japan running news

INSTANT HIGHLIGHT: Watch the Finish of the #MWXC Men's 8K https://t.co/a1iJL8Cu7Ppic.twitter.com/9826hfLiwe — Mountain West (@MountainWest) October 28, 2016
http://www.themw.com/news/boise-state-men-and-new-mexico-women-take-home-team-titles-at-mountain-west-cross-country-championships-10-28-2016

Yusuke Uchikoshi (3rd yr., Boise State Univ.) won the Oct. 28 Mountain West XC Championships 8.0 km individual title in 23:48.80.  His win is likely the first NCAA conference XC title for a Japanese athlete.  Click here for complete results.  Uchikoshi ran 13:59.90 for 5000 m in high school before going to the U.S. for university.  His father Tadao Uchikoshi was 2nd in the 1991 Amsterdam Marathon and 5th in the 1993 Stuttgart World Championships marathon.  More footage and interview in the video below starting at 2:05.

#MWN Recap by @Stormy_MWN: @BroncoSportsXC men and @Lobo_Track women take home titles at 2016 #MWXC Championships pic.twitter.com/5r5tpTcgd6 — Mountain West (@MountainWest) O…

by Brett Larner



Just under two weeks after the Japanese IUAU's Nov. 4 Japanese National University Men's Ekiden Championships, the American NCAA held its National Cross-Country Championships on Nov. 17.  Although different styles of racing and on different surfaces, the fall national championship events of the world's two leading university men's distance running systems focus on similar distances, the eight-man Japanese collegiate teams averaging 13.35 km and each of the seven men on the NCAA teams running 10 km.  With the athletes in both systems peaking at almost the same time for races of almost the same distance it's worth a look at how the top five teams in each national championship event compare.

Given the overall emphasis on longer distances in the Japanese collegiate system and on shorter distances in the American system evident in the tables below, 5000 m, the only distance at which almost all athletes from all ten schools have posted PB marks, allows fo…

by Brett Larner

This week's 88th Hakone Ekiden, the Kanto region university men's ekiden championship, was a watershed event, with winner Toyo University taking over eight minutes off the record for the ten stage, 217.9 km event to become the first school to break an average 3:00/km pace for the entire race.  How do Toyo and the other top-placing schools at this year's Hakone Ekiden compare to the best in the world's other leading university men's distance program, the United States' NCAA Division I?

In the NCAA students usually focus on distances up to 5000 m through the winter indoor track season, up to 10000 m in the spring outdoor track season, and then up to 10 km cross-country in the fall.  With no indoor track season in Japan, after the New Year in Kanto students usually focus on training for a March half-marathon or the 10 km and 12 km selection races for Japan's World Cross-Country teams, then anything from 1500 m up to a half-marathon through the …