japan running news

by Brett Larner

The Feb. 12 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon is one of Japan's main developmental races for men, not counting directly in national team selection but serving as a springboard to future success.  Much of the field is making its debut each year or looking for a step up after showing potential in Nagano, Hokkaido or Osaka.  Rio Olympian Hisanori Kitajima (Team Yasukawa Denki) got his start in Nobeoka with a win in 2015, and Nobeoka has seen 2:11 winning times three times in its 55-year history including twice in the last five years.

Last year's winner Ryoichi Matsuo (Team Asahi Kasei) returns as the top seed, the only man in the field to have broken 2:13 in the last three years.  If he wins he will be the first man since 1986 to win Nobeoka in back-to-back years. His main competition among those with experience comes from Sora Tsukada (Team SG Holdings), Junji Katakawa (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and Yuji Murota (Team JFE Steel), all 2:15 in minor domestic races last year…

by Brett Larner

The proving ground marathon in Japan's Eugene, Athlete Town Nobeoka's Nishi Nippon Marathon hosts its 54th running on Feb. 14.  Proving among other things that change can come even to the most conservative parts of Japan, for the second year in a row Nobeoka will feature a women's field, small and entry-level but still a sign of positive change.  Like the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon a week earlier, Nobeoka's men's field suffers a bit in the face of the Olympic selection races at Tokyo and Lake Biwa just a few weeks later, but it does feature a large lineup of promising first-timers who should help fulfill Nobeoka's original purpose as the race where future marathoners are made.

The local Asahi Kasei team fields the top three entrants.  Its Ryoichi Matsuo and Taiki Yoshimura lead the way with recent bests of 2:12:11 and 2:13:12, but the most exciting on the list is Asahi Kasei's Fumihiro Maruyama, 1:29:34 at the 2013 Kumanichi 30 km and 1:01…

by Brett Larner

The 67th running of the Meigi Ekiden joined other races across the country in being blessed with good weather on Feb. 3, the kind of weather that produces course records. In the 6-stage, 52.6 km open men's division Team Toyota Boshoku unseated defending champion and course record holder Team Toyota for the win in 2:31:17, just 32 seconds off Toyota's 2012 record.  Toyota Boshoku started slow, its opening man Yoshiaki Shiota only 7th, but steadily advanced through the field until Kenyan ace Patrick Mutunga ran down Toyota's Chihiro Miyawaki to put Toyota Boshoku ahead by 10 seconds.  Both Toyota Boshoku and Toyota's fifth men Yuya Taguchi and Kenta Matsubara broke the stage record, Matsubara closing to within 1 second as he fought desperately to retake the lead, but on the anchor stage his teammate Minato Oishi was no match for Toyota Boshoku anchor Yoshihiro Yamamoto, who ran a stage best 34:14 for the 11.8 km leg to secure the overall win.  Absent 200…

by Brett Larner

Takushoku University's fortunes under its new coach Okada continue to improve. A month after Takushoku won both the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km qualifierteam and individual titles Takushoku first-years Duncan Mozay and John Maina worked together to crack 28 minutes at the Kanto Regional University Time Trials in Tokyo's National Stadium on Nov. 27. Both runners clocked 27:53, meaning they are now the fastest university runners in the Kanto region ahead of Jobu University senior Yusuke Hasegawa and Nihon University junior Benjamin Gando. Only one of the pair will be allowed to run January's Hakone Ekiden, but with two aces to choose from Takushoku is in an excellent position to make the Hakone seeded bracket.

2010 Kanto Regional 5000 m champion Taku Fujimoto (Kokushikan Univ.), fresh from a 3rd-place finish on the competitive 1st Stage of Tuesday's International Chiba Ekiden, won another of the meet's ten heats of 10000 m, pushed to a 28:41.40 by M…