japan running news

by Brett Larner Hosoda/Nittai wins in 16:12.23 to complete Kanto Regionals 5000/10000 double title. pic.twitter.com/GBan2hf1RQ — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) May 22, 2016 D1 10000 m champs Ai Hosoda (Nittai Univ.) and Patrick Wambui (Nihon Univ.) came back on a hot and windy final day of the 95th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships to score double titles with wins in the 5000 m.  In the women's 5000 m Hosoda ran steady in a lead group of four before holding off a strong charge from first-year Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) to win by half a second in 16:12.18. Monster kick from Wambui/Nihon to complete Kanto Regionals 5/10 double in 13:47.18. pic.twitter.com/GF8xfpo8fg — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) May 22, 2016 After a 2:42 opening 1000 m Wambui went to the front to shake things down to another group of four.  Like the women's race it came down to a duel over the last lap, fourth-year Kazuma Taira (Waseda Univ.) staying with ...

by Brett Larner photos by @rikujolove click here for Hakone Ekiden Day One report and results After leading the first day of Japan's biggest race the entire way, defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University did it again on the return trip to become the first school in 39 years to lead the Hakone Ekiden start to finish.  Starting the day with a margin of 3:04 over 2015 National University Ekiden champion Toyo University Aoyama Gakuin had some room for error over the 5-stage, 109.6 km Day Two race, but even so head coach Susumu Hara took a major gamble in putting unknown Yuji Onoda , a 1st-year with no university ekiden, half marathon or 10000 m credentials and a 5000 m best of only 14:15.70, onto the day's leading stage, the 20.8 Sixth Stage with 800 m of brutal descent.  In doing it he also showed why is the best current coach in Japan, as Onoda responded to the challenge by tying the course record in 58:31.  For Toyo to have a chance it needed to make up serio...

by Brett Larner video by Ekiden News The record-setting 2014 National University Half Marathon finish. Thanks to an average stage length of 21.7 km at the ten-stage Hakone Ekiden every Jan. 2-3 the half marathon is the distance Japan's collegiate men focus on and the one at which they excel more than any other.  Sub-63 half marathon bests have become commonplace on the Kanto university circuit and sub-62, even sub-61, the new standard for the top Hakone stars.  This Sunday's National University Half Marathon is no exception, with at least 25 men on the entry list having sub-63 PBs led by Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage course record setter Daichi Kamino (3rd yr., Aoyama Gakuin University) in 1:01:21 and National University Men's Ekiden Fifth Stage course record setter Ken Yokote (3rd yr., Meiji Univ.) in 1:01:37. Last year's National University Half, held as always in conjunction with Tokyo's Tachikawa City Half Marathon , saw both a new course record of 1:02:0...

by Brett Larner click photo for finish footage Japan-based Kenyan Paul Kuira (Team Konica Minolta) and Kenya-based Kiwi Zane Robertson made some history Sunday as they pushed each other just under the 59:48 course record at the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon . Kuira, along with Samuel Wanjiru and Daniel Njenga a graduate of Sendai Ikuei H.S. , and Robertson, both debuting, ran in a lead pack that included favorite Bernard Koech (Kenya), Juan Luis Barrios (Mexico), Benjamin Ngandu (Kenya/Team Monteroza) and Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko), Kuira's Konica teammates Masato Kikuchi and Keita Shitara and collegiates Ken Yokote (Meiji Univ.) and Daichi Kamino (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) through a solid 28:10 first 10 km, on track for 59:25.  Kamino, the star of the 2015 Hakone Ekiden with a brilliant course record on its uphill Fifth Stage, was the first to fall off Japanese national record pace, with the rest following by 15 km. A surge from Ngandu sh...

by Brett Larner 19-year-old Nittai University second-year Hideto Yamanaka  lived up to his superb 2014 Hakone Ekiden First Stage win today in Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park, taking nearly five minutes off his half marathon best to win the National University Half Marathon Championships in a course record 1:02:09.  Despite cold temperatures and on-and-off rain, Yamanaka led aggressively from the start before getting away in the final kilometers to win by more than twenty seconds over Waseda University's Daiki Taguchi  and Koki Ido  and Komazawa University's Yoshihiro Nishizawa  and Shota Baba . The momentum of Yamanaka and the others in the front pack pulled the entire field along, all of the top ten going sub-63, nine of them in PB times.  For the first time in history more than 200 men cleared 66 minutes in a single half marathon, a new world record  which confirmed the upward trend in Japanese university men's performances that has only increased s...