japan running news

photo by @tsutsugo55225

For the second time in the last three weeks, a Japan-based Kenyan ran the fastest time in the world this year for 10000 m at Yokohama's Nittai University Time Trials series. On October 20th it was 2015 World U18 Championships 3000 m gold medalist Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu), 20, with a 27:14.70  that surpassed Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei's world-leading mark by almost five seconds. This time it was 2018 World U20 Championships 5000 m silver medalist Stanley Waithaka (Yakult), 18, taking almost two minutes off his PB to break Kimunyan's mark with a 27:13.01 win.

Both winners received support from 2014 Commonwealth Games steeplechase gold medalist Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu), who ran season bests for 2nd place each time, 27:50.38 three weeks ago and 27:28.27 on Saturday. 2013 World U18 Championships 3000 m bronze medalist Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) was also under 28 minutes, running just off his PB at 27:42.16 for 3rd. Kazuma Taira (Kan…

Ekiden season rolls on. Sunday in Fukushima is the 34th running of the East Japan Women's Ekiden, a miniature version of January's National Women's Ekiden featuring teams made up of the best J.H.S., H.S., university, corporate and club runners from each of the 18 prefectures in eastern Japan. Most notable on the entry list is Tokyo's Hitomi Niiya, all-time Japanese #3 for 10000 m and working her way back from a five-year retirement in hopes of making the Tokyo 2020 team. Fuji TV will broadcast the race live from noon to 2:30 p.m. Japan time.

Following last weekend's East Japan and Kyushu corporate men's regional New Year Ekiden national championships qualifiers, the Kansai and Chugoku regions hold their qualifiers Sunday in Wakayama and Hiroshima. Top-placing teams from each region will go on to the New Year Ekiden on January 1st, with Sumitomo Denko and Chugoku Denryoku, featuring 2018 Hokkaido Marathon winner Naoki Okamoto, the favorites. The Kansei Corporat…

The Chugoku Denryoku and Mazda men's corporate teams raced each other to new heights at the 56th Hiroshima Corporate Ekiden, each taking over two minutes off the course record Mazda set just last year. 5 of the race's 6 stages saw new records with runners from both teams breaking the record on 3 of them.

Mazda's Kenji Yamamoto took an early lead on the opening stage, but on every remaining stage the two teams swapped position, Mazda never more than 13 seconds in front and Chugoku Denryoku never more than 28.  Chugoku Denryoku anchor Kaido Kita was down 13 seconds when he took the tasuki, but with only 5.49 km to work with he managed to turn that around and open 17 seconds on Mazda anchor Shori Arai after catching him.
Mazda's record for the 43.82 km course was 2:08:10. This year Chugoku Denryoku won in 2:05:52 with Mazda running 2:06:09. 3rd-placer Chudenko was also just off the record at 2:08:20, briefly taking the lead on the Second Stage thanks to a stage record ru…

A veteran and a first-timer made the headlines from the opposite ends of the spectrum at Sunday's Hokkaido Marathon in Sapporo, Hokkaido, the first race in the second season of qualifying for the MGC Race, Japan's new 2020 Olympic trials race to be held in September next year. A passing typhoon brought cooler than usual weather to Hokkaido and a better-than-usual chance of hitting the sub-2:13 and sub-2:30 qualifying marks most Olympic aspirants would have to clear.

The men's race was simply a race of attrition, with no dramatic changes in pace or sudden moves, just a large pack of motivated people going out mid-2:11 pace in a race where only two men have ever cleared 2:12, neither of them Japanese. In the pack, 59:47 Kenyan Paul Kuira (Konica Minolta), the promising young Shohei Otsuka (Kyedenko), championships marathoner extraordinaire Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki),2016 Sydney Marathon winner Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta), luckless veteran Naoki Okamoto (Chugok…

As regional corporate track meets wound themselves down, the weekend's biggest results came at the Golden Grand Prix meet in Osaka. A quick women's 3000 m saw 10 of the 11 starters go under 9 minutes, six in PB times. Japan-based Ethiopian Shuru Bulo (Toto) led the way in 8:47.24, with the Pre Classic-bound Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) running 8:51.72 to land 4th both overall and on the Japanese all-time rankings. First-year Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Meijo Univ.) ran 8:58.63 for 8th overall, just missing the 1994-era national collegiate record by 0.31 seconds.

