japan running news

by Brett Larner

April 1 marks the start of the Japanese fiscal and academic year. This year's round of university graduates and transfers from other teams are now settling in to their new homes around the country. Below is a list of many of the best new men joining corporate teams this season. Click for a larger version.

2010 New Year Ekiden national champion Team Nissin Shokuhin picks up a major score in 2010 World XC Junior Men's winner Caleb Ndiku (Kenya), a replacement for Olympian Julius Gitahi (Kenya). It will be interesting to see how Ndiku fares compared to the team's current #1 Kenyan, Gideon Ngatuny. Nissin rescues Komazawa Univ. grad Hideyuki Anzai from the disbanded Team JAL Ground Service.

Team Honda likewise picks up a World XC Junior Men's champion, 2008 winner Ibrahim Jelian (Ethiopia), and a JAL survivor, Ryosuke Fukuyama, and should maintain its spot near the top of the hierarchy. Perennially strong Team Asahi Kasei lands two top recruits, Komazawa'…

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

Japan's ekiden season begins each year with the university men's Izumo Ekiden, a 44 km six-stage course pitting the Kanto-region Hakone Ekiden schools against the best the rest of the country has to offer and a team made up of Ivy League alumni. With individual stages ranging from 5.0 to 10.2 km Izumo is completely different in character from other university ekidens, with less emphasis on strategy and endurance and more on pure speed.

This was clear at last year's Izumo when Kenyan Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) made up a 1:29 deficit on leaders Komazawa university over the 10.2 km anchor stage to steal the win with a stage-record 28:28. Gitau returns to lead Nihon, but despite the graduation of top Japanese member Takuma Sasaya Nihon must be viewed as the favorite once again, particularly if it fields but Gitau and first-year Benjamin Gando. It is unusual for a Japanese race to allow a team to field two foreign runners, but at last year's Izumo 4th-placers …

by Brett Larner

In a repeat of last year's performance, Meiji University prevailed in rainy conditions to win the Kanto Regional Qualifying Meet for the November's National University Ekiden Championships having missed out on breaking into the six national seeded positions after last year's regional win. Excluding the schools which were made the seeded rankings at last year's Nationals, the twenty fastest Kanto-region schools sent teams of eight to Tokyo's National Stadium on June 21 to run the qualifier. Each team's eight runners were split into pairs by PB, each pair running in one of four 10000 m heats. At the end of the fourth heat teams were ranked by the aggregate times of their eight runners, with the top six teams qualifying for the National Ekiden.


Highlights of Kodai Matsumoto's win in the fourth heat. Click here for the full-length video.

Meiji simply outclassed all competitors, with seven of its eight runners making the top five in their heats incl…

by Brett Larner


Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) wins the windy 10000 m at the 2009 Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships. Click here for complete race video via Flotrack.

Kenyan fourth-year Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) followed in the footsteps of the now-graduated Mekubo Mogusu (Team Aidem) with a double win in the men's 1500 m and 10000 m on the first weekend of the 2009 Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships May 16 and 17 at Tokyo's National Stadium. Harsh, windy conditions prevented fast times, particularly in the 10000 m, but Gitau had an easy win in the 1500 m in 3:44.18.

Setting off at 2:45/km pace in the 10000 m with Mogusu watching in the stands, the 2008 national university 10000 m champion Gitau worked together with first-year teammate Benjamin Gando, Mogusu's successor Cosmas Ondiba (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) and Japanese star Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.) to battle the wind. As the pace slowed midway Gitau broke away at around 5000 m, …

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 …

by Brett Larner

The 2008-2009 university men`s ekiden season officially began on June 22nd with the 40th annual All-Japan University Ekiden Kanto Regional Qualifying Meet at Tokyo`s Oda Field. The top six teams at last year`s All-Japan were seeded for the 2008 ekiden. Chuo Gakuin University was also awarded a seeded spot on the strength of its unprecedented third place finish at this year`s Hakone Ekiden. Additional teams would be selected from the different parts of Japan on the strength of their performances in the regional qualifying meets.

For the Kanto Regional Qualifying Meet, any university in the region could submit names and personal bests of eight team members. The fastest twenty teams based on aggregate time would be eligible to run in the qualifier. Each team`s eight runners were split evenly between four 10000 m track races, roughly seeded so that runners of similar ability would compete against each other. The eight runners` total times in the four races were then added an…