japan running news

by Brett Larner
photo courtesy of Gold Coast Airport Marathon

The Gold Coast Airport Marathon has announced that it has recruited its best-ever lineup of elite Japanese athletes for this year's running on July 7.  Passed over for the Moscow World Championships despite running 2:24:43 for 3rd at April's London Marathon, Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) is a coup for organizers and should make short work of Eriko Asai's twenty-year-old course record of 2:29:29.  Hoping to join her is Sydney Marathon course record holder Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), 4th in last year's race in 2:13:26 and looking to improve on both his placing and the 2:10:01 men's record in his last marathon before the World Championships.  If both are successful it will be the first Japanese sweep since 2007.

Eri Okubo set her best of 2:26:08 at last year's Tokyo Marathon and will be making her first major appearance since quitting the Second Wind AC team earlier this spring.  Taiga Ito (Su…

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/other/athletic/marathon/osaka/2012/headlines/20121125-00000004-spnavi-spo.html
http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/general/2012/11/25/0005553103.shtml

translated and edited by Brett Larner

In their second editions the Osaka Marathon and Kobe Marathon moved to the same day, Nov. 25, meaning that one greater metropolitan area held two large-scale marathons simultaneously with combined fields of 50,000.

In Osaka, men's winner Serod Batochir (Mongola) ran 2:11:52 to set a new course record.  The top Japanese finisher, Yasuyuki Nakamura (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), was 2nd in a PB 2:15:37, while half-marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) was 3rd in 2:16:26.  Defending men's champion Elijah Sang (Kenya) faded badly after running the first part of the race in the lead pack, finishing 8th in 2:33:33.

Defending women's champion Lidia Simon (Romania) won in 2:33:12 by more than one minute over Kenyan Julia Mumbi, with Yuki Ino (Tea…

by Brett Larner

With a noon start time and temperatures peaking at 34 degrees the 2011 Hokkaido Marathon was a brutal race of attrition.  In the men's race Ibaraki-based Kenyan Harun Njoroge (Team Komori Corp.) broke away from the large pack at 30 km with veteran Seiji Kobayashi (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) and the young Chiharu Takada (Team JR Higashi Nihon) in tow to form a trio which stuck together to maintain pace until 38 km.  Njoroge then surged again to pull away for the win in 2:14:10.  Defending champion Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) could not stay with the lead trio late in the race and finished only 7th in 2:19:14.

In the women's race 2006 winner Kaori Yoshida (Amino Vital AC) frontran at PB pace against a field which included course record holder Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC), former national record holder Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and, returning from injury, 2006 Vienna Marathon winner Tomo Morimoto (Team Tenmaya).  Splitting as fast …

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20110305-744913.htmlhttp://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/news/20110306k0000m050070000c.html
translated by Mika Tokairin and Brett Larner
Wilson Kipsang (Kenya): "It's going to be a tough race but I'll do my best. I'm going for the course record [2:07:34]. 2:05 is my target."
Deriba Merga (Ethiopia): "[Kipsang] is definitely strong, but the marathon is not the same every time."
Satoshi Yoshii (Team Sumco): "I also have a chance [to run a fast time like Kawauchi at last week's Tokyo Marathon]. I want to take it."
Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki): "[Although I only have a 29 minute 10000 m best like Kawauchi,] I do better in big races over longer distances."
Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu): "I'm running Biwako, not Tokyo [against Kawauchi]. I don't have to be so tense."
Kensuke Takahashi (Team Toyota): "When I was [at the Berlin World Champs as the alter…

by Brett Larner

The 66th running of the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, known throughout Japan simply as Biwako, takes place this Sunday, Mar. 6. The final selection race for the Japanese men's marathon team for this summer's World Championships, Biwako's elite field this year highlights the disparity in elite Japan's men's marathoning over the last two years.
On the one side is the overseas field of six, without a doubt the best Biwako's organizers have assembled to date. All six have PBs under 2:09, four of them set last year and none older than 2008. Kenyan Wilson Kipsang leads the way with a stellar 2:04:57 mark set at last fall's Frankfurt Marathon. Kipsang is here for one purpose: to do what Ethiopian Olympic medalist Tsegaye Kebede did for the Fukuoka International Marathon in 2009 and give the race a course record on par with the world's best. Kipsang is the heavy favorite, but he faces tough competition from Ethiopia's Deriba Merga, fresh f…

