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Showing posts with the label Nanako Kanno

World University Cross Country Championships - Results

by Brett Larner

Japan's contingent ran well at Saturday's World University Cross Country Championships in Cassino, Italy, scoring two individual and two team medals in a field made somewhat softer by the absence of South Africa, whose team management reportedly forgot to apply for visas, and the United States which elected not to send a team to compete internationally. 

In the women's 6.2 km, Moeno Shimizu (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) and Maki Izumida (Rikkyo Univ.) were part of a tight four-way battle for the podium, both outlasting Jennifer Louise Nesbitt (Great Britain) but unable to top winner Sevilay Eytemis (Turkey).  Eytemis scored gold in 21:57, Shimizu taking silver three seconds back and Izumida bronze a stride behind.  With women's team scoring based on the first three of six finishers Japan took the gold thanks to Shimizu, Izumida and Nanako Kanno (Ritsumeikan Univ.), 8th overall in 22:27.  Nesbitt's 4th-place finish led Great Britain to the team silver, with hos…
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Ritsumeikan University Unstoppable in Third-Straight Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden National Title

by Brett Larner

【富士山女子駅伝】 立命館大学が3連覇達成！！ pic.twitter.com/KLGTRxDwgR — 日本学生陸上競技連合 (@iuauj) December 30, 2015
Despite coming up short of replicating its perfect win, six stage titles and the overall victory, at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden, two-time defending champion Ritsumeikan University's dynasty proved unstoppable as it led start-to-finish to win the Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national university title for the third year in a row.

Having missed being part of the winning Morinomiyako team, Nanako Kanno, one half of Ritsumeikan's pair of top-level runners, led off with a 6-second lead on the steepest of the first four downhill stages, a lead that grew to 2:22 by the end of another strong run by second-year Kotona Ota, undefeated so far in her university ekiden career.  More dynamic racing happened further back in the field, where last year's runner-up Osaka Gakuin University, 4th-placer Meijo University and 5th-placer Matsuyama University exchanged places on almost e…
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Japanese Men Dominate World University Games Half Marathon - Day Five Japanese Results

by Brett Larner
video by naoki620



Following in the footsteps of his former Aoyama Gakuin University teammate Takehiro Deki's win at last weekend's Gold Coast Half Marathon, Yusuke Ogura became the first Japanese man since 2001 to win the World University Games half marathon taking gold in 1:04:41.  Ogura, who played a key role in AGU's course record-setting Hakone Ekiden win in January and ran 1:02:03 at February's Marugame Half Marathon, led his AGU teammate and National University Half Marathon championTadashi Isshiki and Yuta Takahashi (Teikyo Univ.) in a sweep of the podium, the first time in World University Games history that men from a single country have taken all three half marathon medals.

A slow first 10 km kept most of the field together, but a move from the Japanese athletes shortly after that broke things up quickly, and by 15 km they were well ahead of chasers Soufiane Bouchikhi (Belgium) and Naoki Kudo (Komazawa Univ.), the runner-up behind Isshiki at th…
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World University Games Japanese Roster

by Brett Larner

The IUAU has announced the Japanese men's and women's rosters for July's Universiade, the World University Games, in Gwangju, South Korea.  2012 London Olympian Anna Doi (Daito Bunka Univ.), 2014 World Junior Championships men's 400 m silver medalist Nobuya Kato (Waseda Univ.) and 200 m 4th-placer Yuki Koike (Keio Univ.) feature prominently in the sprints, with 2014 Youth Olympics men's high jump silver medalist Yuji Hiramatsu (Tsukuba Univ.) leading the field contingent.  The strong men's distance squad is led by 2015 National University Half Marathon champion Tadashi Isshiki (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and 2015 Kanto Regionals D2 double 5000 m and 10000 m champion Hironori Tsuetaki (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), while 2015 National University Half Marathon champion Ayumi Uehara (Matsuyama Univ.) and 2015 Kanto Regional double 5000 m and 10000 m champion Sakurako Fukuuchi (Daito Bunka Univ.) front the women's distance group.