The men's 3000 m was also solid, with seven men breaking 8 minutes, six of them Japanese and five in PB times. Kenyan Evans Keitany (Toyota Boshoku) won in 7:54.05 with Hazuma Hattori (Toenec) just behind in a best of 7:54.73. Shota Onizuka (Tokai Univ.) broke into the all-time Japanese collegiate top ten, running 7:57.56 for 6th. Australian Ryan Gregson won the men's 1500 m in 3:37.72 over American Patrick Casey…

The withdrawal of Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki), Japan's best championship marathoner of the modern era, from the Boston Marathon field with a stress fracture is a blow to what would have been the best Japanese contingent in Boston in decades.

Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) leads the way, arriving in Boston off wins in his last four marathons:
2:10:03, Hofu Yomiuri Marathon, 12/17/172:18:59 CR, Marshfield New Year's Day Marathon, 1/1/182:11:46 CR, Kitakyushu Marathon, 2/18/182:14:12, Wan Jin Shi Marathon, 3/18/18 Kawauchi hopes to at least equal Suguru Osako's top 3 placing in last year's Boston, his optimism growing as the weather forecast gets worse.
Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) runs for what was once Japan's most successful corporate team in the marathon, his best of 2:12:31 coming 6 years ago at Lake Biwa and his fastest recent time a 2:13:33 in Tokyo last year. Okamoto earned a place in Boston by winning February's tough and hilly Ome 30 km …

After a seven-week break from the marathon, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) scored his third-straight marathon win, second-straight course record and came just shy of a third-straight negative split as he ran a completely solo 2:11:46 to take almost six minutes off the Kitakyushu Marathon course record. Following up on negative split wins at December's Hofu Yomiuri Marathon and January's Marshfield New Year's Day Marathon, the latter a course record by half an hour, Kawauchi was on his own in the first 100 m in Kitakyushu and never looked back.

In the hilly first 10 km his pace fluctuated from high-2:12 to high-2:10, but once Kawauchi got into the flatter section of the course he settled out on track for a high-2:11 to low-2:12 time. After a 1:05:51 split at halfway he slowed slightly on the outbound trip to the turnaround near 31 km, but picking it up again after 35 km he marked a 6:34 from 40 km to the finish to stop the clock at 2:11:46,  a 1:05:55 second half …

One of the Tokyo area's most popular races, the Ome 30 km and 10 km Road Race has long had a relationship with the U.S.A.'s Boston Marathon with top-placing runners from each event being invited to the other. For the first time in recent memory Ome will bring an American woman instead of a man. Off a 2:34:53 in Boston last year Danna Herrick will face 2015 Rotterdam Marathon winner and two-time Ome champ Asami Kato (Panasonic) and, fresh from a win at Sunday's Osaka Half Marathon, Maki Ashi (Kyudenko) in her 30 km debut.

On the men's side 2:12 marathoner Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) and the Koichi Morishita-coached Kento Otsu (Toyota Kyushu) top the bill. Track specialist Naohiro Domoto (JR Higashi Nihon) and university men Daisuke Horiai (Komazawa University) and Kota Oki (Waseda University) round out the invited athlete list with their 30 km debuts, with deeper competition to be expected at the front end of the general division.

The top Japanese female and male …

by Brett Larner

Tewelde Estifanos became the first Eritrean man in history to win the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, running up front throughout the race and dropping Japan's Hiroki Kadota (Team Kanebo) and Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Team Konica Minolta) late in the game to win in a 2:10:18 PB.  Erratic pacing made for an unsual race, with the two Kenyan pacers, tasked with running 3:02/km, doing opening splits of 3:11 and 3:10 before suddenly gunning it to try to hit the mandated 15:10 at 5 km.  Virtually every 5 km they did the same thing, surging a kilometer out from the timing mat to get closer to the desired split before relaxing again.

Some of the front group including Estifanos, Kadota, Yamamoto and defending champion Abraham Kiplimo (Uganda) went with them every time, but others including domestic favorites Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and Yusei Nakao (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) let go, taking their time in working back up to the lead group in time for the pacers' departure a…

photo c/o Dr. Helmut Winter

Japanese results in this year's Chicago Marathon were pretty consistent with those seen at the Berlin Marathon and at major international half marathons elsewhere this fall.  On average, the five Japanese men in the race ran 4:18 slower than their PBs, with Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) the closest at 2:48 off his best.  National Team members Koji Kobayashi (Team Subaru) and Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei) ran 2:11:43 and 2:15:25.

