japan running news

by Brett Larner

At the second big race of the university ekiden season Nihon University senior Benjamin Gandu continued to develop into one of the hottest properties on Japanese soil, following his 1:01:06 best at February's Marugame Half Marathon with a 57:47 win at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km road race, the qualifying race for January's Hakone Ekiden for schools that fell outside the top ten at this year's Hakone.  With a nearly one and a half minute lead over the closest competition Gandu became the second-fastest man ever at the Yosenkai, leading Nihon University back to Hakone after the team's decades-long streak was broken last year.

With 2009 Yosenkai winner Akinobu Murasawa out with an Achilles injury Gandu easily broke his closest Kenyan competition, Duncan Muthee (Takushoku Univ.), with a surge at 10 km after the pair dueled their way through 14:22 and 28:40 opening 5 km splits.  Muthee in turn barely held off Keisuke Fujii (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), the only …

by Brett Larner
photos by Daniel Seite



One of three current teams coached by members of Waseda University's record-setting mid-90's team, Jobu University pulled off a surprise win at this year's Hakone Ekiden Qualifier, a 20 km road race in and around Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park that determines the second tier of teams to join the ten already seeded for January's main event.  The youngest team in the field, under head coach Katsuhiko Hanada Jobu has developed a heavy emphasis on overall quality and team running rather than relying on individual aces, a trait that served has served it well in the past and was again the key to its success this year.  Ranked only 5th coming into the race Jobu ran consistently, outside the top ten for the first half, 5th at 15 km, and on top by the end.  It was one of only two schools to put two runners into the top ten, one of them courtesy of a very nice run from first-year Shun Sato.  By contrast, top-ranked Josai University, coached b…

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…