28th Universiade
Gwangju, South K…
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Kanno, Tsuetaki and Yamanaka Take 10000 m Titles on First Day of University Regionals

by Brett Larner

Compressed from its usual two-weekend format to one this year, the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships started May 14 at Yokohama's Nissan Stadium.  In the day's main event, Yamanashi Gakuin University debuted its new Kenyan first-year Dominic Nyairo in the D1 10000 m.  Nyairo and two-time National University 10000 m champion Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Nihon Univ.) led throughout the race, pursued by a large Japanese chase pack that shook down to just one runner, 2014 National University Half Marathon champion Hideto Yamanaka (Nittai Univ.).  Yamanaka, who sat out his entire junior year last year with injury, was hesitant to lead, but when he did make a move he and Nyairo shook off Muiva, turning the race into a head-to-head duel over the last lap.  Nyairo pulled away with a brilliant last 200 m to win by two seconds, but shortly after the race it was announced that he had been disqualified for stepping over the outer/inner start dividers at the be…
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Kato and Obare Win Matsue Ladies' Road Race, Yiu Breaks Own Hong Kong NR

by Brett Larner

2014 Gold Coast Airport Marathon winner Asami Kato (Team Panasonic) topped what may have been the deepest women's half marathon ever run on Japanese soil, running 1:10:36 to win the last big race of the Japanese season, the 36th running of the Matsue Ladies' Half Marathon.  After a relatively conservative first half splitting 33:42 at 10 km Kato pushed the pace relentlessly, cutting the lead group down to a trio with Kotomi Takayama (Team Sysmex) and Ai Inoue (Team Noritz) by 15 km and dropping both by 20 km to win by 11 seconds.  Takami was next in 1:10:47, Inoue rounding out the top 3 in 1:11:02.

Matsue also served as the National University Women's Half Marathon Championships, this year acting as the selection race for the team for this summer's World University Games where Japanese women have medalled every time since 1985 including a sweep of the podium in 2009.  Five collegiate women led by Ayumi Uehara (Matsuyama Univ.) were in contention for the…
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Ekiden Season Hits Peak With National Women's and Men's Ekidens

by Brett Larner

Ekiden season never really ends, but championship season hits its peak this weekend and next with the Jan. 11 National Women's Ekiden in Kyoto and Jan. 18 National Men's Ekiden in Hiroshima.  Both races feature teams from each of Japan's 47 prefectures, made up of the best pro, collegiate, high school and junior high school runners from each region, and both are broadcast live and commercial-free nationwide by NHK.  Follow @JRNLive for live coverage of both starting at 12:30 each day.

At the 33rd running of the National Women's Ekiden defending champion Kyoto comes in with seven wins in the last ten years and home ground advantage on the nine-stage, 42.195 km course.  Its team is missing its magic ingredient, last year's Fourth Stage course record setter Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu), but features veteran Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) and 2011 Tokyo Marathon winner Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) along with 2014 National University Ekiden winner Ritsumeikan …
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Omwamba and Murayama Top First Day of National University Track and Field Championships

by Brett Larner
videos by komazawaOB and 陸上競技動画集
click here for day two report

It's an idiosyncrasy of the Japanese racing calendar that both the National University Track and Field Championships and National Corporate Track and Field Championships take place in the fall well over three months after the more competitive regional meets and just after heavy summer mileage training.  That didn't seem to matter on the first day of the National University meet.



Continuing his return from the stress fracture that knocked both him and Yamanashi Gakuin University out of this year's Hakone Ekiden, 2014 Kanto Region double 1500 m and 5000 m champion Enock Omwamba and Kanto 10000 m champion Kota Murayama (Josai Univ.), the identical twin brother of #1-ranked Japanese collegiate Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.), stole the show in the 1500 m with a brilliant head-to-head battle to the line far out in front of the rest of the field.  Coming off the last corner it looked like the strong-kic…
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National Women's Ekiden Leads Weekend Road Action

by Brett Larner

National championship ekiden season winds down over the next two weekends with the National Women's Ekiden this Sunday in Kyoto, followed a week later in Hiroshima by the National Men's Ekiden.  Both races feature teams from each of Japan's 47 prefectures made up of top talent all the way from junior high school runners to Olympians competing to determine the true geographic center of Japanese distance running.

