japan running news

A veteran and a first-timer made the headlines from the opposite ends of the spectrum at Sunday's Hokkaido Marathon in Sapporo, Hokkaido, the first race in the second season of qualifying for the MGC Race, Japan's new 2020 Olympic trials race to be held in September next year. A passing typhoon brought cooler than usual weather to Hokkaido and a better-than-usual chance of hitting the sub-2:13 and sub-2:30 qualifying marks most Olympic aspirants would have to clear.

The men's race was simply a race of attrition, with no dramatic changes in pace or sudden moves, just a large pack of motivated people going out mid-2:11 pace in a race where only two men have ever cleared 2:12, neither of them Japanese. In the pack, 59:47 Kenyan Paul Kuira (Konica Minolta), the promising young Shohei Otsuka (Kyedenko), championships marathoner extraordinaire Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki),2016 Sydney Marathon winner Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta), luckless veteran Naoki Okamoto (Chugok…

The 2018 Hakodate Marathon and Half Marathon took place July 1 in Hakodate, Hokkaido. Despite heavy rain on and off throughout the race, 6767 people out of 7139 starters finished. The third year Hakodate has had a full marathon division, 3147 people started in the full and 3992 in the half.

Both races began and finished at Chiyogadai Field, the half starting at 9:00 a.m. and the full going off at 10:00. As rain fell the runners were cheered on by local supporters lining the streets of the western parts of the city and the coastal areas popular with tourists. Volunteers at aid stations handed out local delicacies like mini sashimi bowls and cold salty ramen to enthusiastic participants.

Yuya Yamashita (26, Sunbelx) took four minutes off the course record to win the men's full marathon in 2:18:27. "The hills in the second half were tough, but I'm really happy to have won it," he said post-race, his face full of smiles. Kenyan Paul Kuira (Konica Minolta) won a close rac…

Japan’s domestic elite marathon season wraps up Sunday with the Nagoya Women’s Marathon, the final race in the first season of qualification for the MGC Race, Japan’s new 2020 Olympic trials marathon to be held in late 2019. In its first season the MGC Race has succeeded in unifying Japan’s disparate national team selection races into what feels like an actual series, one that fans have gotten excited about and which has, at least on the men’s side, driven performances to a higher level. As of right now, thirteen Japanese men have met the MGC Race’s strict qualification criteria, six of them at the Tokyo Marathon alone. Heading into Nagoya only three women have qualified. Will we see another rush of qualifiers this weekend?

On paper it could happen. Since its rebranding as the world’s largest women-only marathon, Nagoya has consistently produced among the best depth-at-quality in the world, its course, weather and fields conducive to seeing a lot of people running fast times. In theo…

The Nagoya Women's Marathon is the largest women-only marathon in the world, one with a long history as an elite race and adapting to the times with a mass-participation field of 20,000. The last few years it has seen a series of dynamic, high-level performances by top Japanese women, from Sairi Maeda's 2:22:48 in 2015 to the 2:23:19 to 2:23:20 sprint finish battle between Tomomi Tanaka and Rei Ohara in 2016 to Yuka Ando's stellar 2:21:36 debut and teammate Mao Kiyota's 2:23:47 breakthrough last year.

Maeda, Ohara and Kiyota all return this year to face the Kenyan trio of Lucy Kabuu, Valary Jemeli and Flomena Cheyech Daniel. Kabuu went to high school in Japan before moving on to the big leagues, but she hasn't finished a marathon since her 2:20:21 in Dubai 2015. Cheyech also used to be based in Japan as is a familiar face here, winning the last two Saitama International Marathons. Jemeli is making her Japanese debut, and with a 2:21:57 win in Prague and a 2:20:53 …

Running on his 29th birthday, Takuya Noguchi (Team Konica Minolta) became just the sixth Japanese man to ever win a marathon outside Japan in a sub-2:10 time as he shot down favorites and past champions Kenneth Mungara (Kenya) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) to win the Gold Coast Airport Marathon in a 2-minte-plus PB of 2:08:59. In the women's race #1-ranked Abebech Bekele (Ethiopia) became only the second Ethiopian woman to ever win Gold Coast as she took more than a minute off the year-old course record to win in 2:25:34.

Pre-race Noguchi's wife Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido), the 2015 Gold Coast women's winner and running again this year, told JRN that he was in better shape than she was and had come in part to try to outgun Kawauchi. With a good season behind him including a 1:02:37 half marathon PB and 2:11:04 marathon PB in February and a 1:02:21 half marathon best in May Noguchi had the momentum to see that through. Two-time defending champ Mungara had c…

https://www.iaaf.org/news/preview/2017-gold-coast-marathon-preview

Past Gold Coast Airport Marathon winners Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) return to Sunday's race to lead a sizable Japanese contingent in both the full and half marathons. 2015 women's winner Takenaka will be seeking to improve on her PB of 2:28:09 and to extend the Japanese women's winning streak on the Gold Coast to six years in a row. 2013 men's winner Kawauchi will be running Gold Coast for the sixth year in a row as his final tuneup for next month's London World Championships. His 70th career marathon, his goal at Gold Coast is a sub-2:10. If he clears 2:12 he will break Abebe Mekonnen's world record of 22 career sub-2:12 marathons.

Other top Japanese competition includes last year's 4th-placer Chiharu Takada (Team JR Higashi Nihon), Takenaka's husband Takuya Noguchi (Team Konica Minolta), and 2016 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon winner Ryo Hashimoto …

http://goldcoastmarathon.com.au/2017/06/14/asics-half-marathon-assembles-stellar-cast-of-elite-runners/

Japanese elites in the ASICS Half Marathon include Mizuki Tanimoto (Team Tenmaya), Koji Gokaya (Team JR Higashi Nihon), Keita Nagura (Team Mazda) and Hiroki Yamagishi (Team GMO Athletes).

The elite field for the Gold Coast Airport Marathon led by previous winners Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) is listed here.

by Brett Larner
click here for video highlights courtesy of Sanyo Newspapers

The world's last elite half marathon of the year took place Dec. 23 in Okayama, with a large group of elite Japanese and foreign women squaring off at the Sanyo Women's Road Race half marathon and 10 km. #1-ranked Japan-based Kenyan Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko) was the class of the field in the half-marathon division, blasting a solo 1:08:24 course record to take the 2013 title.  Facing impending retirement, 2013 London Marathon 3rd-placer Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) ran a race characteristically unmotivated to compete for the win, sitting far back in the pack until late in the race and then turning on her usual surge to move up through the field, ultimately taking 2nd a minute behind the highly motived Chepyego in 1:09:24.  Felista Wanjugu (Kenya/Team Universal Entertainment) and Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) ran up in the chase formation with Akaba early in the race before fading, Wanjugu taking 3…