2014 Chicago Marathon
Chicago, U.S.A., 10/12/14
click here for complete results

Men
1. Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) - 2:04:11
2. Sammy Kitwara (Kenya) - 2:04:28
3. Dickson Chumba (Kenya) - 2:04:32
4. Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) - 2:05:51
5. Bernard Koech (Kenya) - 2:08:30
6. Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (Eritrea) - 2:09:08
7. Lani Rutto (Kenya) - 2:10:42
8. Wesley Korir (Kenya) - 2:11:09
9. Bobby Curtis (U.S.A.) - 2:11:20
10. Koji Kobayashi (Japan/Team Subaru) - 2:11:43
-----
16. Naoki Okamoto (Japan/Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:15:19
17…

by Brett Larner
photo by Dr. Helmut Winter

Five Japanese men and one woman are scheduled to run Sunday's Chicago Marathon led by two members of the Japanese Federation's new National Team project, Koji Kobayashi (Team Subaru) and Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei).  Coached by 2:08:49 marathoner Wataru Okutani, Kobayashi has been improving gradually since his 2:12:52 debut at the 2012 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon, running 2:10:40 in Chicago later that year and 2:11:31 the next in Berlin before taking it down to 2:08:51 in Tokyo this spring.  Sasaki, a graduate of Daito Bunka University and guided by the legendary Takeshi Soh, has progressed even more steadily since his 2:14:00 debut in 2009, outrunning Daegu World Championships silver medalist Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) for 2nd in 2:09:47 at March's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon.  Of the 146 sub-2:10 marathons run so far by Japanese men only 22 have ever been done outside Japan, but although they will likely end up running most o…

by Brett Larner

Four regions across Japan held their qualifying races on Sunday for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships.  In the Chugoku region, Team Chugoku Denryoku suffered a scare in its pursuit of a 17th-straight win, trailing trailing Team Mazda until the sixth of the ekiden's seven stage before advacing to earn its place in Maebashi on New Year's Day.  Ideal conditions helped runners set new records on five of the ekiden's seven stages, led by a scintillating 19:41 record on the 7.2 km Second Stage by Ethiopian Ayele Abayneh (Team Mazda), who outran Team JFE ace Kenyan Charles Ndirangu by nine seconds.  Four teams in all from the Chugoku region qualified.

Six teams made the grade in the Kansai Region, where Team Sagawa Express won despite the absence of London Olympics marathoner Ryo Yamamoto.  Team Osaka Gas had a close victory over the Osaka Police Department team to pick up the last qualifying spot, but the big news of the race f…

by Brett Larner

The Japanese women took the team bronze medal at the Oct. 6 World Half Marathon Championships, year-leading national corporate champion Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) finishing 8th after running 7th throughout the race with teammate Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) only to lose out in the final sprint to a fast-closing Gemma Steel (GBR). Both Steel  and Tanaka clocked 1:11:09, Ito just back in 1:11:25 after fading in the final kilometer. 21-year-old Asami Kato (Team Panasonic) came through in the second half of the race to move up from 17th to 12th, her 1:12:11 less than a minute off her best and enough to give Japan the bronze over Great Britain. All five Japanese women cracked the top 20.  Ethiopians Meseret Hailu and Feyse Tadese went 1-2 and sub-1:09, ensuring that Ethiopia scored the team gold over Kenya, whose top finisher Paskalia Chepkorir Kipkoech took the individual bronze 9 seconds back from winner Hailu.