Sunday's 32nd running of the National Women's Ekiden features Moscow World Championships marathon bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi (Aomori) and 4th-placer Ryoko Kizaki (Kyoto), 2013 5000 m national champion Misaki Onishi (Mie), 2013 London Marathon 3rd placer Yukiko Akaba (Tochigi), 1500 m national record holder Yuriko Kobayashi (Hyogo), Mutsumi Ikeda (Shiga) and Nanako Kanno (Kyoto) of 2013 National University Women's Ekiden champion Ritsumeikan University, Azusa Sumi (Aichi), Hanami Sekine (Aichi) and three other members of 2013 National …
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Ritsumeikan Closes Year With Win at New Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden

by Brett Larner

Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University closed out Japan's last elite race of 2013 with a national title at the new Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden, a relaunch of the short-lived National University Women's Invitational Ekiden Championships previously held in Tsukuba, Ibaraki.  First-year Nanako Kanno got Ritsumeikan off to a good start on the 6.6 km First Stage and from there Ritsumeikan led the entire race, five of its seven women winning their stages.  Senior Akane Yabushita brought the team home on the challenging Seventh Stage, 7.7 km with 166 m elevation gain, the team covering the 43.4 km course in 2:21:48.

Ritsumeikan's nearest competitor, Kagoshima's Kanoya Taiiku University, was over two minutes behind, 2nd in 2:23:58.  Top-ranked Kanto Region school Daito Bunka University took 3rd in 2:24:44.  On the individual level only Minami Nakaarai (Osaka Gakugei Univ.) and Sairi Maeda (Bukkyo Univ.) were able to make dent in Ritsumeikan's armor, winning …
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Ritsumeikan University Takes Eighth National University Women's Ekiden Title

by Brett Larner

Defending national champion Ritsumeikan University added an eighth title to its legacy Oct. 27 in Sendai, winning the 31st National University Women's Ekiden Championships after leading start to finish.  First Stage runner Natsuki Omori got things off by winning the 6.4 km opening leg by a second over Ayumi Uehara of Matsuyama University despite a fall midway through the stage, and from there the Ritsumeikan women never looked back.  Ritsumeikan runners won five of the day's six stages, only Juntendo University's Nanaka Izawa spoiling their day with a win on the 9.2 km Fifth Stage.

With the Kansai region typically seen as the center of collegiate women's distance running, four of this year's top ten schools were from the Kanto region, better known for the strength of its men's programs.  Daito Bunka University was the top Kanto school, 2nd overall on the strength of quality runs from its identical twins Eri and Mari Tayama. Coached by Keiichi …
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2012 National High School Champion Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. Sets Kita-Kyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden Course Record

by Brett Larner

 At the Jan. 20 Kita-Kyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden, 2012 National High School Ekiden championsRitsumeikan Uji H.S. outran all competition to break the existing 32.8 km course record by 41 seconds.  Kita-Kyushu features an interesting format that sees top high school team running against pro teams with the open division's 11.7 km final stage divided into two for the younger high school division teams.

Locals Team Kyudenko led through the first three stages, with Kenyan ace Sally Chepyego scoring a course record 18:11 for the 5.9 km Second Stage.  2012 National Corporate Ekiden champions Team Universal Entertainment and Ritsumeikan Uji just a second behind dueled for 2nd before the high school champions pulled ahead on the Third Stage thanks to a stage win by the team's star Nanako Kanno.  Ritsumeikan Uji's fourth runner Mai Hirota delivered another stage win to bring the team even with Kyudenko at the handoff to the Fifth Stage.