by Brett Larner

The organizers of the 2011 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon announced their elite field today for this year's 66th running on Mar. 6, and they have done an outstanding job of assembling a world-class overseas field. All six foreign elites hold sub-2:09 PBs, four set last year and none older than 2008. Wearing bib #1 will be Kenyan Wilson Kipsang, who ran a stunning 2:04:57 to win last fall's Frankfurt Marathon. With the trend in Japan moving away from small, elite-only marathons and toward the big city marathon format there is no doubt that Biwako, as the race is universally called within in Japan, is bringing Kipsang in hopes of a 2:04 clocking to stay competitive in the arms race with Fukuoka, with a 2:05:17 course record courtesy of Beijing Olympics and Berlin WC bronze medalist Tsegaye Kebede (Ethiopia), and Tokyo, which has called upon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) to summon up a course-record run later this month. Kipsang should have a sparr…

by Brett Larner

Last weekend's Osaka International Women's Marathon and this weekend's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon and Meigi Ekiden mark the transition from ekiden season to Japan's short but dense late-winter marathon season. Six elite marathons are crammed into a seven-week span, but there is more. In February and March Japan hosts an array of competitive 10 milers, half marathons and 30 km road races both as marathon tune-ups and target races for those focusing on the intermediate distances. While the pointy ends of these races may often be somewhat blunted relative to smaller but wealthier races in Europe and the Arabian peninsula, many of the Japanese races top the worldwide lists in overall quality and depth. The conclusion of the Kyoto City Half Marathon last year as Kyoto prepares to host a large-scale full marathon means other races stand to benefit, as was clear at last weekend's Osaka Half Marathon where six men broke the course record.

Feb. 7 sees two co…

by Brett Larner

click here for complete elite field details

On Jan. 25 the Tokyo Marathon announced its elite field for the race's fourth edition on Feb. 28. Last year's winners Salim Kipsang (Kenya) and Mizuho Nasukawa (Team Universal Entertainment) return to defend their titles.

Tokyo's organizers have done a good job of putting together a solid men's field at the start of the crowded spring marathon season. Kipsang may be back, but the 2:06:48 by Rachid Kisri (Morocco) at last year's Paris Marathon makes him a potential favorite despite a lack of other comparable performances. Six other men in the field have run under 2:08 within the last two or three years, meaning the course record of 2:07:23 should be in danger. Domestic hopes lie with half-marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku). Sato's 2:07:13 PB against Samuel Wanjiru (Kenya) and Deriba Merga (Ethiopia) in Fukuoka '07 makes him the third-fastest man in the field, and his p…

by Brett Larner

With three weeks to go until the 2010 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon race officials announced the complete elite men's and women's fields on Jan. 18. Last year's Japan-based winners Mara Yamauchi (U.K.) and Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya) are scheduled to return to defend their titles. Yamauchi has been out of competition since an injury kept her away from August's Berlin World Championships and is making a welcome return to the scene. The popular Mogusu is likewise making a miniature comeback after his abortive marathon debut last month in Fukuoka.

The elite women's field includes 24 invited athletes along with 25 general division elites. 2004 Tokyo International Women's Marathon winner Bruna Genovese (Italy) and 2009 Great Australian Run winner Nicole Chapple (Australia) are Yamauchi's main overseas competition, while the Japanese runners are led by the Ominami twins Hiromi and Takami (Team Toyota Shatai) and 2008 Shanghai Half Marathon w…

by Brett Larner

Hot conditions in the final kilometers of the 2009 Berlin Marathon kept times slower than anticipated. With Team Kanebo's Tomohiro Seto a no-show, three elite Japanese men joined the field behind the anticipated duel between Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia and Duncan Kibet of Kenya. Former national record holder Atsushi Fujita (Fujitsu) and 2009 World Championships marathon alternate Kensuke Takahashi (Team Toyota) ran together in the second pack, relaxing through a slow first 10 km in 30:53 before the pace began to ratchet downward. At halfway the pair were right together in 1:04:18, Fujita well on track for his sub-2:10 target and Takahashi looking smooth.