As for the men, what is there to say? In an outs…

by Brett Larner

click here for complete entry lists

Barring last-minute withdrawals Japan will be sending full squads of five to this Saturday's World Half Marathon Championships in Kavarna, Bulgaria.  The men's team is particularly strong, with three of Japan's all-time top ten half marathoners scheduled to line up.  21-year-old Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota) leads the way, having won his debut at March's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships in 1:00:53, the third-best time ever by a Japanese man on an unaided course.  Right behind him in 1:00:58 is all-time Japanese #4, former Komazawa University ace Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta).  Miyawaki and Ugachi have had an interesting rivalry going over the last year, pushing each other to all-time Japanese top-ten 10000 m times at a time trial meet last fall before hammering each other through the winter ekiden season.  Miyawaki exactly tied his 27:41.57 best for 10000 m last month and looks as though he may b…

http://www.chicagomarathon.com/CMS400Min/uploadedFiles/Chicago_Marathon/Press_Center/Press%20Release%2009-12-12.pdf

Along with the six Japanese men in the Chicago Marathon field, 2011 Fukuoka Marathon winner Samuel Ndungu is a longtime Japanese-based runner, Thomas Frazer was a member of the Shibuya Ekiden course record-setting team, and Lucy Kabuu is a graduate of Aomori Yamada H.S. and a former runner for Suzuki Hamamatsu.

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/News/Tn201208190051.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

click here for complete results

Don't give in to the heat!  On Aug. 18 at Dogoyama Cross Country Park in Shobara, Hiroshima, 2382 runners from the five prefectures of the Chugoku region and as far away as Kanto took part in the 13th Hiroshima Cross Country Meet, competing in 36 different age and gender divisions over five hilly courses from 1 to 8 km in length at 700 m elevation.  At the start of the first race at 11:15 the temperature was 32 degrees.  Cheers of "Keep going!" and "Just a little further!" from the sidelines urged on the sweat-soaked athletes as they covered the course.  With the intense heat slowing them down, most could only shrug in resignation as they checked their watches after crossing the finish line.

The invited athlete field included athletes from the Chugoku Denryoku and Edion corporate teams.  With experience on the Japanese national team at the Wo…

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20120702-976797.html

translated by Brett Larner

On July 2nd the Japanese federation Rikuren announced the men's and women's teams for this year's World Half Marathon Championships, scheduled for October 6 in Bulgaria.  2011 World Championships marathoner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) leads the five men and five women on the teams.

Team members:

Men
Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota) - 1:00:53 (Corporate Championships, 2012)
Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:00:58 (Marugame, 2011)
Masato Kihara (Team Kanebo) - 1:01:15 (Corporate Championships, 2012)
Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 1:02:16 (Corporate Championships, 2009)
Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) - 1:02:18 (Marugame, 2012)

Women
Yoko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera - 1:09:23 (Sanyo, 2011)
Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) - 1:09:47 (Corporate Championships, 2012)
Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 1:10:03 (Sanyo, 2011)
Asami Kato (Team Panasonic) - 1:11:21 (Sendai…

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/sports/Sp201112070118.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Once the leading force in Japanese men's ekidens and marathons, the name of the Chugoku Denryoku team has faded into history.  Of the team's three pillars of strength, 38-year-old Tsuyoshi Ogata has declined dramatically in ability, while 34-year-old Shigeru Aburuya will retire after next week's Hofu Yomiuri Marathon.  It is a sign of the changing of the guards.  "One era is over," says Chugoku Denryoku head coach Yasushi Sakaguchi.  "Now it is time for us to start again from zero."

"Members of our team had a streak of making the national team in the marathon," says Sakaguchi, "and in the ekiden we were #1 in Japan twice."  Chugoku Denryoku first ran the New Year Ekiden national championships in 1993.  With an all-Japanese lineup the team won the New Year Ekiden in 2004 and 2007, and it has finished in the top eight seventeen out of the ninete…

by Brett Larner

Along with Kanagawa and Nagano's great course record battle at the East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima, this weekend saw four other significant ekidens around the country.  Like the East Japan race, the six-stage, 30 km Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden saw its 27th running.  An interesting format with 48 universities, corporate teams and running clubs all competing together, Fukui this year was largely a rematch between this year's national university champion Ritsumeikan University and 2010 champion Bukkyo University.  Bukkyo fielded all its key runners, including ace Hikari Yoshimoto, while Ritsumeikan was down its leading pair Risa Takenaka and Hanae Tanaka.  After an early lead Bukkyo dropped to 3rd behind Ritsumeikan and Meijo University, but in the second half it worked its way back up to 2nd just 12 seconds behind Ritsumeikan.  Anchor Yoshimoto, the 10000 m collegiate record holder, then ran 41 seconds faster than anyone else on the stage to take the lea…