japan running news

Lost in the luminosity of Eliud Kipchoge's world record and Gladys Cherono's women's course record at the Berlin Marathon were a score of Japanese results there and elsewhere overseas, ranging from the sparkling to the dull. Cherono and 2nd and 3rd placers Ruti Aga and Tirunesh Dibaba all broke Mizuki Noguchi's Berlin Marathon course record of 2:19:12 which has stood since she set that national record mark in 2005.

A kilometer behind Dibaba, Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) followed up her 2:22:44 debut in Osaka in January with a 2:22:23 PB for 5th, making her just the fourth Japanese woman ever to break 2:23 twice in her career. 2:23:46 woman Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) ran 2:25:23 for 7th, beating Tenmaya teammate Rei Ohara whose 2:27:28 put her only 10th but qualified her for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon trials, only the second athlete after 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) to qualify for the trials under the two-race average wildcard opt…

In preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the JAAF will hold a 10-day women's marathon training camp in Chitose, Hokkaido from July 27 to August 5. It is the first time for the city of Chitose to host a JAAF training camp since it was selected as the site for the Japanese national team's pre-Tokyo Olympics base. Six athletes including 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympian Mai Ito will take part, with the program scheduled to include running classes with local amateur runners.

The six athletes identified as high-level in the marathon and long distance and invited to participate in the program are Ito, Yuka Ando, Hanami Sekine, Yukari Abe, Mao Ichiyama and Miyuki Uehara. Along with them, a staff of sixteen support personnel will also take part. Conceived of as a simulation of the Tokyo Olympics, the camp takes place at the same time and for the same number of days as it will two years from now before the main event. The athletes will train at Aoba Field, on the 3.6 km Aoba Park loop, …

On Mar. 12 the JAAF announced that Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei), a Rio de Janeiro Olympian in the women's 5000 m, has withdrawn from the Mar. 24 Valencia World Half Marathon Championships after sustaining an injury to her right Achilles tendon.

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https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2018031200777&g=spo
translated by Brett Larner

On Mar. 6 the JAAF announced the Japanese women's and men's teams for the 2018 World Half Marathon Championships scheduled for Mar. 24 in Valencia, Spain. The women's team has few surprises, made up of the top two Japanese women from December's Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei) and Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal), the top Japanese women at February's Marugame Half and National Corporate Half Marathon, Kaori Morita (Panasonic) and Yuka Hori (Panasonic), and high-potential marathoner Honami Maeda (Tenmaya), winner of August's Hokkaido Marathon and 2nd at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2:23:46.

Maeda's inclusion is clearly geared to give one of the people the JAAF views as potential 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon team material some international championships racing experience, and that decision making process is even more clearly at work in the men's team selection. #1-ranked man Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei), holde…

After becoming only the second Japanese in woman in history to make an Olympic 5000 m final last year in Rio Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei) was a slow burner in 2017, absent any flashes of particular brilliance but putting together a string of strong performances capped by a year-leading half marathon in late December that put her atop the women’s rankings.


Uehara took 3rd in the 10000 m at June’s National Championships in 31:48.81, qualifying for the London World Championships where she was 24th in 32:31.58. In between she dropped her best 5000 m of the year, a 15:32.25 in Abashiri. During ekiden season she was only OK, finishing 5th on her stage at the National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Championships.

In her last race of the year, the Dec. 23 Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon, Uehara sat back behind frontrunning Japanese women Rei Ohara (Tenmaya) and Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal), craftily running them down in the final stages to finish in 1:09:13, the fastest time of the year by a Japan…

Japan-based Kenyan Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) outran defending champion Rei Ohara (Tenmaya) and three of Japan's best upcoming young talents to cut 13 seconds off the course record as she won the 36th edition of the Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon.

Kamulu, Ohara and 2017 national cross country champion Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) set off near 1:08-flat pace, a time no Japanese woman has cleared in almost 12 years. Behind them, Rio Olympian Miyuki Uehara and the debuting Azusa Sumi (Univ. Ent.) went at a more conservative pace while keeping the leaders in sight. After 5 km Kamulu through in a surge to drop her Japanese competition, going through 10 km in 32-flat and pushing on alone to finish in 1:08:04, a new course record and a PB by well over a minute and a half.

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パウリン・カムル選手（ルートインホテルズ）1:08:04 大会新！#山陽女子ロードレースpic.twitter.com/3uojPTmBJY — 岡山陸上マニア (@okariku333) December 23, 2017
Behind her, Ohara and Ichiyama fought to keep it on sub-1:09 pace. Ohara began …

The organizers of the Sanyo Ladies Road Race have announced the elite fields for this year's 36th running on Dec. 23, a selection race for the women's national team for next March's World Half Marathon Championships in Spain. Honami Maeda (21, Tenmaya), winner of August's Hokkaido Marathon, and London World Championships team members Miyuki Uehara (22, Daiichi Seimei) and Mao Kiyota (24, Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) lead the list of young hopefuls for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic team who will grace Okayama's streets.

All three will run the half marathon, where they will face last year's winner Rei Ohara (Tenmaya). Also entered are 2015 Beijing World Championships 5000 m team member Azusa Sumi (21, Univ. Ent.), Ayaka Fujimoto (20, Kyocera) who earlier this year ran 2:27:08 at the Tokyo Marathon to become Japan's fastest-ever teen marathoner, and 2017 World XC Championships team member Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal). London World Championships marathon 13th-placer Charlotte Purdu…