japan running news

by Brett Larner

The four-ring circus surrounding selection for the Japanese men's London World Championships marathon team pitches its final tent this Sunday at the 72nd edition of the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon.  Coming fresh in the wake of last weekend's record-breaking Tokyo Marathon Lake Biwa may seem like a lesser afterthought, but for certain Japanese men and for the fans it's everything.

Up front there's a quality international field led by 2015 Beijing World Championships bronze medalist Munyo Solomon Mutai (Uganda), 2015 Tokyo Marathon winner Endeshaw Negesse (Ethiopia), 2015 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon winner Tewelde Estifanos (Eritrea), 2014~15 Madrid Marathon winner Ezekiel Kiptoo Chebii (Kenya), 2013 Lake Biwa winner and Daegu World Champs silver medalist Vincent Kipruto (Kenya), and, in his debut, Japan-based Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Team JFE Steel), the former successor to Bedan Karoki as the king of Hiroshima's Sera H.S. ekiden team.

For the Japane…

by Brett Larner

The Mar. 5 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Biwako for short, is the last of the four races used to choose the three members of the Japanese men's marathon team for August's London World Championships.  Two of the three members of last summer's Rio de Janeiro Olympic team top the list of Japanese men in the race, Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei) with a 2:08:56 in Fukuoka 2015 and Suehiro Ishikawa (Team Honda) with 2:09:25 last year at Lake Biwa. The pair are the only Japanese athletes in the field with recent sub-2:10 times, a few steps ahead of six 2:10-11 men including the high-potential Tadashi Isshiki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota).  Four others led by 2014 Asian Games silver medalist Kohei Matsumura (Team MHPS) have broken 2:10 in the past but would need a solid comeback to factor.  With the possible exception of Matsumura one of the five debuting sub-63 half marathoners may be more likely to end up in the front-end action, the p…

by Brett Larner

In its tenth edition as a mass-participation race Sunday's Tokyo Marathon comes packed with story lines.  With the weather forecast looking good both the men's and women's course records, 2:05:42 and 2:22:23, are in danger.  The Japanese all-comers' records of 2:05:18 and 2:21:18 may not be safe either.  The Abbott World Marathon Majors wraps up the first iteration of its new one year/seven race +1 format in Tokyo; 2014 Tokyo winner Dickson Chumba (Kenya) stands a chance of tying men's series leader Eliud Kipchoge after winning in Chicago last fall, sending the win to a vote, while on the women's side Birhane Dibaba (Ethiopia), Helah Kiprop (Kenya) and Aberu Kebede (Ethiopia) all have a chance at taking the AWMM title if the win goes their way.  Even 2nd would get Dibaba into the running.

Along with Chumba, Emmanuel Mutai (Kenya) and Eliud Kiptanui (Kenya) will be pushing the race toward record territory with a first half planned in the 1:02:30-…

by Brett Larner

Hot on the heels of Tuesday's announcement of the elite men's field for April's London Marathon comes the Tokyo Marathon's release of the men's and women's fields for its tenth running at the end of February.  Sporting six men recently under sub-2:06, the world record holder, 2015 world champion and reigning winners of four of the six World Marathon Majors, on paper London's field may be sexier up front than Tokyo's, but with defending Olympic gold medalist Stephen Kiprotich (Uganda), 2015 Chicago Marathon and 2014 Tokyo Marathon winner Dickson Chumba (Kenya), a raft of recent WMM top-3 placers including Kiprotich, Emmanuel Mutai (Kenya), Eliud Kiptanui (Kenya), and Feyisa Lilesa (Ethiopia), two-time defending Amsterdam Marathon winner Bernard Kipyego (Kenya) and the one thing none of the other WMM can deliver, a world-class domestic field, Tokyo more than holds its own.  For the last two years Tokyo has produced more gold label men'…

by Brett Larner

With the demise of the Sapporo International Half Marathon, Hokkaido's Shibetsu Half Marathon has taken on a bigger role as a major domestic summer half marathon, especially for members of Japanese national teams for international championships.  Despite generally hot conditions and the apparent cutting of the elite women's 10 km this year, both the women's and men's races featured solid fields.

Kenyan Winfredah Kebaso, the main support of the fledgling Nitori corporate women's team, easily took the win in 1:12:36 over Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), one of the three Japanese women in the marathon at next month's Beijing World Championships.  Ito was a distant 2nd behind Kebaso in 1:14:47 but had little trouble holding off teammate Yui Okada, 3rd in 1:15:13.  Runners from the Noritz corporate team featured prominently, taking 4 of the top 10 places, while Nitori's Remi Nakazato continued her comeback from a cancer diagnosis last November, tak…

http://www.sankei.com/sports/news/150222/spo1502220024-n1.html

translated by Brett Larner

Just over 30 minutes into the Tokyo Marathon, 2014 Asian Games silver medalist Kohei Matsumura (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) was already showing strain on his face.  Around 12 km he suddenly fell back from the lead group never to return, finishing 25th in 2:16:25.  "Am I shocked?  I guess so..." he said in a thin voice post-race.  "I felt it in my legs right from the start."  In past races he has been able to pick it up partway through, but this time he was unable to focus and get into a steady rhythm.  "I just couldn't get it together today," he said.

Last year Matsumura was the top Japanese finisher in Tokyo, 8th in 2:08:09.  At the Asian Games he won the silver medal in the marathon.  Aware of his status as Japan's top current marathon, pre-race he enthusiastically said, "My goal is 2:07.  I want to live up to expectations."  But those same expe…

by Brett Larner
click here for Japanese women's 2014 rankings

There was a lot to like in Japanese men's distance running this year, from national records for 3000 m and 50 km and a sensational Hakone Ekiden win to six men sub-28 to a dozen sub-14 high schoolers to university men breaking 61 minutes in the half marathon to ten men running sub-2:10 marathons a total of eleven times.  Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) continued to define his own category, setting a Japanese record with his seventh and eighth career sub-2:10 marathons on the way to totalling thirteen marathons for the year, going sub-2:20 in all of them to break Doug Kurtis' record of twelve.  All of it happening with record-setting depth at all levels, a reflection of how much motivation the 2020 Tokyo Olympics bring to the country's runners.

In preparation for Tokyo the Japanese Federation began a move to close ranks by establishing a National Team training program for its top Olympic marathon conte…

by Brett Larner

Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) came into 2014 off a legendary year that saw him set 3 world records, running 2:09 marathons 14 days apart, 2:08 marathons 42 days apart and 4 sub-2:10 marathons within one calendar year.  His main goals for 2014 were clear enough: a sub-2:08 and a gold medal at October's Asian Games.  And, not content with 11 marathons last year, this year he turned it up to 13, going sub-2:20 in all of them to surpass American great Doug Kurtis' best of 12. Italian Giorgio Calcaterra ran 16 sub 2:20 marathons in 2000, but only 6 were sub-2:17.  All 13 of Kawauchi's cleared 2:17, 9 of them faster than Calcaterra's 2000 best of 2:13:15.


Kawauchi started off with the race he identified as his best of the year, a solo 2:10:14 course record at the amateur-level Kumamoto-jo Marathon without pacers, competitors or special drinks.  Running by feel he went far faster than planned, an effort that he paid for 2 weeks later at the Lake Biwa …