japan running news

The first round of regional corporate track and field championship meets made up most of the weekend’s track action. Fresh back from going sub-32 at Payton Jordan, Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) was the star of the Kansai Region meet as she repeated her 5000 / 10000 m double from last year with 15:45.58 and 33:00.26 wins. Men’s times were unremarkable, Shohei Morikawa (Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) taking the 5000 m in 14:06.58 and Aoyama Gakuin University grad Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) the 10000 m in 29:16.56 in his corporate league debut.

Split between two weekends, the Chugoku Region meet featured only 5000 m this week. Yudai Okamoto (JFE Steel) won the men’s race in 13:59.82, with Miharu Aoki (Tenmaya) claiming the women’s title in 16:19.79.

The Chubu Region meet produced some quality men’s 10000 m times, with two-time defending champ Rodgers Shumo Kwemoi (Aisan Kogyo) leading three Kenyan men under 28 minutes in 27:53.73, the fastest of his three wins to date. Daiji Kawai (Toenec) was the to…

Along with the Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, this weekend's Nittai University Time Trials formed one of the key tuneups for the upcoming National Junior High School Ekiden, National High School Ekiden, New Year Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden championship races. Following up on his 1500 m and 3000 m junior high school national records in September and October, 9th-grader Kosuke Ishida (Asakawa J.H.S.) delivered the biggest news of the meet as he took 4 seconds off the 5000 m junior high school record with a new mark of 14:32.44 for 6th in #39 of Sunday's 45 heats of men's 5000 m.



In Heat 45, Muthoni Muiri (Soka University) added a quality 5000 m time to his 27:38.05 in last weekend's Hachioji Long Distance 10000 m A-heat, winning in a PB of 13:32.42. Former high school star Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko), who turned 19 this year, followed a successful corporate ekiden debut last month with a 13:38.79 PB for 6th, ranking him all-time #5 among Japanese juniors. 17-year-old Ren Tazawa (…

After a DNF in the final round knocked it out of contention last year, Kanagawa University led the qualifiers for November's National University Men's Ekiden from the most competitive region in Japan to win the Kanto Region Qualifier Sunday in Urawa, Saitama.

With six schools from Kanto already seeded for Nationals after taking the top six spots last year twenty more lined up in Urawa for four heats of 10000 m on the track, two runners from each school per heat. The combined times of each school's eight runners would determine who would stay and who would go come November, the top nine teams on aggregate time making the cut. With the four heats graded by time the first heat established the early favorites, runners from Kanagawa, Tokai University and Daito Bunka University taking the top three spots.

Heat 2 went out bafflingly slow, with one exception. Running alone, Juntendo University senior Kento Hanazawa fearlessly went it alone, opening up a 300 m lead at one point a…

Twenty university teams from around the Tokyo are will square off Sunday at Saitama's Komaba Sports Park Field for the chance to run the Nov. 5 National University Men's Ekiden. Last year the top six-placing teams at the National University Men's Ekiden, winner Aoyama Gakuin University, Waseda University, Yamanashi Gakuin University, Komazawa University, Chuo Gakuin University and Toyo University, were all from the Tokyo-centric Kanto Region, all six earning seeded places at this year's Nationals.

The next twenty teams in Kanto with the fastest average time 10000 m among their top eight men based on certified times in 10000 m track races between Jan. 1, 2016 and June 3, 2017 all earned the right to run Sunday's Kanto Region Qualifier for Nationals. Featuring two strong graduate students eligible to run the National University Men's Ekiden, Tsukuba University is making its first appearance in the field in fourteen years, knocking out last year's participant…

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ハーフマラソン 2部

36着 親﨑達朗(駿河台大学) 1:08:37#関東インカレpic.twitter.com/oQiGYbmYnH — ミウツー (@miu2_tsc) May 29, 2017
Japan's best meet of the season wrapped up Sunday at Yokohama's Nissan Stadium. Day four of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships with the men's half marathon, its two divisions running with a staggered start over a circuit course starting and ending inside the stadium. D1 runner-up in the 10000 m Dominic Nyairo (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) took a second-straight title in the D1 race, bettering his winning time from last year by almost two minutes to win in 1:03:22. Back from setting a D2 10000 m meet record of 28:00.66 on Thursday, Simon Kariuki (Nihon Yakka Univ.) set another D2 meet record as he outran Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University's Yuta Shimoda to win in 1:02:38.

#関東インカレ 男子5000m

パトリック ワンブィ(日大)13:43.97 pic.twitter.com/xmJ0Y6xrIm — Tさんrunner (@Runner_2653) May 29, 2017
Like the 10000m and half marathon, in both divisions Africans…

by Brett Larner

November's National University Men's Ekiden is the second of the Big Three University Ekidens, midway in distance and prestige between October's season-opening Izumo Ekiden and January's legendary Hakone Ekiden.  Schools that finished outside the seeded bracket at last year's Nationals have to requalify this month, with the toughest of the qualifying races, the Kanto Region qualifier, happening yesterday in Urawa, Saitama.  Twenty Kanto Region schools fielded eight runners, two from each school in four heats of 10000 m on the track.  The total times of all eight runners are combined to determine the team standings, with the fastest nine schools going on to the national race come November.

Despite not winning a single heat, Yamanashi Gakuin University took the top spot in 4:03:52.82 with runner-up placings in heats 2, 3 and 4 from Junya Uemura, Kenta Ueda and Dominic Nyairo.  Nihon University was next in 4:05:20.92 thanks in part to Patrick Wambui wi…

by Brett Larner

Hosoda/Nittai wins in 16:12.23 to complete Kanto Regionals 5000/10000 double title. pic.twitter.com/GBan2hf1RQ — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) May 22, 2016
D1 10000 m champs Ai Hosoda (Nittai Univ.) and Patrick Wambui (Nihon Univ.) came back on a hot and windy final day of the 95th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships to score double titles with wins in the 5000 m.  In the women's 5000 m Hosoda ran steady in a lead group of four before holding off a strong charge from first-year Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) to win by half a second in 16:12.18.

Monster kick from Wambui/Nihon to complete Kanto Regionals 5/10 double in 13:47.18. pic.twitter.com/GF8xfpo8fg — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) May 22, 2016
After a 2:42 opening 1000 m Wambui went to the front to shake things down to another group of four.  Like the women's race it came down to a duel over the last lap, fourth-year Kazuma Taira (Waseda Univ.) staying with Wambui until 150 m…