japan running news

Dubai, 1/25/13
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1. Tirfi Tsegaye Beyene (Ethiopia) - 2:23:23
2. Ehitu Kiros Reda (Ethiopia) - 2:23:39
3. Amane Gobena Gemeda (Ethiopia) - 2:23:50
4. Aheza Kiros Abeye (Ethiopia) - 2:24:30
5. Belaynesh Olijira Jemama (Ethiopia) - 2:25:01
6. Shitaye Bedasa Ordofa (Ethiopia) - 2:25:47
7. Isabellah Andersson (Sweden) - 2:26:05
8. Abebech Afework Bekele (Ethiopia) - 2:27:08
9. Beata Naigambo (Namibia) - 2:27:54
10. Misaki Katsumata (Team Daiichi Seimei) - 2:30:42

photo (c) 2013 Dr. Helmut Winter
all rights reserved

by Brett Larner

Kenyan teammates Paul Tanui and Sally Chepyego of the Kyushu-based Team Kyudenko swept the 10000 m A-heats on the first day of this year's National Corporate Track and Field Championships, Sept. 21 at Hakatonomori Field in Fukuoka.  Holding the home-soil advantage, Tanui and Chepyego ran virtually identical races, going out solo and leading throughout the race to take the win unchallenged, Tanui in 27:30.22 and Chepyego in 31:33.76.  For Tanui it was a successful defense of his 2011 national corporate 10000 m title.

In both the men's and women's races a pack of three pursued the leader.  In the men's race the pack included Kenyans Edward Waweru (Team NTN) and Patrick Muwaka (Team Aisan Kogyo) along with 21-year-old Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota), the sixth-fastest Japanese man ever over 10000 m with a best of 27:41.57 from last November.  Miyawaki fell off the pace of Waweru and Muwaka but, as with his PB run last fall, ran a fast final km, closing in 2…

by Brett Larner

Transformed on the one-year anniversary of the Tohoku disasters from the small, elite-only format to the world's largest women-only marathon with 15,000 runners running a new course with an indoor finish unique in Japan, the Nagoya Women's Marathon marked the end of the Japanese Olympic team selection cycle.  Russian veteran Albina Mayorova ran a massive negative split of over two minutes to effortlessly blow by Japan's best in the final part of the race and take the win in 2:23:52, nearly two minutes better than her 8 1/2 year-old PB.  Tumbling in the turbulence behind her, 2009 World Championships silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) outkicked her 2011 World Championships teammate Remi Nakazato (Team Daihatsu) to take the top Japanese spot, 2nd overall in 2:24:14, and put herself into the circle of contenders for the London team.  Nakazato was 3rd in 2:24:28, a PB by one second and good enough to give her a chance of joining Ozaki in London…

by Brett Larner

Five-time 1500 m national champion Mika Yoshikawa (Team Panasonic) and ekiden ace Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Kagaku) closed off their years in style at the Dec. 24 Nittai University Women's Long Distance Time Trials meet in Yokohama.  Running in the 5000 m A-heat, Yoshikawa took 13 seconds off her PB to clear the London Olympics A-standard in 15:15.33.  Just over half an hour later, Shimizu sliced more than 30 seconds from her 10000 m PB to join Yoshikawa in clearing the Olympic A-standard in a new best of 31:43.25.  Yoshikawa is the third Japanese woman to hit the 5000 m A-standard and Shimizu the fourth in the 10000 m, but with higher-ranking qualifiers Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno) and Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) aiming for the marathon both have excellent chances of making the London team at this stage.

2011 Nittai University Women's Long Distance Time Trials
Yokohama, 12/24/11
click here for complete results

Women's 10000 m
1. Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui K…

by Brett Larner

The East Japan regional qualifiers for December's National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden Championships and the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden men's national corporate championships took place Nov. 3 in Saitama, northwest of Tokyo.  Run in perfect conditions, there were new records on five of the seven men's stages and four of the six women's stages with the winning men's team just three seconds off the overall course record.

27:38 man Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) set the tone for the day, taking 52 seconds off the record for the 11.6 km first stage and winning by a margin of 36 seconds after leading wire to wire.  The entire field was aggressive, with the top nine all clearing the old stage record of 33:52.    27:41 man Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta) nearly closed the gap on the 15.3 km second stage, coming within 10 seconds of leader Hiroyuki Ono (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and breaking his own stage record by 21 seconds.

Much of the anticipation fo…

by Brett Larner

Update: Reader vilagoiberia just sent me a link to this video of the last 6.5 km of Kawauchi's run.



Dreams come true - Yuki Kawauchi

Losing its biggest stories one by one with the withdrawal of world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), defending champion Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda), debuting Kenyan star Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and debuting former university Hakone Ekiden star Hideaki Date (Team Chugoku Denryoku), in its fifth edition the Tokyo Marathon got something else entirely.

With the day dawning with ideal conditions, 7 degrees, light partial cloud cover and gentle winds, everyone knew the race would be fast. 19 year old pacer Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Team S&B), who ran a course record 27:52 a day earlier in the senior men's 10k at the Fukuoka International XC Meet, took the race out slightly ahead of schedule, splitting 14:56 for the downhill first 5 km and 14:59 for the next. 15 km went by in 44:49, 20 km in 59:53 and halfway in 1…

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 World C…

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2010110300284
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20101103-697806.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The 21st Women's and 51st Men's East Japan Jitsugyodan Ekiden Championships, the regional qualifiers for the year-end National Ekiden Championships, took place Nov. 3 in Saitama prefecture. Led by 2009 World Championships marathon silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki, Team Daiichi Seimei took its first win in the women's race with a time of 2:18:46 for the six-stage, 42.195 km course. The top thirteen teams qualified for the Dec. 19 national championships in Gifu. Team Panasonic placed 2nd, while defending champion Team Toyota Jidoshoki could do no better than 9th.

Former nine-time champion Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo was 6th. Leading them for the first time in a year was 10000 m national record holder Yoko Shibui, who placed 3rd on the anchor stage. After nearly two years of injury setbacks Shibui told reporters, &…

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp201003170188.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The men's and women's National Jitsugyodan Half Marathon Championships take place this Sunday, Mar. 21 in Yamaguchi. A selection race for the national team for October's World Half Marathon Championships, the Jitsugyodan Half wraps up the road season as athletes head to track in April.

Leading the way in the women's race is the star of Team Daiichi Seimei, 2009 World Championships marathon silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki, running her last major tuneup race before April's London Marathon. Her main competition will come from teammate Misaki Katsumata, who had a brilliant victory at last month's Chiba International Cross Country Meet, and defending champion Danielle Filomena Cheyech (Team Uniqlo). National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden Championships Sixth Stage winner Kaori Urata (Team Tenmaya) could also be a threat.

2009 World Championships marathoners Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Ky…

by Brett Larner

Together with the Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet at the end of the month, the Chiba International Cross Country Meet makes up part of the selection process for the Japanese national teams for March's World Cross Country Championships in Poland. Cross country has never been a significant part of Japanese distance running, and this year many of the biggest names on the entry lists gave the meet a miss.

In the senior men's race, high schooler Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Sera H.S.) returned to take the win over a field of university and pro runners. Defending women's champion Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Kagaku) likewise returned but finished only 17th.

Below are the top finishers in each of the meet's main divisions. The top two domestic runners in each category stand a good chance of being selected for the Worlds team, while those in 3rd and below will have to wait to see what happens in Fukuoka.

2010 Chiba International Cross Country Meet - Top Finishers
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