japan running news

The Japanese men and women dominated the 2018 IAU 100 km World Championships in Sveti Martin na Muri, Crotia on Saturday, winning both team gold medals and the individual men's gold and silver and women's bronze medals.

Finishing in the inverse order they did at June's historic Lake Saroma 100 km, the men went 1-2-4-6, Lake Saroma 4th placer and defending world champion Hideaki Yamauchi winning the race outright in 6:28:05 and Lake Saroma 3rd-placer Takehiro Gyoba taking silver in 6:32:51. Two-time Comrades Marathon champ Bongmusa Mthembu of South Africa, 2nd to Yamauchi last time out, was the only non-Japanese athlete to make the men's podium, beating Lake Saroma runner-up Koji Hayasaka by just over two minutes to take bronze in 6:33:47 to Hayasaka's 6:36:05. All three scoring Japanese men broke 4:00/km to give the men's an incredible score of 19:37:01, nearly an hour faster than the silver-earning South Africa team. Germany had the distinction of taking the …

Higashiura resident and Aisan Kogyo employee Nao Kazami, 35, will represent Japan at the September 8 IAU 100 km World Championships ultramarathon in Croatia. An amateur runner with a regular full-time job, Kazami set the 100 km world record in June. "I'm ready for the next challenge," he says. "I'm not satisfied with just the time. I want to win the title too."

The term ultramarathon refers to any race longer than the standard 42.195 km distance. On June 24 at the 33rd Lake Saroma 100 km Ultramarathon Kazami beat the world record for the distance which had stood unbroken for 20 years by 4 minutes and 19 seconds. That performance was enough to earn him a place at the World Championships. It was only his second time to finish a 100 km race.

Born in Tokyo, Kazami began to run long distance while in junior high school. He went to ekiden powerhouse Komazawa University but never made its starting team for any of the major competitions. After graduating in 2006 h…

It's Sunday, June 24. At the western end of Japan's main island of Honshu the competition at the Yamaguchi National Track and Field Championships has been heating up. On this day alone, the final day of the Championships, the national records have fallen in both the men's 110 m hurdles and men's discus throw. On the very same day, far to the northeast of Yamaguchi at Lake Saroma, Hokkaido, another new record was born. After standing for 20 years, the 100 km ultramarathon world record has finally fallen. The man who accomplished this deed is Nao Kazami (Aisan Kogyo).

The previous world record of 6:13:33 was set at Lake Saroma by Takahiro Sunada (Sekisui Kagaku) in 1998. Kazami improved that mark by more than four minutes with a new record of 6:09:14.  "I was targeting place more than time," said Kazami of the race where he needed to finish in the top four to have a chance of being selected for the Japanese national team for this year's Croatia World Champ…

Running on the same course where Japan's Takahiro Sunada set the road 100 km world record of 6:13:33 twenty years ago, 2:17:23 marathoner Nao Kazamibested a deep and competitive field to win the Lake Saroma 100 km Ultramarathon in a world record 6:09:14.

Part of a front group of at least five that went through the marathon split in 2:33:36, on pace for 6:04:01, Kazami lost touch with the lead as rivals Koji Hayasaka and Takehiko Gyoba surged just before halfway to open a roughly 30 second lead that lasted until nearly 75 km. But in the last quarter of the race Kazami, a graduate of Hakone Ekiden powerhouse Komazawa University, was the only one who could sustain anything close to the early pace, overtaking Hayasaka and Gyoba before pulling away to open a lead of over 11 minutes. Kazami's mark took more than 4 minutes off the world record, and he also bettered the 100 km track world record of 6:10:20 set in 1978 well before he was born by the late Don Ritchie.
Trying to stay wi…

122nd Boston MarathonBoston, U.S.A., 4/16/18
click here for complete results

Men
1. Yuki Kawauchi (Japan/Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 2:15:58
2. Geoffrey Kirui (Kenya) - 2:18:23
3. Shadrack Biwott (U.S.A.) - 2:18:35
4. Tyler Pennel (U.S.A.) - 2:18:57
5. Andrew Bumbalough (U.S.A.) - 2:19:52
6. Scott Smith (U.S.A.) - 2:21:47
7. Abdi Nageeye (Netherlands) - 2:23:16
8. Elkanah Kibet (U.S.A.) - 2:23:37
9. Reid Coolsaet (Canada) - 2:25:02
10. Daniel Vassalo (U.S.A.) - 2:27:50
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42. Kansuke Morihashi (Japan/Raffine) - 2:34:23
8322. Nao Kazami (Japan/Aisan Kogyo) - 3:47:02


Women
1. Desiree Linden (U.S.A.) - 2:39:54
2. Sarah Sellers (U.S.A.) - 2:44:04
3. Krista Duchene (Canada) - 2:44:20
4. Rachel Hyland (U.S.A.) - 2:44:29
5. Jessica Chichester (U.S.A.) - 2:45:23
6. Nicole Dimercurio (U.S.A.) - 2:45:52
7. Shalane Flanagan (U.S.A.) - 2:46:31
8. Kimi Reed (U.S.A.) - 2:46:47
9. Edna Kiplagat (Kenya) - 2:47:14
10. Hiroko Yoshitomi (Japan/Memolead) - 2:48:29
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DNF - Maki Ashi (Japan/Kyudenko)

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