japan running news

As a route to qualification for next month's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials the Hokkaido Marathon saw higher-quality results than usual last year, but in its first edition after the closing of the trials qualifying period yesterday's 2019 running had no shortage on quality. In warm conditions the men's race went out conservatively with a 1:06:57 first half and turned into a show of who could negative split the hardest, with the top six all running the second half faster. Ryo Matsumoto, part of the top current marathon program in Japan, Toyota, won by over 30 seconds in 2:12:57 with 2nd through 6th all finishing within 15 seconds of each other in the mid-2:13s.

Kasumi Yoshida (Nitori) did a lot of the work in leading the women's pack for the first 30 km before heavy favorite Mirai Waku (Univ. Ent.) took off. Waku had said pre-race that she wanted to break 2:30, but despite falling well short of that she opened a lead of over a minute and a half to win in 2:33:44. 2015…

The New Caledonia International Marathon took place Aug. 26 on a loop course starting and finishing at Henri Milliard Hippodrome. Civil servant runner Yuki Kawauchi (31, Saitama Pref. Gov't) won in 2:18:18.

Returning to New Caledonia after 10  years, Kawauchi was alone from the start. Before the race he had set his sights on the course record, but, he said afterward, "I was enjoying the scenery so much as I was running that I lost track of time. Maybe I'll break it next year."

source article:
https://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20180826-OHT1T50137.html
translated by Brett Larner

Marathon season kicks off this weekend with three races featuring elite-level Japanese marathoners.

Saturday morning the athletics segment of the Jakarta Asian Games gets rolling with the men's marathon. With a 2:06:54 best from February's Tokyo Marathon Japan's Hiroto Inoue is the heavy favorite if he can handle the heat. His nearest competition, Ethiopian Bahraini Abdi Abdo, ran 2:08:32 in Rome this year, and Inoue's teammate Hayato Sonoda is the only other man in the field to have broken 2:10. With Bahrain's second man, the Moroccan El Hassan El Abbassi, ranked 4th at 2:10:57 it's pretty much a Japan-Bahrain dual on the men's side. Should Inoue succeed he'll be the first Japanese man to win Asian Games gold since Takeyuki Nakayama set the still-standing championships record of 2:08:21 at the 1986 Seoul Games. It's unusual to see an A-lister like Inoue run the Asian Games, but considering the weather conditions he'll face if he makes the Toky…

by Brett Larner

Waseda University graduate Suguru Osako (Team Nissin Shokuhin) turned up at Sunday's Birmingham Grand Prix to run with sometimes training partner Mo Farah in pursuit of fellow Waseda grad Kensuke Takezawa's Japanese national record of 8:24.69.  While Farah went out way ahead of the field to set a European area record of 8:07.85 for the win, Osako came up a few seconds short of Takezawa's mark in 8:28.30.  In a distance rarely raced by Japanese athletes, Osako's time was good enough for all-time Japanese #2, joining his all-time #6 5000 m best of 13:20.80 just behind Takezawa's all-time #5 mark of 13:19.00.

A small contingent of Japanese high schoolers also turned up at Saturday's International Antwerp Athletics Gala.  Takuya Hanyu (Yachiyo Shoin H.S.), who last November ran 14:00.55 to become Japan's fastest-ever high school first-year for 5000 m, finished 2nd behind Australia's Mitchel Brown in a new PB of 13:52.98 that moved him up to …

30th New Caledonia International Half Marathon
New Caledonia, 7/29/12
click here for complete results

Men
1. Yudai Yamakawa - 1:07:17
2. Toshikatsu Ebina - 1:08:02
3. Jun Aoki - 1:14:44

Women
1. Ayako Mitsui - 1:16:03
2. Maki Saito - 1:16:06
3. Kanade Iida - 1:17:18

by Brett Larner

University student runners from Japan dominated the half marathon division of the 26th New Caledonia International Marathon on Aug. 24. Gakuinshuin University ace Yuki Kawauchi won the men's race in 1:07:15, with Jobu University's Yasuo Ishida taking 2nd in 1:07:47. In the women's race, Yuko Mizuguchi of Mie University ran 1:16:27 for the win. Chuo University's Ami Nishio was 2nd in 1:17:54.

Team JAL Ground Service's Junichi Akagi won the full marathon competition in a time of 2:31:12.

(c) 2008 Brett Larner
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