japan running news

by Brett Larner

2014 was a mixed year for Japanese distance running.  Most of the good came from the under-25 generation that will be at its peak at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  More than a dozen high school boys including one 16-year-old broke 14 minutes for 5000 m, and at least four high school girls ran 9:01 or better for 3000 m, one winning Youth Olympics gold while doing it.  A 19-year-old woman ran an under-20 Japanese record 2:27:12, and a 22-year-old set a collegiate national record of 2:26:46.  Another 22-year-old went under 9 minutes for 3000 m.  Japanese university men ran times from 3:39.56 for 1500 m to 1:00:50 for the half marathon to an incredible 1:28:52 collegiate national record for 30 km by a runner just turned 20.  A 23-year-old set a 3000 m NR of 7:40.09, and a 24-year-old ran the fastest 10000 m ever by a Japanese man on Japanese soil, 27:38.99.  Among older runners ten Japanese men broke 2:10 for the marathon a total of eleven times, the fastest among them, 2:08:0…

by Brett Larner
top Fukushi photo by Victah Sailer, c/o Horst Milde
other photos by Werner Philipp and Hannes Uhtoffs, c/o Dr. Helmut Winter

2013 Tokyo Marathon winner Dennis Kimetto (Kenya) shook the world with his incredible 2:02:57 world record at today's Berlin Marathon, running a 1:01:12 second half that brought the concept of a low-2:02 marathon into the realm of possibility.  2014 Tokyo Marathon women's winner Tirfi Tsegaye (Ethiopia) added another World Marathon Majors title to her resume, outrunning three compatriots, the U.S.A.'s Shalane Flanagan and Moscow World Championships bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) for the win in 2:20:18.  Less well-noticed was Fukuoka Marathon course record holder Tsegaye Kebede's 2:10:27 for 9th, his 18th career sub-2:11 and tying Korean great Lee Bong Ju's world record for most times sub-2:11.

Fukushi, quietly coming to Berlin in search of a time closer to the three Japanese women who have run 2:19 there than her c…

by Brett Larner

There is a truckload of action just waiting to dump on fans of Japanese distance around the world this weekend.  Along with the Incheon Asian Games, where athletics kick off Saturday with the women's 10000 m and 3000 mSC and the men's 5000 m, Sunday's Berlin Marathon offers more international exposure to the stealthy Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) in the women's race and the solid trio of 2:08 men Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) and Ryo Yamamoto (Team SGH Group Sagawa) and 2014 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon winner Kazuki Tomaru (Team Toyota).

Back home of familiar shores where laundry facilities are guaranteed to be close at hand, fall gets into full swing with the first two significant ekidens of the season, Saturday's Kansai Region University Women's Ekiden and Sunday's Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden.  Both qualify top-placing teams in the two highly competitive regions for October's National University Women's Ekiden Cham…

by Brett Larner
photo courtesy marumaruko1201

Record-breaking snowfall in eastern Japan all day Saturday meant the cancellation of virtually every Sunday race in the area, including the elite-level Chiba International Cross-Country Meet, and kept many Tokyo-region runners bound for races in the west at home. Of the races that did go off, in his marathon debut 2008 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km winner Kazuki Tomaru (Team Toyota) was the star of the day's most important race, the 52nd running of the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon.

With impeccable pacing from former Waseda University standout Yuki Yagi (Team Asahi Kasei), who split 15:27, 15:26 and 15:26 for the first three 5 km segments, a large pack ran at around 2:10:30 pace, 45 seconds ahead of the event's course record.  The pace slowed slightly from 15 km to Yagi's departure at 25 km, but Tomaru quickly got to work with another 15:26 to get rid of the field.  Only Ryo Ishita (SDF Academy) went after him, but around 33 km …

http://kumanichi.com/fsports/marathon/2013/kiji/20130205001.xhtml
http://kumanichi.com/fsports/marathon/2013/kiji/20130206001.xhtml
http://kumanichi.com/fsports/marathon/2013/kiji/20130207001.xhtml
http://kumanichi.com/fsports/marathon/2013/kiji/20130209001.xhtml

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The 57th Kanaguri Memorial Kumanichi 30 km Road Race takes place this Sunday, Feb. 17 on a federation-certified course in Kumamoto.  An historic event that has been the site of countless classic races including a 1:28:00 world record by Takayuki Matsumiya, last year Kumanichi got with the times and joined forces with the new mass-participation Kumamoto Castle Marathon, forging the start of a new era in its history.  With high-profile civil servant runner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) among the combined 62 men and women entered in the 30 km distance, this year promises to be a gripping and unforgettable race.  Below we profile some of the favorites for the win in the men's and women's …

by Brett Larner

2011 New Year Ekiden national champion Team Toyota added another win to its resume, running 2:30:45 to set the course record at the 66th running of the six-stage, 52.6 km Meigi Ekiden, Feb. 5 in Nagoya.  Runner-up Team Toyota Boshoku also went under the old course record, recording a time of 2:31:58.  Suzuki Hamamatsu AC, featuring the superb Martin Mathathi and Toyota Boshoku's former ace Yusei Nakao, had an improvement over last year's performance thanks to the addition of Nakao, finishing 3rd in 2:32:34.  Defending champion Team Aichi Seiko was only 4th in 2:33:55.

Nakao led off strongly for Suzuki, winning the first stage with a few seconds to spare.  Nicholas Makau (Kenya) put the small Team Yachiyo Kogyo into the lead with a course record 20:51 for the 7.3 km Second Stage, but Toyota's Yuya Ito responded with a course record of his own on the 6.0 km Third Stage, clocking 16.58 to put Toyota into the lead.  Fourth Stage record holder Mathathi overtook …

by Brett Larner

Click here for an explanation of scoring for the Hakone Ekiden qualifying race.



Aided by ideally cool, cloudy and windless conditions, Tokai University first-year Akinobu Murasawa, the star runner of 2008 national high school champion Saku Chosei H.S., served notice to the big guns at the Oct. 17 Hakone Ekiden-qualifying Yosenkai 20 km road race with a 59:08 win, just 28 seconds shy of the best mark ever recorded at the race by a Japanese athlete. Running in his first university road race and his first-ever longer than 10 km, Murasawa took down defending champ Kazuki Tomaru (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) and two other ace seniors, Yuta Takahashi (Josai Univ.) and Takuya Fukatsu (Komazawa Univ.), over the final five kilometers to seal his win. In a race which rarely sees more than one or two runners break the hour mark, eleven athletes succeeded this year with another two just a second off from joining them. It may well have been the most competitive race in Yosenkai history. Beyond…

by Brett Larner

Relative newcomer Josai University had a strong showing at the 2008 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, a 20 km road race held Oct. 18 in western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park to select non-seeded teams for the 2009 Hakone Ekiden. Josai won the Yosenkai for the 2nd year in a row despite a mediocre run by its ace, 3rd year Yuta Takahashi. 12 other teams likewise qualified for January's Hakone, the Kanto regional men's university 2-day ekiden championships and the most popular race in Japan.

In a typical year, Hakone features 19 university teams and 1 select team made up of top runners from Kanto-area schools which failed to qualify. The top 10 finishing schools are seeded for the following year's Hakone with the remaining teams having to run the Yosenkai to requalify. In the Yosenkai, universities may field teams of up to 12 runners. All runners run an open 20 km race, with the aggregate time of a school's top 10 finishers determining the team finishing order. For the …