japan running news

The worldwide elite-level marathon season wrapped up for the first half of 2018 with last Sunday's Gold Coast Marathon in Australia and Hakodate Marathon in Japan. Yes, they were technically on July 1, but it was still June 30 in much of the world so we're going to count them anyway. Which countries led the way in performance and which races were the world's best in the first six months of the year? JRN breaks down the numbers to find the answers. Click any of the tables below to enlarge them. Corrections and additions are always welcome.

In terms of time, Ethiopia led the way this season with the fastest overall men's time and the fastest averages of its ten best men's and women's times. Vivian Cheruiyot's 2:18:31 win in London was the only Kenyan performance to make a dent in the Ethiopian domination of the time lists. For both men and women it's already Ethiopia's best year on record. Ethiopian women are knocking on a top ten average under 2:20 …

Priding itself on having one of the flattest courses in the country, the 37th Tsukuba Marathon took place Nov. 26 at Tsukuba University in Ibaraki. Just four weeks after a course record-setting win at the Toyama Marathon, 2012 London Olympics marathoner Arata Fujiwara, 36, won the men's race in 2:18:08.

With a 4th-place finish on the anchor stage of last year's Hakone Ekiden to his name, Akihiro Kaneko led a group of six through 30 km before the action began. "I didn't want to fall apart mid-race, so I was careful to keep it conservative and stay in the group," Fujiwara said post-race. At 39 km he suddenly took off without warning, running alone the rest of the way to the finish line. "I think my last kilometer was about 2:50," he said. His experience showed in the ease with which he put away the 23-year-old Kaneko and other younger athletes. "The time wasn't great, but it gives me hope for the future," Fujiwara smiled.

With regard to the…

On June 12 the JAAF announced that it is withdrawing its team from the IAAF World U18 Championships[formerly World Youth Championships] scheduled to be held in Nairobi, Kenya in July. In light of security concerns about Kenya and the situation regarding other countries' participation, the JAAF executive committee made the decision to pull out on the 12th.

The United States had previously announced it would not participate due to the dangers of crime and terrorism perpetrated by Islamic extremists. Great Britain, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand are also not participating for the same reasons.

At the last edition of the Championships in Cali, Colombia in 2015, Japan's Hakim Sani Brown attracted global attention when he won the 100 m and 200 m.

Source article: 
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20170612/ath17061219110005-n1.html
translated by Brett Larner

Daniel Njenga is a longtime member of the Yakult corporate team, formerly as an athlete and currently as part of its coaching staff. On June 8 Kenyan media published a detailed article credited to Peter Mwangi claiming that Njenga had been kidnapped during a carjacking two days earlier while picking up his daughter from school. Longtime Njenga associate Brendan Reilly tweeted a link to the article, but after retweeting it in Japanese JRN received a tweet from a Yakult runner saying that he had talked to Njenga, who was at home as usual. The Yakult athlete subsequently deleted the tweet, but JRN confirmed with another source that Njenga is safe at home and that the article by Mwangi is a fabrication.

text and photos by Tsukasa Kawarai
translated and edited by Brett Larner

2012 London Olympian Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) has had some of his greatest races at the Tokyo Marathon, finishing 2nd three times: an explosive 2:08:40 breakthrough there in 2008, 2:12:34 in sleet and strong wind in 2010, and his 2:07:48 PB in 2012 to make the London team. He has also done some of his worst marathons there, running 2:29:21 in 2011, dropping out in 2013, 2:30:58 in 2014, 2:19:40 in 2015 and 2:20:23 last year. The blindfolded-shot-in-the-dark quality of Fujiwara’s history in Tokyo has always made him unpredictable but entertaining. In preparation for this year’s Tokyo Marathon Fujiwara trained in Kenya for nearly two months. Tsukasa Kawarai spent time at Fujiwara’s training camp in January, and ahead of Sunday’s race he wrote a report for JRN on what he saw of Fujiwara’s preparations.


Starting in mid-December last year Arata Fujiwara trained in Iten, Kenya for about two months. It was his second …

http://www.kenyanathlete.com/2016/08/why-kenyas-10000m-runner-bedan-karoki.html

Bedan Karoki runs for the Shibuya-based DeNA corporate team where he is coached by 2:07 marathoner Tomoaki Kunichika and overseen by the legendary Toshihiko Seko.  Karoki is an early morning regular on the cross-country loop in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park.

http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2016/08/04/running-spending-and-saving-in-japan/

A look at social issues surrounding Japan-based Kenyan athletes by Michael Peters.

http://sports.jp.fujitsu.com/cs/news/detail/160723010226/1.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner
click here for more information on Maina's passing

Fujitsu men's long distance team member Johana Maina complained of not feeling well while on vacation back in his home country Kenya.  He was taken to a hospital but passed away suddenly on July 21, 2016.  We are deeply grateful for the kindness he showed in life and wish here to humbly pay our respects to his accomplishments.

Johana Maina, athlete
Dec. 24 1990 - July 21, 2016

Personal Bests
5000 m: 13:25.24 (2015)     10000 m: 27:26.92 (2015)     half marathon: 1:01:19 (2016)

Major Accomplishments
2012: 1st, Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:01:34
2014: 1st, Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:01:43
          2nd, Kumanchi 30 km Road Race, 1:29:55
2015: 1st, Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:02:33
          2nd, Hachioji Long Distance 10000 m, 27:26.92 - 19th in world in 2015
2016: 2nd, National Corporate Half Marathon, …

http://global-sport.eu/practices-of-borrowing-and-lending-money

An essential read on a previously little-discussed aspect of the financial life of Kenyan athletes in Japan by Michael Peters, part of his upcoming PhD thesis on the Kenyan experience in Japan from the student through the pro level.


photo (c) 2014 Ekiden News, all rights reserved

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20150109-00000066-dal-spo

translated by Brett Larner

Marathoner Arata Fujiwara, 33, appeared at a year-opening party put on by his sponsor Miki House in Osaka on Jan. 9.  With regard to his plans to run the Feb. 22 Tokyo Marathon Fujiwara said, "I will run the fastest Japanese time."  Last year Fujiwara spent two months training in Kenya, experiencing the magic of training with local runners.  "I think I've put together a strong body," he said with confidence.  Three years ago in Tokyo Fujiwara ran a PB of 2:07:48.  "I want to break that one more time," he said decisively.

by Brett Larner
photos c/o Arata Fujiwara

Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) is just about the most unpredictable elite runner in the world, a 2:07 marathoner who has run slower than 2:20 and even 2:30 as many times as he has hit it out of the park. An independent who, without a sponsor after quitting Japan’s rigid corporate team system in 2010, became just the fifth Japanese man in history and the first in over 20 years to win a marathon outside Japan sub-2:10 when he set a 2:09:34 course record at the 2010 Ottawa Marathon with support from JRN. His 2:07:48 at the 2012 Tokyo Marathon, again sponsorless, made him all-time #7 in the Japanese record books and got him both sponsors and a place in London, but he flamed out when it most counted at the Olympics.

Jumping into Fukuoka on a whim a few months later for an impromptu duel with Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov’t), Fujiwara beat his fellow indy rival by nearly a minute to take 4th in 2:09:31. After that 2013 was mostly a bust, the only …