japan running news

by Brett Larner

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The first university to bring Kenyans to run in Japan, Yamanashi Gakuin University debuted its newest find, first-year Enock Omwamba, on the first weekend of Japan's biggest and best university meet, the Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships, May 12-13 in Tokyo's National Stadium.  Omwamba got the weekend started by taking down rival Nihon University's Kenyan first-year Daniel Kitonyi in the 1500 m, winning the final in 3:45.92.

 Returning the next day in the 10000 m, Omwamba stayed at the rear of the lead pack throughout the race as Nihon University senior Benjamin Gandu battled with Hakone Ekiden winner Toyo University's ace twins Keita Shitara and Yuta Shitara.  The Shitara twins worked together to crack Gandu and other at the front of the race, alternating the lead and pushing the pace until they were alone.  Omwamba came on strong in the final 2000 m, gaining contact with the twins, pas…

by Brett Larner

This weekend is the first of two successive weekends featuring regional track championships and an elite half marathon.  The Kansai Regional University T&F Championships, the most competitive university women's region in the country, starts things off May 10 and runs through the 13th, the first major meet following the graduation of Bukkyo University's collegiate 10000 m record holder Hikari Yoshimoto (Team Yamada Denki).  Entry list standouts include Chinami Mori (Bukkyo Univ.), Sayuri Oka (Osaka Taiku Univ.) and Eriko Kushima (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.).
The Kanto Region University T&F Championships, the center of university men's running and typically a higher-level meet than the National University Championships, is split between this weekend and next.  Women's competition is thinner than in Kansai, but the meet will see talented twins Haruka and Moe Kyuma making their Regionals debut for Tsukuba University in the 10000 m.  The men's 10000 m, s…

by Brett Larner

The 2011 National Women's Interprefectural Ekiden Championships take place this Sunday, Jan. 16, in Kyoto. With each of Japan's 47 prefectures fielding a team made up of runners from the top pro, university, high school and junior high school teams the Interprefectural Ekiden is the de facto national distance running championship and offers an interesting cross-section of who is who at all domestic levels of the sport. The race is broadcast live nationwide and commercial-free on NHK beginning at 12:15 p.m. Japan time. Overseas viewers should be able to watch via Keyhole TV using the password NHK.

Host Kyoto has long been the dominant force at the Interprefectural Ekiden, winning every year from 2005-2009 and taking a total of 13 wins in the ekiden's 28-year history, more than any other prefecture. Last year Okayama dethroned Kyoto, taking its first-ever win. This year Kyoto and Okayama are again the clear-cut favorites. Okayama returns with a team made up o…

by Brett Larner

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Despite holding PB and SB times head and shoulders above the rest of the competition in the Youth Olympics girls' 3000 m final, Moe Kyuma only managed a silver medal performance with a clocking of 9:23.70, 10 seconds behind Kenyan winner Gladys Chesir who recorded a PB of 9:13.58. Kyuma and Chesir battled from the outset, but after a 3:01.62 first km Kyuma backed off while Chesir, pursued by Eritrean Samrawit Mengisteab, continued to push on. Mengisteab lost touch within 200 m, and by 1600 m Kyuma had overtaken her for 2nd.

At 2000 m Chesir clocked 6:04.09 to Kyuma's 6:14.68. The gap widened slightly over the next 400 m, but over the final 600 m Kyuma steadily reeled Chesir back in. Only over the last 100 m did Chesir again pull away, her winning time nearly 5 seconds off Kyuma's best. With only a decent performance Kyuma easily held 2nd. Mengisteab was overtaken by Greek runner Aikaterini Berdousi…

by Brett Larner

The girls' and boys' 3000 m finals will be broadcast live on the 2010 Youth Olympic Games' outstanding website on Aug. 22. Throughout the Singapore Games the website has offered a glimpse of how coverage of an international championship event should be: eight online channels offering a range of different sports, many of which never make mainstream television coverage otherwise, as well as a selection of events available on demand and a ninth channel with news and highlights. All for free. No doubt this indicates a lack of interest in purchasing broadcast rights on the part of major broadcasters, but the quality of the Youth Olympics coverage simply illustrates how much the major broadcasters shortchange their viewers during the regular Olympics and other championship events by offering nothing comparable, even on a pay-per-view basis.

The girls' 3000 m final begins at 8:05 p.m. Singapore time, 9:05 p.m. Japan time on Channel 1. Japanese ace Moe Kyuma, hol…

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by Brett Larner

On the first day of track and field competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore on Aug. 17, Japan's Moe Kyuma and Kazuto Nishiike easily advanced to the A-final in the girls' and boys' 3000 m races. In the opposite approach to most championships, all entrants in the Youth Olympics Games 3000 m competed in the qualifying round at the same time, with the results dividing the field into several different final rounds. Only those in the A-final are elligible to receive a medal.

