japan running news

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20140212-00000203-jij-spo
http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20140213k0000m050001000c.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Feb. 12 Rikuren announced the lineup for the Japanese team for the Feb. 22 Asian Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka's Uminonakamichi Kaihin Park.  Held in conjunction with the Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet, the Asian Championships will consist of the senior men's 10 km, senior women's 6 km, junior men's 8 km and junior women's 6 km events.

2013 National Championships 5000 m champion Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu) and runner-up Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei) lead the men's team in the 10 km, with National Championships 10000 m 3rd-place Ayumi Hagiwara (Team Uniqlo) and marathon national collegiate record holder Sairi Maeda (Bukkyo Univ.) topping the women's team for the 6 km division.  Thirteen countries are scheduled to compete, some of them fielding leading African athletes with tran…

http://www.todayonline.com/sports/marathoner-gets-timely-boost-japan

text and photos by Brett Larner
videos courtesy of Ekiden News


On a busy weekend featuring at least seven major events across the country, Japan's biggest race of the weekend took place northwest of Tokyo in Saitama.  With perfect conditions for its 26th running, the Ageo City Half Marathon, consistently one of the world's deepest halves as a consequence of being the unofficial tryout race for Japan's biggest sporting event, the Jan. 2-3 university men's Hakone Ekiden, saw a dramatic race with five men battling to the line to make history.   In a relationship set up by JRN, two invitations to run March's New York City Half Marathon were up for grabs for the first two Japanese collegiate finishers, and, having seen the effect on last year's Ageo winner Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.) who returned from finishing 10th in New York in 2013 to set course records at both the Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden Championships, the field responded en masse.



The ra…

by Brett Larner

Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) lived up to pre-race talk as they won the women's and men's divisions at the 35th running of the Gold Coast Airport Marathon.  In a moderate headwind over the opening 15.5 km that grew in strength as the morning progressed, Akaba ran a characteristically controlled and steady race, ignoring the fast early pace set by Kenyans Alice Ngerechi and Helen Mugo and going out at a steady 2:27 course record pace before picking it up over the second half of the race aided by the growing tailwind.  By 25 km she had overtaken Mugo, Ngerechi's turn coming just minutes later.

Rounding the second turnaround at 36.5 km Akaba suffered in the now-stronger headwind and her pace dropped, but she was never in danger of missing the antique 2:29:29 course record set 20 years ago by Eriko Asai.  Akaba took more than two minutes off that record, setting a new mark of 2:27:17.   "I didn't worry about th…

2011 Gold Coast Airport Marathon - Top Results Brisbane, Australia, 7/3/11 click here for complete results Marathon - Men 1. Nicholas Manza Kamakya (Kenya) - 2:10:01 - CR 2. Albert Kiplagat Matebor (Kenya) - 2:10:13 3. Japhet Kipchichir Kipkorir (Kenya) - 2:10:50 4. Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:13:16 5. Noriaki Takahashi (Team S&B) - 2:14:13 ----- 13. Mok Ying Ren (Singapore) - 2:27:05 75. Yoshihisa Hosaka (Natural Foods) - 2:53:04
Marathon - Women 1. Goitotem Haftu Tesema (Ethiopia) - 2:30:08 2. Roxie Fraser (Australia) - 2:41:17 3. Chihiro Tanaka (AthleC AC) - 2:43:04 4. Michelle McAdam (Australia) - 2:44:44 5. Kirsten Molloy (Australia) - 2:46:32
Note: Tanaka's daughter Nozomi won the junior 4 km in 14:27.
Half Marathon - Men 1. Jeff Hunt (Australia) - 1:04:04 2. Hiroki Tanaka (Japan) - 1:04:48 3. Daisuke Koyama (Japan) - 1:04:57
Half Marathon - Women 1. Lara Tamsett (Australia) - 1:12:19 2. Jessica Trengrove (Australia) - 1:12:28 3. Abigail Bayley (Australia) - 1:13:40

by Brett Larner
Singaporean medical student and half-marathon national record holder Mok Ying Ren travelled to Japan this weekend to run in the May 28 Tokai University Time Trials meet in Kanagawa, south of Tokyo, with the aim of breaking the old Singaporean men's 5000 m national record of 14:57.61. In rainy conditions Ren succeeded in his goal, patiently following the advice of his training partner Jason Lawrence to start at the back of the field and progressively move up. Ren executed the plan perfectly and easily achieved his mark with a new national record of 14:51.09. "I'm so happy today," Ren said afterwards. "This year we did three 5000 m races. The first one was 15:17, then 15:06, and today 14:51. Jason organized this race in Japan because Japanese [meets] are known to have many heats and many people in one heat and they all run about the same time. So today I hoped to follow when the race started and hoped to catch them one by one, and then hopefu…