japan running news

by Brett Larner note: International travel resulted in a delay to posting these results.  Apologies. Three big road races produced noteworthy results across Japan over the past weekend.  At last year's Takashimadaira Road Race 20 km, the completely unknown Takehiro Deki  (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) exploded onto the Kanto region university men's distance scene by tying the course record of 58:51 while winning by a margin of 1:30.  This year as a more established name Deki successfully repeated, winning Takashimadaira again in warm conditions in 59:44 by a margin of 1:13.  Veteran Yoshimi Hoshino  (eAthletes AC) took her fifth win in the women's division, running 1:15:12, while five-time women's 10 km division winner Maki Inami  (Kita AC) made it six as she won in 34:50.  Komazawa University graduate  Akinori Iida  (Team Honda) won the men's 10 km in 29:59. Further north in Sendai, Ritsumeikan University  scored a major upset as it b...

by Brett Larner It's Tokyo Marathon week. This is the first of JRN's two-part preview of this year's fifth edition, to be held this Sunday, Feb. 27. Click here for part two , our men's preview. Look for additional articles and info as the week goes along. This year's race will be broadcast live on Fuji TV beginning at 9 a.m. Japan time. Overseas viewers should be able to watch online via Keyhole TV . Some viewers experienced trouble with Keyhole for last week's Yokohama International Women's Marathon but it appears to be working fine as of this writing, so make sure you have downloaded the current version of the player to increase your chances. In any case, JRN will be doing live race commentary via Twitter. Click here to follow . The Tokyo Marathon's elite women's race occupies a peculiar position in its third edition, with world-class prize money at stake and quality overseas competition but excluded from the selection races for this year's Wo...

by Brett Larner What a day. With 6 degree temperatures at the start, strong winds, rain turning to snow as temperatures fell, and a tsunami warning for the waterfront finish area, this year's Tokyo Marathon had the worst conditions in the event's four-year history. That is saying quite a bit after the cold rain in 2007 and the gale-force winds last year. Times were never on the table as runners fought simply to survive. Injury-plagued debut marathon national record holder Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) staged a major comeback, gutting it out over a pack of nine with a surge at 2:52/km over the last 2.195 km to win the men's race in 2:12:19, the first Japanese man to win Tokyo. 2008 Tokyo runner-up Arata Fujiwara (Team JR Higashi Nihon), no relation, won out a great sprint finish for 2nd against half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and amateur Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't). Time aside, the day was a big one for Masakazu Fuj...