For Kyudenko, Univer…
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Toyokawa Set to Sweep Boys' and Girls' Races at Sunday's National High School Ekiden Championships

by Brett Larner

With a live nationwide commercial-free TV broadcast, the National High School Ekiden Championships take to the air this Sunday, Dec. 23.  The top teams from each of Japan's 47 prefectures square off in Kyoto, boys over seven stages and 42.195 km, girls over five stages and 21.0975 km.  In-country fans can catch the action on NHK, the girls starting at 10:05 a.m. and the boys at 12:15 p.m.  Overseas viewers can give it a go on Keyhole TV or follow @JRNLive for race coverage.

Why should you care about a Japanese high school race?  Well, they're pretty good.  Take a look at the top ten boys' and girls' teams.



As reader Bruce Carrickpointed out earlier this year, a lot of the boys' teams would do pretty well in NCAA DI.  Top-ranked Toyokawa H.S. and #2 Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. have better seven-man 5000 m averages than 2012 NCAA DI cross-country 3rd-place University of Colorado.  The top nine high schools have a better average than 4th-place Northern Arizona…
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Waithera Breaks 3000 m Meet Record at National Sports Festival

by Brett Larner

Despite a year that has seen her coach and most of her teammates depart Sendai Ikuei H.S., Kenyan Mary Waithera brought the highlight of the meet to the final day of the National Sports Festival in Gifu.  The favorite in the junior women's 3000 m, Waithera obliterated rival Rosemary Wanjiru (Kenya/Aomori Yamada H.S.) and all Japanese competitors with a meet record 8:48.16, a four-second PB and one of the upper-echelon times of the year worldwide.  Wanjiru was nearly twenty seconds back in 9:06.99, with Shiori Yano (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.) the top Japanese finisher at 3rd overall in 9:12.91, outkicking a tight pack of four other Japanese athletes.  As she steadily improves Waithera looks set to become another in the lineage of Kenyan greats to have passed through Sendai Ikuei, most notably including the late Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru.

2012 National Sports Festival Day Four
Nagaragawa Field, Gifu Memorial Center, Gifu, 10/9/12
click here …
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Wanjiru Wins Big With 16-Second PB in National H.S. Championships 3000 m

by Brett Larner

Despite going through the heats and final of the 1500 m and the qualifying heats for the 3000 m, Kenyans Rosemary Wanjiru (Aomori Yamada H.S.) and Mary Waithera (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) saved the best for last, braving temperatures over 30 degrees to smash their PBs and go 1-2 in the 3000 m final on the last day of the 2012 Japanese National H.S. Track & Field Championships, Aug. 2 and Niigata's Big Swan Stadium.  The winner of both Heat 1 and the 1500 m final, Waithera pushed the pace from the start but was unable to top Heat 3 winner Wanjiru, who lopped a stunning 16 seconds off her best to finish in a high-quality 8:51.97 for the win.  Unable to match Wanjiru, Waithera still took 6 seconds off her personal best as she finished a half second back in 8:52.59.  Heat 2 winner and Japanese favorite Miyuki Uehara (Kagoshima Joshi H.S.) was 3 seconds off her best but strong enough to hold off rival Sakiko Naito (Funabashi Civic H.S.) for 3rd in 9:09.90.

2012 Japanese Nat…
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High School Girls' 3000 m Regional Results

by Brett Larner

This weekend's main track action came at regional high school championships across the country as Japan's best young distance athletes sought places at the July 29-Aug. 2 National High School Track & Field Championships in Niigata.  The most noteworthy results came in the girls' 3000 m, where three regions saw the top pair go under the meet record.  Miyuki Uehara (Kagoshima Joshi H.S.) made headlines with a prefectural record 9:06.91 MR at the Kagoshima regional meet, the fastest time of the weekend.  Uehara was so dominating that runner-up Misuzu Nakahara (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.), the only other woman to go under 9:20 this weekend, was also under the old meet record but nearly 10 seconds behind.

