japan running news

http://www.ktn.co.jp/news/20170219116552/

translated and edited by Brett Larner

2/19 郡市対抗県下一周駅伝

第7区 林田洋翔選手(大村・東彼)
7 51 区間新 pic.twitter.com/oUt8H5Qbtc — manamin (@kinokonoko0916) February 19, 2017
On the final day of the three-day Nagasaki Intraprefecture Ekiden on Feb. 19, the Seihi-Saikai municipal team scored its first overall win in three years. Seihi-Saikai led both of the first two days of the race before leading the way to the finish line on day three.  The city of Nagasaki team was 2nd,  with the Omura-Higashi Sonogi municipal team 3rd.

3000 m junior high school national record holder Hiroto Hayashida, a third-year at Sakuragahara J.H.S., ran the 3.0 km Seventh Stage for Omura-Higashi Sonogi.  Having set a new 3.0 km course record at last month's National Men's Ekiden, Hayashida did it again as he passed three people en route to a new course record of 7:51, an amazing 31 seconds off the old record.

"This was the last ekiden I'll run as a junior high school stu…

by Brett Larner

Video highlights of Day One including Terada's missed handoff.

The winner of the highly competitive Second Stage at this year's Hakone Ekiden, Aoyama Gakuin University junior Takehiro Deki had two big runs in his final tune-up for his planned marathon debut at the Mar. 4 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon.  Running for his hometown Nagasaki team at the Feb. 17-19 Nagasaki Prefecture One-Circuit Ekiden, Deki broke the stage record on both of the two legs he ran.  On the first day of competition he took eight seconds off the record for the 14.0 km Fourth Stage, recording a new mark of 42:07.  On the third and final day of the race Deki again ran 14.0 km, this time taking a solid 33 seconds of the Seventeenth Stage record with an impressive time of 40:49, almost two minutes better than the next-fastest man on the stage.  Thanks in part to his efforts the Nagasaki team won the overall title in the event's 61st year, clocking 21:29:09 for the total 407.4 km distance to …