japan running news

The 2018 Jakarta Asian Games are underway, with athletics competition set to kick off Saturday morning with the men's marathon. 23 women and 35 men will represent Japan in what may be the best approximation in the next two years of the conditions they're likely to face at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

It's a national team with strong contenders in certain events and gaping holes elsewhere. The women's racewalk squad is very thin at only one entrant and no women are competing in any jumps, while no Japanese men are entered in the 5000 m or 10000 m. All the development in men's distance seems to be channelled into the marathon, where Japan may have one of its best gold medal chances in 2:06:54 man Hiroto Inoue. No Japanese man has won gold in the marathon at the Asian Games since Takayuki Nakayama set the still-standing Games record of 2:08:21 at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games. Given the heat and humidity of Jakarta Inoue is unlikely to touch that kind of time, but his chanc…

In his second pro season, junior and collegiate men's 10000 m racewalk national record holder Daisuke Matsunaga (Fujitsu) stepped up with his biggest performance yet, becoming the first Japanese man to break 38 minutes and coming in with a near miss on the world record to win the 10000 m racewalk in a national record 37:58.08 at Saturday's Hokuren Distance Challenge Kitami meet. A 2017 graduate of Toyo University, throughout the race Matsunaga had support from younger Toyo athletes Koki Ikeda and Masatori Kawano who ended up 2nd and 3rd 40 to 50 seconds back. Currently ranked 4th in the world over 20 km, Matsunaga may be just what Japan needs for Tokyo 2020: a legit gold medal contender in athletics.

Speaking of Tokyo 2020, the JAAF is desperate to get some women under 15 minutes for 5000 m before, something only national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) has ever done. As a step toward that objective, for the second year in a row the Hokuren Distance Challenge featured a…

Most of Japan's distance runners retreat north to Hokkaido for the summer to escape the heat and put in mileage for ekiden season. The four-part Hokuren Distance Challenge series gives them the chance to add some quality into the mix, whether for chasing standards, padding their resumes, or general development.

The main focus of the first part of the 2018 series, held in the town of Abashiri, was on 10000 m for women and 5000 m for men. In cold and rain times weren't especially fast, Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) continuing a solid first season in the corporate leagues with a win in the women's 10000 m A-heat in 32:35.74 and Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku) taking the B-heat in 32:55.13. Women also had the option for 3000 m, with Marta Mokaya (Oita Tomei H.S.) beating Ann Karindi (Toyota Jidoshokki) 8:56.40 to 8:59.12.

Kenyan Nicholas Kosimbei (Toyota) fronted the men's 5000 m A-heat in 13:33.97, with Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) taking the top Japanese spot at 8th in 13:…

A day after the conclusion of the 2018 Japanese National Championships, the JAAF announced its team roster for August's Jakarta Asian Games. 23 women and 35 men are set to compete in what may be the best approximation in the next two years of the Tokyo 2020 conditions. No women are set to compete in any jumps, while despite having men in the 800 m, 1500 m, 3000 m steeplechase and marathon, no Japanese men are entered in the 5000 m or 10000 m. All the development in men's distance seems to be channelled into the marathon, where one of the stars of this year's Tokyo Marathon, 2:06:54 man Hiroto Inoue (MHPS), will see what he can do in heat and humidity. The complete list of athletes, events and qualifying marks is as below.
WomenSprints
Chisato Fukushima (Seiko) - 100 m: 11.42     200 m: 23.35
Kana Ichikawa (Mizuno) - 100 m: 11.43
Nodoka Seko (Crane) - 100 m: 11.50 (relay)
Midori Mikase (Eniwa Kita H.S.) - 100 m: 11.63 (relay)
Ayaka Kawata (Higashi Osaka Univ.) - 400 m: 53.…

Masateru Yugami (Toyota) and Taio Kanai (Fukui Pref. Sports Assoc.) wrapped up the last day of the 2018 Japanese National Track and Field Championships in style, delivering national records in the men's discus throw and men's 110 m hurdles.

Coming into Nationals with a best of only 59.30 m, Yugami threw PBs on five-straight throws, breaking the national record set last year by rival Yuji Tsutsumi (Alsok) on his last three. By the time the dust settled he held a new record of 62.16 m, an improvement of almost a minute and a half over Tsutsumi's record. "I'm happy to get this," he said afterward, "but I know other athletes are coming up too and I hope that we can take it further together."

With a 0.7 m/s tailwind, the #4-ranked Kanai won the 110 mH final in 13.36, a PB by 0.17 and bettering both the year-old meet record and 2004-era national record. 3000 mSC winner Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.) came up short of the national record, but his 8:29.14 …

Back in 2010 JRN spotted 17-year-old high school student Minami Yamanouchi at a local 14 km road race in northern Ibaraki, where she beat the high school boys' course record by more than four minutes. At the time we wrote, "If Yamanouchi keeps running post-high school and lands at the right team, university or pro, we may have been lucky to see the first appearance of a future great." Now 25 and coached by former half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato at the Kyocera corporate team, in the last few weeks Yamanouchi has really come into her own.

Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) took the top Japanese spot at 4th overall in the 5000 m at the April 28 Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima, one of the top-level track meets in Japan. A former amateur runner, she only joined the corporate leagues last August. Seeing her progress in less than a year of serious training, her coach Atsushi Sato, the 6th placer in the 2009 World Championships marathon, called her "exceptional.&qu…

Japan's outdoor season rolled on April 28 with the 52nd Oda Memorial Meet, one of the events used in selection for Japan's national team for this summer's Jakarta Asian Games. Rosemary Monica Wanjiru (Starts) topped the day's results with a 15:08.61 meet record in the Women's Grand Prix 5000 m, easily leaving senior teammate Grace Kimanzi and veteran Ann Karindi (Toyota Jidoshokki) behind to take the top spot.

#織田記念
グランプリ 女子5000m

山ノ内みなみさん(京セラ)15:21.31 pic.twitter.com/TW3Muk8tbB — Tさんrunner (@Runner_2653) April 29, 2018
Dropping a massive PB for 4th, Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) was the first Japanese women in 15:21.31. Longtime readers might remember Yamanouchi as a 17-year-old high schooler from Fukushima casually breaking high school boys' records and running sub-3 marathons for fun. Now 24, she has landed at the Kyocera corporate team under the tutelage of former men's half marathon national record holder and fellow Fukushima native Atsushi Sato. Clearly …

by Brett Larner

29-year-old Shingo Igarashi, a former Subaru corporate runner now working as an assistant coach for Josai University's Hakone Ekiden team, ran a PB 2:13:15 to break the 16-year-old course record at the 64th edition of the Katsuta Marathon, one of Japan's biggest marathons.  Igarashi and Naoki Inoue ran alone out front of the field, accompanied a short way by veteran corporate runner Norio Kamijo, but Igarashi, running his third marathon in just over two months, proved to have the best command of the course's hilly sections as he dropped both competitors to seal the win.  Igarashi's time was a PB by 31 seconds and took over a minute and a half off the 2:14:54 course record.  Inoue just missed joining him under the record, taking 2nd in a solid 2:15:05, with Kamijo fading to 2:20:15 for 3rd.

The women's race saw local Hitachi corporate runners go 1-2, Kana Kurosawa getting the win in 2:43:40 over teammate Yuka Mikami, who ran 2:46:22.  Just behind Mik…

by Brett Larner

click any meet name for complete results

Japan's Golden Week national holidays saw a series of meets with noteworthy long distance results across the country.  At the April 29 Nobeoka Spring Time Trials meet, 13:18 man Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) continued his comeback from a year of injury in 2011 with a 13:50.27 win in the 5000 m A-heat.  Former sub-28 high school sensation Ryuji Ono (Team Asahi Kasei) was likewise under 14 after a seemingly endless series of injuries.  Closer to Tokyo, five-time women's 1500 m national champion Mika Yoshikawa (Team Panasonic) had an easy win in 3000 m at the Tokai University Time Trials meet, winning in 9:03.72 over teammate Akiko Matsuyama's 9:22.60.

Mitsuya and Ono doubled in the 10000 m four days later at the May 3rd Nobeoka Time Trials meet, going 1-2 with Mitsuya getting the win again in 28:49.61.  Olympic marathon team member Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) returned to competition for the first time s…

by Brett Larner

Near typhoon conditions throughout Japan on Friday and Saturday brought a nationwide heat wave and strong winds on Sunday, less than ideal for a handful of major races across the country.

The biggest of them, the Olympic selection-edition Yokohama International Women's Marathon, turned into a race of attrition decided by a final kick to the new waterfront finish, Yokohama's third course in three runnings.  With all three female pacemakers running into trouble and dropping out suddenly at 8, 12 and 19 km rather than the planned 25 km, the race proceeded slower than the planned 2:22 pace, but favorites nevertheless dropped behind one by one.  After a conservative first half far behind the lead pack, 2008 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Mara Yamauchi (Great Britain) took the lead just before 25 km.  After a big move from Kaoru Nagao (Team Univ. Ent.) at 31 km the race came down to three, defending champion Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) and th…

by Brett Larner

17 year old high school junior Minami Yamanouchi, who turned heads in November by breaking the women's course record at the Nishi-Kanasa 14 km by 9 minutes and then running a 2:56:04 marathon two days later, showed up running well in two Kanto-area races in the last week and a half. On Jan. 30 she was 2nd overall in the Katsuta Marathon in a PB of 2:52:54. One week later she finished 5th at the Feb. 6 Kanagawa Half Marathon in 1:20:54. A prefectural 800 m champion in junior high school and now self-coached at a high school without a track program, you can't help but wonder what Yamanouchi could be capable of with a good coach behind her.

(c) 2011 Brett Larner
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by Brett Larner

New Nishi-Kanasa Mountain Road Race women's CR holder by 9 minutes, 17 year-old Minami Yamanouchi.

The 11th Nishi-Kanasa 14 km Mountain Road Race took place Nov. 21 in the town of Hitachi Ota, Ibaraki prefecture. For the second year in a row, Kenyans Joaz Ogata and Evan Malarsa of Team Ibaraki Kankyo Kigyo went 1-2, just off Ogata's course record in times of 49:36 and 49:45. The relatively slow pace, just over 3:30/km, reflects the difficulty of the course - a gentle downhill for the first two km, a gradual uphill for the next four, and then a suddenly 300 m climb from 6 km to 9 km followed by an equal descent in only 2 km and then a gradual slope down to the finish.

The big news of the race came in the women's division, where 17 year old Minami Yamanouchi, a high school junior from Koriyama, Fukushima prefecture, finished 9th overall. Her time, 54:37, was only five minutes off that of the professional male Kenyan winner, broke the existing women's course …