Uehara certainly looks like the favorite for this summer's national meet, despite the best efforts of rivals Sakiko Naito (Funabashi Shiritsu H.S.), who set a MR 9:21.60 at the Chiba regional meet, and Miki Hirai (Shiroishi H.S.), who got the Saga region r…
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Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. and Tenmaya Win Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden

by Brett Larner

The 2012 Kitakyushu Invitational Women's Ekiden came close to an upset as Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. came close to running down the leading pro teams, as close as 18 seconds to taking the lead spot.  Ritsumeikan Uji started off in 7th overall and 3rd among high school teams, but a strong Second Stage run by Nanami Aoki moved them up to 3rd overall and the lead high school position.  Team ace Nanako Kanno won the 5.1 km Third Stage outright in a solid 16:26,  overtaking the pro Team Kyocera and coming within 22 seconds of leader Team Kyudenko, no small feat considering that Kyudenko's Second Stage runner Sally Chepyego (Kenya) won her leg by 26 seconds.

Past Olympian Naoko Sakamoto (Team Tenmaya) overtook Ritsumeikan Uji's Asaka Iwai by 2 seconds on the 5.9 km Fourth Stage, but both advanced on Kyudenko, Tenmaya to within 16 seconds and the high schoolers to 18 seconds.  Kyudenko anchor Mika Okunaga needed a big run to stay ahead of Tenmaya's Rei Ohara but cam…
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Weekend Road Roundup

by Brett Larner

Japan's road season got into swing this weekend with two large road races and two competitive ekidens.

At the Fukuoka Prefecture Road Championships in Omuta, Kyushu, Yuya Konishi (Team Toyota Kyushu) won the 10-miler in 48:00, one of the fastest winning times on record at the race.  The rest of the top ten went under 48:30 as well, making for an outstanding tight race.  Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) won the women's 5 km for the second year in a row and took advantage of the ideal temperatures to set a course record of 15:51.  Runner-up Yuka Miyazaki was 44 seconds behind.  Local boy Yuki Koga (Omuta H.S.) won the high school 10 km in 31:29.

At the other end of the country, the Sapporo Half Marathon, not to be confused with July's Sapporo International Half Marathon, saw 12,003 finishers led by Toshiaki Nishizawa (Komazawa Univ.) in 1:05:07 and Mika Sawa (Bukkyo Univ.) in 1:16:10.

Across the world, Japan-trained Kenyans Martin Mathathi (Suzuki Hamamat…
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Weekend Track Roundup

by Brett Larner

It was a relatively quiet long weekend across Japan, with a smattering of prefectural track championships across the country in the hot sun ahead of an approaching typhoon.  At the Kyoto Prefecture Championships, Bukkyo University-related runners cleaned up, taking the top five spots in the women's 5000 m led by recent graduate Kasumi Nishihara's meet record 15:39.28.  An impressive mark considering that it was run in temperatures in the mid-30's with high humidity.    Fresh from being named to the Japanese 10000 m squad for next month's World Championships, Bukkyo's top current runner Hikari Yoshimoto won the women's 3000 m in 9:14.75, her first win after a few relatively flat months.

Bukkyo's major rival Ritsumeikan University mostly gave the Kyoto meet a miss, opting instead for the West Japan University Championships in Gifu.  There team leader Risa Takenaka also set a meet record in the 5000 m, running 15:59.07 in even hotter, wetter co…
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Kyoto Takes Back National Women's Ekiden Championship Title - Video Highlights

by Brett Larner

Click photo for video highlights.

Despite a slow start which saw it fall as low as 16th by the end of Third Stage, host Kyoto Prefecture did the expected, dismantling defending champion Okayama Prefecture to return to the top of the 2011 National Women's Interprefectural Ekiden Championships on Jan. 16. 2010's #2-ranked Japanese woman Ryoko Kizaki got Kyoto back in the game on the Fourth Stage, bringing Kyoto up to 6th. With strong runs on the next three stages including a new stage record of 12:39 by Nanako Kanno on the 4.0875 km Sixth Stage Kyoto advanced to 1st, leaving the door open for anchor and stage record holder Kayoko Fukushi to sail on unchallenged to the win. Despite being the only woman on the 10 km Ninth Stage to break 32 minutes Fukushi was so relaxed that she repeatedly laughed and waved to spectators on the course throughout the second half. Fukushi crossed the line in 2:17:06 to give Kyoto its 14th win in 29 editions of the National Women's …
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