When the pack broke apart in the second half Takahashi began to drift away and by 40 km was 45 seconds behind Fujita, who had fallen off sub-2:10 pace himself. Takahashi rallied for a strong finish but could only come within 6 seconds of Fujita by the goal line. Fujita was 8th overall in 2:12:54, Takahashi 9th in …

by Brett Larner

There was a time when Japanese women controlled the Berlin Marathon, winning every year from 2000-2005 and setting a world record and three national records under 2:20. The men have had some success as well, including the country's first 2:06 way back in 1999. Fast-forward a few years and, despite big-name Japanese women lining up in Chicago and New York, not a single elite Japanese woman is entered in the 2009 Berlin Marathon. Four men, on the other hand, will take the stage in the Sept. 20th race.

Kensuke Takahashi (Team Toyota) - PB: 2:11:25 (Tokyo '09)
Leading the group is 2009 World Championships marathon team alternate Kensuke Takahashi. Takahashi has run only two marathons, most recently a 3rd-place finish in March's Tokyo Marathon in a PB of 2:11:25. While Takahashi's time doesn't look impressive, in reality he made the race with a breakaway move into a vicious headwind at 30 km, eventually breaking 2:04 marathoner Sammy Korir of Kenya and look…

by Brett Larner

Less than two weeks after a strong showing in the Berlin World Championships marathons, Japan's top marathoners have started lining up for the fall and winter marathon season. The first to be confirmed is World Championships men's marathon team alternate Kensuke Takahashi (Team Toyota). The young Takahashi has run only a handful of marathons and holds a PB of just 2:11:25 from this year's Tokyo Marathon, but this slow time hides the quality of his performance and the potential it showed. Running into a headwind which cost the leaders at least 3 minutes, Takahashi made a bold solo break at 30 km in Tokyo, initially gapping Kenyans Salim Kipsang and Sammy Korir along with the rest of the Japanese field. Eventually overtaken by Kipsang and Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), Takahashi managed to shake off Korir for 3rd. The performance demonstrated bravery, speed and talent. Having trained to be ready for the Berlin World Championships in the event of one of the fi…

by Brett Larner

Click here to enter JRN's World Championships marathon prediction contest for a chance to win a 2009 Japanese national team singlet.

Although the Japanese men's medal haul in the World Championships marathon has been slim, with only Hiromi Taniguchi's gold in 1991, Nobuyuki Sato's bronze in 1999 and Tsuyoshi Ogata's bronze in 2005 to show in the last two decades, they've had one and often two runners finish in the top five almost as far back as the eye can see. This year brings the country's best current marathoner saying he's ready for "top five at worst," and two talented younger runners talking medals. Below is a quick guide to the members of the Japanese team in the Aug. 22 men's marathon, the highs and lows of their seasons, and some predictions. Athletes are listed in order of estimated chance of success. Click the names for photos and more detailed profiles.

Atsushi Sato - SB: 2:09:16 (London '09) - PB: 2:07:13 (Fuk…

A comparison of the Japanese and American men's teams for this year's World Championships marathon. The first column shows the athlete's best time within the qualification window of Sept. 3, 2007 - Aug. 3, 2009. The second column shows his worst time within the same period, and the third column shows his lifetime best. The Japanese team listing includes alternate Kensuke Takahashi.

(c) 2009 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

by Brett Larner

The 2009 Sapporo International Half Marathon takes place this Sunday, July 5th. Most of the Japanese runners on this year's World Championships marathon squads will be using it as a tuneup for August's main event.

In the men's race three-time champion and course record holder Mekubo Mogusu will take on Japanese national record holder and '09 World Championships marathoner Atsushi Sato, along with Sato's World Champs marathon teammates Arata Fujiwara and Kensuke Takahashi, young star Yu Mitsuya, and Mogusu's perennial rival Daniel Gitau. Gitau has yet to approach Mogusu in ability but after spending the spring focusing on 800 m and 1500 m track races he has honed his speed and may be the champion's toughest challenger.