Kyuma, holder of both the fastest personal and season bests in the girls' field, ran comfortably in the qualifying round to finish 2nd in 9:35.33. Qualifying round winner Gladys Chesir of Kenya ran a PB of 9:25.44 but was still over 15 seconds off Kyuma's best and nearly 10 seconds off her season best. In the boys' race, Nishiike was ranked only 4th coming into the qualifying round and, despite running a…

by Brett Larner

2010 Asian Junior Women's 3000 m Champion Mahiro Akamatsu of Kojokan H.S. came up agonizingly short of completing the 1500 m and 3000 m double on Aug. 2 at the 2010 National High School Track and Field Championships in Amami. With the 1500 m title under her belt Akamatsu coasted through yesterday's 3000 m qualifying heats, but on the final day of the 2010 Nationals she fell to the last sprint of Toyokawa H.S. Kenyan Beatrice Murugi Wainaina in the final. Wainaina, who had the fastest qualifying time in the three heats, 9:20.78, just clipped Akamatsu at the line as she won in 9:11.51. Akamatsu was 2nd in 9:11.60, 0.54 off her PB but a credible time given the sub-tropical weather. 3rd-placer Mary Wydira of Sendai Ikuei H.S. was the only other runner under 9:15, finishing in 9:12.33. The top 11 finishers all broke 9:30 including the identical twin Kyuma sisters Haruka, who ran last month's World Junior Championships 3000 m, and Moe, who will run this month'…

by Brett Larner

The annual women's and men's National Interprefectural Ekidens are some of Japan's most interesting races. This year's women's race takes place tomorrow, Jan. 17, in Kyoto. Each of Japan's 47 prefectures fields a team of nine women ranging from junior high school students to top professional marathoners, running as one team representing their home ground. With nine legs totalling 42.195 km all but the 6 km First Stage and 10 km Ninth stage are under 5 km, making a faster-paced race than is often the case.

Part of what makes the Interprefectural Ekidens interesting is that rather than emphasizing the big names they are often the site of the national coming out of talented young athletes. Toyo University's Ryuji Kashiwabara was an unknown as a high school senior at the 2008 Men's Interprefectural Ekiden but grabbed attention for the first time by frontrunning against national high school champion Yuki Yagi (Waseda Univ.) on the First Stage a…

by Brett Larner

2009 had its ups and downs for Japanese women, but in sum it was a positive year. As Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) fades into memory no one has really stepped up to take her place at the top, but the trend was not limited to Japan alone. Worldwide it was a down year. The average of the top ten fastest times of the year, 2:24:09, was the slowest since 1997 and German Irina Mikitenko's 2:22:11 in London was the slowest world-leader since 1996. The average of the top ten Japanese performances, 2:26:02 this year, has not changed much in the last four years, meaning that relative to world standards 2009 was Japan's best since 1996. Top woman Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) ran 2:23:42 to win January's Osaka International Women's Marathon and was ranked 3rd worldwide. Last year the top Japanese woman, Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) ran 2:23:30 and was only ranked 9th.

Ozaki gets the best-of-the-year honors for her silver medal in the marathon at th…

Results:http://yabuinu2.blog18.fc2.com/

by Brett Larner

Like everywhere track season is over in Japan, but with the major championship ekidens approaching over the next month for high schoolers, university runners and pros many top athletes spent this rare fall weekend without a major road race at one of the many track time trials held across the country.

At the Hachioji Long Distance Time Trials in Tokyo's western suburbs, recently-graduated Masato Kihara (Team Kanebo) got back in the ring with a 28:09.38 to finish first in the 10000 m. Kihara joined Kanebo in April but was a DNS in every race he entered throughout the spring and summer. His pro debut came earlier this month with a so-so run at the East Japan Jitsugyodan Ekiden Championships, but with this 10000 m, just 3 seconds off his university-era PB, Kihara showed that he is back in form and ready to make the jump to pro running. In finishing 1st Kihara won by a margin of over 45 seconds and beat the likes of 5000 m and 30 km …

by Brett Larner

The identical twin Kyuma sisters Haruka and Moe made up the Japanese contingent in the girls' 3000 m on the first day of the 2009 World Youth Championships in Sudtirol, Italy. Moe Kyuma, who made a memorable impression with her dynamic performance at January's National Interprefectural Women's Ekiden, challenged the lead pack of Kenyans Purity Cherotich Rionoripo and Jackline Chepngeno and Ethiopians Genet Yalew and Emebet Anteneh. Unable to sustain what was for her and all but eventual winner Rionoripo a PB pace, Kyuma finished one second behind Anteneh in 5th, clocking 9:19.73. Haruka Kyuma, marginally the stronger of the sisters, had a weak showing as she finished second to last in 9:54.49.

2009 World Youth Championships - Top Finishers
click division header for complete results
Girls' 3000 m
1. Purity Cherotich Rionoripo (Kenya) - 9:03.79
2. Jackline Chepngeno (Kenya) - 9:05.93 - PB
3. Genet Yalew (Ethiopia) - 9:08.95 - PB
4. Emebet Anteneh (Ethiopia) - …

by Brett Larner


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Identical twin sisters Moe and Haruka Kyuma were the surprise stars of the 2009 National Interprefectural Women’s Ekiden on Jan. 11, the two junior high school students making up most of Kyoto Prefecture’s 1 minute 24 second margin of victory in its 5th-straight national title and putting anchor Kazue Kojima in position for a comfortable anchor run.

47 teams, one from each of Japan’s prefectures, competed in the 27th running of the nine-stage 42.195 km national competition in Kyoto which teams up professional runners with university, high school and junior high school runners. Two stages were reserved for junior high school runners and two for high school athletes, the other five stages being a mix of runners from all four categories. Slightly windy conditions hampered defending champion Kyoto’s chances of breaking its course record of 2:14:58 from last year’s running but did not prevent two new stage records.

1st Stage – 6.0 km
Yurika Na…