japan running news

A day on from the Marathon Grand Championship, Japan's 2020 Olympic marathon trials event, JAAF marathon development project team leader Toshihiko Seko, 63, spoke to media about the race, which broke from the tradition of the JAAF choosing national team members from multiple races to at last have the contenders all race head to head in a single competition.  "It takes at least six months to prepare for the Olympics," he said. "If you don't know whether you're on the team it creates a lot of uncertainty and worry. That's not going to be the case this time. The MGC was perfect. We came together in humility to put it together." With a laugh he added, "I want a 100 million yen [~$925,000 USD] bonus for it. All we got was the burden of responsibility."

Seko, who in his prime earned the reputation of being the nation's "TV ratings generator marathon man," eagerly anticipates a resurgence of popularity for the marathon thanks to th…

Despite warm and windy conditions the Blackmores Sydney Marathon saw new course records in both its men's and women's races. Felix Kiprotich (Kenya) led the way in the men's race with the first-ever sub-2:10 clocking on Sydney's challengingly hilly and twisting course, breaking away from a group including Michael Kunyuga (Kenya) and Satoru Sasaki (Asahi Kasei) for the win in 2:09:49.

The top three all broke the course record. Sasaki, a Rio Olympian in the marathon who failed to qualify for today's MGC Race 2020 Olympic trials, could take extra satisfaction from having been 26 seconds faster than MGC winner Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) on a far tougher course. "I was aiming to win," Sasaki told JRN post-race, "but the course was really twisty and it was hard to run. It would have been nice to be a bit faster, but given my current situation and the problems I've had since Lake Biwa last year I think this put me back on my feet and will help me in my n…

Yoshio Koide, coach of the first woman to ever break 2:20 in the marathon and Olympic marathon gold, silver and bronze medalists Naoko Takahashi and Yuko Arimori, passed away Apr. 24. He was 80 years old. Koide had just announced his retirement from coaching at the end of March.

Koide became coach at Recruit through a teacher. Saying, "The age of our women is coming," he foresaw the rise of Japanese women's marathoning and actively made his dream of producing an Olympic gold medalist come true. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics where Takahashi won gold he produced a precise, aggressive winning strategy that seemed to go against character.

According to the Sept. 25, 2000 issue of Daily Sports covering Takahashi's gold, Takahashi's move came at 35 km near the apartment she had been at near the 32 km point on a section of road she had been running every day. Meeting with Takahashi the day before the race Koide confirmed the plan for the attack, telling her, "If there…

Yoshio Koide, 79, coach of 2000 Sydney Olympics women's marathon gold medalist and former world record holder Naoko Takahashi, retired from his position as head of the Sakura AC at the end of March. Koide's coaching contract with the Universal Entertainment corporate team likewise ran out at the end of March, and he did not renew it. Koide commented, "On the 15th I turn 80. This is a good time to step down and let someone younger take over."
In the summer of 2015 Koide underwent heart surgery while at a training camp in the United States, and since then he has been in and out of the hospital. His age was also simply starting to have an effect. "I love the race more than anything else," he said. "I'm sorry to leave, but taking care of my body is simply more important."
Koide graduated from Juntendo University. As a high school coach he led the Funabashi Municipal H.S. team to the National High School Ekiden Championships title in 1986. In 1988 …

On Jan. 30 the organizers of the Ome 30 km and 10 km Road Race announced the elite field for this year's 53rd running, scheduled for Feb. 17. Leading the men's 30 km division is 30 km collegiate record holder and 2018 Fukuoka International Marathon champion Yuma Hattori (25, Toyota), the first Japanese man to win Fukuoka in 14 years. Hattori will run Ome as one of the 21 men who have qualified for the MGC Race, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon trials. He will face 2017 winner Ezekiel Cheboitibin (Sunbelx).