Defending women's champion and '09 World Championships marathon team member Yuri Kano will face her own World Championships marathon teammates Yoko Shibui, Yoshiko Fujinaga and Tomo Morimoto as well as Kenyan marathon squa…

by Brett Larner

The Sapporo International Half Marathon has released the complete field for this year's race on July 5. And it's going to be a great one. In one corner, half marathon world record holder and Beijing Olympics gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru (Team Sam). In the other, three-time winner and the only man to break one hour on the Sapporo course, Mekubo Mogusu (Team Aidem).

The two Kenyans came to Japan at the same time in high school, with Mogusu always a step behind in their high school careers but always gunning for Wanjiru and his records and unafraid to say so. After high school Mogusu chose university for the chance to run the Hakone Ekiden, while Wanjiru went pro and became....Samuel Wanjiru. This will be the pair's first meeting of their adult lives and despite a serious divot in Mogusu's training following a car accident early in the spring it's all but certain to go out very hard. Last year Masato Kihara (Chuo Gakuin Univ.) pushed Mogusu well under wo…

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20090508-OHT1T00018.htm
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/090507/spg0905071819002-n1.htm
http://www.daily.co.jp/general/2009/05/08/0001894330.shtml
http://www.chunichi.co.jp/chuspo/article/sports/news/CK2009050802000144.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Following the naming of Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and Kensuke Takahashi (Team Toyota) to the Berlin World Championships men's marathon team and Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) and Tomo Morimoto (Team Tenmaya) to the women's team on May 7, Rikuren officials and the newly-named athletes themselves discussed their goals. Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki, 65, said that between the men's and women's team the big picture target for this year's World Championships is "One medal and two other top-eight finishes."

For the first time, the men's and women's marathon alternates will be included as full members of the national team. At the Beijing Olympics M…

by Brett Larner

Japan's athletics federation Rikuren announced the official lineups for its 2009 World Championships marathon teams at a press conference on May 7. The federation, its athletes and the country are determined to make up for the national team's ruinous showing at last summer's Olympic games. Both the men's and women's teams include a fair number of young up-and-comers, with two of the men and all but one of the women having debuted within the last two years and three runners total having qualified for the World Championships team in their debut marathons.

Click here for a preview of the women's World Championships team.

Berlin World Championships Marathon Team Members - Men
click photos for detailed profiles

There is no question that the Japanese men will have a harder time, to say the least, keeping up with the advances made worldwide within the last year. Realistically, only team leader Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) has a chance of being among…

by Brett Larner

Sammy Korir leads the pack at 30 km. Photo by Christian Sommer.

Nearly gale-force winds throughout the race, including a headwind from 28 km to the finish, kept times slow, but Kenya's Salim Kipsang persevered to take the 2009 Tokyo Marathon in 2:10:27.
Despite a PB of only 2:11:52, little-known Kensuke Takahashi (Team Toyota) made the first big move of the race with an attack after 30 km. Kipsang and Sammy Korir (Kenya) came after Takahashi, and the three ran as a group over the next 5 km. Lost alone in no-man's land between the breakaway trio and the remnants of the lead pack was first-time marathoner Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), a 2007 World Championships 10000 m runner.

Losing ground after a water station mishap at 35 km, Kipsang came back to pass Korir and Takahashi at 37 km, pushing on to the finish. Maeda came on strong in the last stage of the race, likewise passing Korir and Takahashi and closing with a 7:14 split for the final 2.195 km, the fastest of …

by Brett Larner

The 22nd running of the Hokkaido Marathon takes place on Aug. 31 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Historically a hot race, this year's event comes just a week after the Beijing Olympics and features a relatively limited field.

In the men's race, last year's champion Julius Gitahi of Team Nissin Shokuhin will return to defend his title. Gitahi, a track Olympian for his native Kenya, won last year's race in his marathon debut, running 2:17:26 in conditions of extreme heat and humidity. He went on to run 2:08:57 and take 3rd in the 2008 Tokyo Marathon. Gitahi's biggest challenger will be his Nissin teammate Yuzo Onishi, who set a personal best of 2:08:54 at the 2008 Biwako Mainichi Marathon. With the nearly identical times run by both athletes this year, the potential is there for a major duel between the two teammates.

Other contenders in the field include 2005 Brecia Marathon winner Richard Maiyo (Kenya), 2006 Warsaw Marathon winner Vitaliy Shafar (Ukraine), and d…