ethiopian Betelhem Moges ...