japan running news

Paris Olympics alternate Ai Hosoda became the first Japanese athlete to score a place at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic marathon trials with her 2:23:27 for 6th at the Sydney Marathon , but starting immediately after Sydney finished the hot and humid Hokkaido Marathon saw another 2 women and 3 men pick up their own trials spots. The women's race saw Japan-based Kenyan Selly Chepyego Kaptich go out solo around 3:30/km pace, hitting halfway in 1:13:35 before starting to fade. Running her debut, Aiwa Sakaguchi was a bit more conservative, running 1:15:06 through halfway with the trio of Ayano Ikeuchi , Kaena Takeyama and Yukari Nagatomo 20 second behind. Sakaguchi passed Chepyego just past 30 km to take the lead and ran on unchallenged for the win in 2:31:50. Ikeuchi dropped the other two and started to close on Sakaguchi after 30 km but couldn't quite get there, taking 2nd in 2:31:57 with Nagatomo 3rd in 2:33:57. By clearing 2:32:00 both Sakaguchi and Ikeuchi joined Hosoda on...

23-year-old Yuki Nakamura broke through to the upper levels of Japanese women's marathoning, taking over 6 minutes off her PB to win Australia's Gold Coast Marathon in a course record 2:24:22. Coming into the race with a best of only 2:30:31 from Nagoya in March, the night before the race Nakamura's coaching staff told JRN that her goal was to clear 2:26 and that she'd go with the lead group on 2:24 pace and see what she could do. Helped by a large group of men to break the wind, the pack of five soon shook down to just Nakamura, favorite Visiline Jepkesho of Kenya and 2:26 Ethiopian Sichala Kumeshi . Nakamura looked comfortable and under control, even like she was holding back, through the first 2/3 of the race. A move from Jepkesho before 30 km opened a 10 m gap between the two Africans and Nakamura, but Nakamura worked the small hill just after 31 km to catch back up and even go to the front. From there Nakamura threw in a series of surges, first breaking Kumeshi a...

Five elite Japanese athletes were at Sunday's London Marathon. In the women's race, Ai Hosoda (Edion) followed up on her 2:24:26 from Nagoya this spring with a 2:21:42 for 9th, over a minute faster than the previous best-ever by a Japanese woman in Great Britian run 20 years ago in London by the great Reiko Tosa . In Nagoya Hosoda went with the leaders at sub-2:21 pace and faded after 20 km. Here she ran steadily at 2:21 pace and survived to come home with the fastest Japanese time overseas so far this year. Reia Iwade (Adidas) dropped out after 25 km, tweeting later that she had had leg pain that forced her to stop. In the men's race, 2019 Doha World Championships team member Kohei Futaoka (Chudenko) was the top finisher at 11th in 2:14:18, just ahead of veteran Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku). Futaoka's teammate Naoki Aiba (Chudenko) went out fastest and died hardest, finishing 27th in 2:22:45, one second slower than Tosa's previous Japanese women's GBR...

On May 26 the Chudenko  corporate men's team posted video from their track season training camp in Sugadaira, Nagano, one of Japan's main training locales at around 1500 m elevation. Chudenko's roster includes 2:08:44 marathoner Naoki Aiba , 2:09:14 marathoner Kohei Futaoka  and 59:34 half marathoner Amos Kurgat . Workouts detailed in the video: Group morning jog at 4:10~4:20/km. 400 m x 10 for Aiba, Kurgat and Donald Mitei  with two Kenyan athletes from another team, building up from 64 to 61 sec with 65 sec walking recovery. The next day, 400 m x 10 by the rest of the team split into two groups. The next day, 25 km at 3:42/km. On the 7th day of the training camp, 1000 m x 8 targeting 2:45/km for Aiba, Kurgat and Mitei with the same two athletes from another team. Actual times are given on-screen. The rest of the team did 600 m x 10 and 400 m x 5, split into two groups, a fast group at 68 sec/lap and a slow group at 70 sec/lap. The final track workout at the camp was 200...

A few years back the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon reworked its course to try to minimize the headwinds for which it's famous. In its 70th running today that paid off more than ever before, with 25~30 kph winds from the northwest keeping things controlled in the first 10 km and then giving enough of a boost to the pace from there to 35 km to help put the top two under the course record of 2:08:01. Straight into the wind over the first 10 km the race went out reasonably, 2:08:16 pace through 5 km and 2:08:37 pace through 10 km. But after rounding the 10 km turnaround and picking up the tailwind things got faster, a sub-15 split over the next 5 km taking the projected finish time to mid-2:07 and going down as far as 2:07:12 before the last pacers stepped off at 30 km. At that point there were still over a dozen people left in the lead group, most of them debuting or doing a first serious marathon and only a few experienced athletes like #1-ranked Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei) and H...

Strong over the second half, it came down to an untried rookie just promoted up from the B-team to seal up the old-school Asahi Kasei team's fourth-straight New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships title. Asahi Kasei was always there, 2nd on the opening stage thanks to a good run from leading man Keijiro Mogi , Kenyan Abraham Kapsis Kipyatich moving them up to 1st on the Second Stage in his final run with the team, and Sixth Stage specialist Hiroshi Ichida holding the lead on the Third Stage. It wasn't until the Fourth Stage, at 22.4 km the longest of the day, that Asahi Kasei lost any ground, with 2019's fastest Japanese half marathoner Minato Oishi (Toyota) running down third man Hiroshi's twin brother Takashi Ichida and opening a gap of 12 seconds. On paper that should have been enough for Toyota, the favorite to end Asahi Kasei's domination, to pull it off, with Olympic marathon trials runner-up Yuma Hattori and the #2 and #3 half ma...