Leading the women's field is Ayuko Suzuki (27, Japan Post), winner of the 2018 Hokkaido Marathon in her debut over the distance and one of nine women to have qualified for the MGC Race. 2018 Boston Marathon 4th-placer Rachel Hyland (U.S.A.) will make her Ome debut. The guest starter will be 2004 Athens Olympics marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi, 40, with 2000 Sydney Olympics marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahashi, 46, likewise appearing as a special guest.
53rd Ome 3…

On July 18 it was learned from several sources connected with the situation that a member of the 2017 National Corporate Women's Ekiden champion team Universal Entertainment who left the team at the end of last season tested positive for a banned substance in a doping test carried out at the ekiden. Universal Entertainment won the national championship race, its second-ever title and first in five years. But because the athlete's result will be annulled the team will also be stripped of its title, an unprecedented situation in the ekiden's history.

According to an involved source, before the race the athlete took her own personal medicine which included the prohibited substance. The athlete denied having taking the medicine in order to enhance her performance. Team management claimed the athlete had not informed then that she was taking it, and that the situation was the result of her personal carelessness.

The Universal Entertainment team was founded under the name Aruze…

Japanese marathoners these days have the reputation of rarely racing abroad, and of rarely racing well when they do. Back in the day that wasn't true; Japanese marathoners have won all the World Marathon Majors-to-be except New York, and two of the three Japanese men to have run 2:06 and all three women to have run 2:19 did it outside Japan. Whatever the extent to which things did turn inward along the way, the last few years have seen an uptick in Japanese runners going farther afield and running better there than any others before them.

The lists above and below show the fastest times run by Japanese athletes in different countries to 2:20:00 for men and 2:45:00 for women. Japanese men have run sub-2:20 marathons in 37 countries around the world including Japan, with Japanese women having cleared 2:45 in 33 countries including at home. Breaking it down by IAAF label times, more Japanese men have run label standard times abroad, but women have typically performed at a higher label…

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando, 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner.

When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC. Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her maintain…

http://sp.kahoku.co.jp/tohokunews/201704/20170411_14037.html

translated by Brett Larner

The organizers of the 27th Sendai International Half Marathon on May 14 have announced the field of four domestic invited elite athletes.  Former Hakone Ekiden  star Masato Imai (33, Team Toyota Kyushu) and civil servant runner Yuki Kawauchi (30, Saitama Pref. Gov't) top the list.

During his days at Juntendo University Imai was crowned "God of the Mountain" after winning the Hakone Ekiden's uphill Fifth Stage three years in a row.  In the marathon he went on to run 2:07:39 two years ago to become the sixth-fastest Japanese man ever.  He won the Sendai International Half Marathon for the first time last year.

Kawauchi is running Sendai for the sixth year in a row.  A member of the 2011 and 2013 World Championships marathon teams, Kawauchi won the bronze medal at the 2014 Asian Games.  Named to the 2017 London World Championships team alongside Kawauchi, Kentaro Nakamoto (34, Team Y…

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20170330-OHT1T50055.html

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Regarding the men's and women's marathon selection for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, on Mar. 29 the JAAF announced a new selection process in which the top two Japanese men and women at a new Olympic Trials marathon to be held in the fall of 2019 or later will be named to the team.  Beginning this fall the existing set of selection races will become qualifying races, with athletes needing to clear specified times and placings in order to qualify for the Olympic Trials race.  In that way Olympic marathon team selection will become a two-stage process, a major change from the current process of comparing the results in different races and one that ensures transparency in national team selection.  The move is expected to be confirmed at next month's JAAF executive board meeting.

With the Japanese marathoning world in the midst of a downtown the move is a major shakeup, the JAAF's shift in poli…

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20160930/ath16093018140002-n1.html

translated by Brett Larner

The Naoko Takahashi Cup Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon organizing committee announced on Sept. 30 that its ranking on the IAAF's international road racing rating system has been raised from this year's Silver Label status to the highest level, a Gold Label.  It is the first Japanese half marathon to receive a Gold Label, a recognition of the quality of its field and other factors.

The Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon began in 2011.  Speaking at a press conference at the Gifu Prefectural Government headquarters race director Naoko Takahashi commented, "I want this event to become one that will help develop athletes who can compete with the best in the world, and to become an event loved and valued by the local community."  Next year's race will take place April 23.

by Brett Larner

Japan's Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Reia Iwade (Team Noritz) will be in the field for Sunday's BMW Berlin Marathon.  Berlin has been good to Japan in the past, with the country's first 2:06 men's national record and the last three women's national records all happening on the ultra-flat Berlin course.  But in the last decade Berlin has seen fewer and fewer quality runs from Japanese athletes.  Kurao Umeki placed 3rd in 2006, but the fastest time over the decade was only 2:10:24 in 2013 by future Rio Olympian Suehiro Ishikawa.  For women too, Tomo Morimoto placed 3rd in 2010, her 2:26:10 also the fastest time in the last ten years but far off the quality of the 2:19 marks set  in Berlin by Naoko Takahashi, Yoko Shibui and Mizuki Noguchi.  The ten-year average times and places for Japanese athletes in the top ten in Berlin are 2:12:00 for 8th for men and 2:29:26 for 7th for women. Can Kawauchi and Iwade beat those averages?

Running in…

http://www.kahoku.co.jp/tohokunews/201604/20160412_14046.html

translated by Brett Larner

On April 11 the organizers of the 26th Sendai International Half Marathon announced the five domestic athletes set to lead the elite field for this year's race on May 8.  Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), a member of the 2011 and 2013 World Championships marathon teams and the bronze medalist in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games marathon, returns to the Sendai Half for the fifth year in a row.  A former Hakone Ekiden star on the uphill Fifth Stage during his days at Juntendo University, Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) is the fastest current Japanese marathoner with a 2:07:39 best.

Others in the field include last year's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon placer Takuya Noguchi (Team Konica Minolta), 2012 London Olympian and 2015 World Championships team member Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), and this year's Osaka International Women's Marathon runner-up Misato Horie (Team Noritz).

Rio de …

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160210-00000045-sph-spo

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On Feb. 10 the Ome Road Race organizing committee announced the elite field and guest starters for its 50th anniversary running on Feb. 21.  The fastest man ever over the historic Ome course, marathon great and DeNA corporate team executive head coach Toshihiko Seko will serve as starter in the 30 km, with former marathon world record holder and Sydney Olympics marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahashi starting the 10 km.  A $30,000 bonus will be offered to any runner who can beat Seko's 1981 winning time of 1:29:32, with $20,000 offered for breaking the all-time second-fastest winning time in Ome history, 1:30:21 by Masaki Ito (Konica Minolta) in 2013.

50th Ome Road Race Elite Field
Ome, Tokyo, 2/21/16

Men's 30 km
Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:29:31 (2013 Kumanichi 30 km)
Yared Asmerom (Eritrea) - 1:30:16 (2008 Biwako Mainichi Marathon)
Shota Yamaguchi (Fujitsu) - 1:01:42 (2012 Marug…

http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXLSSXK10569_Z11C15A0000000/

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On Oct. 19 a number of sources confirmed that 2000 Sydney Olympics women's marathon gold medalist and former world record holder Naoko Takahashi, 43, was named the new chairperson of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committe's Athletes' Commission, charged with presenting athletes' opinions and needs to the event organizers.  The committee promoted Takahashi following the resignation of current chairperson and 1988 Seoul Olympics men's swimming gold medalist Daichi Suzuki after his appointment to the Sports Services Agency.  Newly added to the commission was Sydney Olympics women's swimming team member Tomoko Hagiwara, 35.

The Athletes' Commission's duties include contributing an athlete's point of view to activities designed to promote the Olympic and Paralympic Games and to assist young athletes in making a positive social contribution.  Its nex…

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1546509.html

translated by Brett Larner

At a meeting of its board of directors Sept. 30 in Tokyo, the JAAF made the decision to establish a new Strengthening Promotion Committee.  The new committee will have authority over the existing Strengthening Committee.  JAAF executive director Mitsugi Ogata, 56, commented, "Up to now our strengthening activities have focused on producing the best performances at a particular time, but from now on we want to consider strategy through a variety of eyes and minds."

Citing the Japanese performance at August's Beijing World Championships, where the national team's total of one bronze medal and two top eight performances fell far short of JAAF projections, the board approved the resignation of Strengthening Committee chairman Yasuhiro Harada.  The promotion of vice-chairman Kazunori Asaba was also approved pending the outcome of committee restructuring.  Along with Toshihiko Seko, Na…