japan running news

Around 80 representatives of the National Corporate Track and Field Association, Gunma Prefectural Government and related media organizations met Nov. 15 at the prefectural government offices to discuss course changes and upcoming promotional efforts for the 62nd running of the New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships on Jan. 1. It was confirmed that two of the ekiden's seven stages, the Fourth Stage and Sixth Stage, will be changed for this season's race.

The New Year Ekiden has been run on a 100 km course since 2001, but it was recently found that its actual distance was slightly insufficient. The course changes are intended to increase the distance to make up for the overall shortfall as well as to improve the course's runnability. The Fourth Stage has traditionally headed east from the Shiyakusho-mae intersection in Imaizumi-cho in Isesaki, but its new course will instead send it south along Route 354 for a increase in length from 22.0 to 22.4 km. Th…

Qualification for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships got underway on the Nov. 3 holiday in Japan's most competitive region, East Japan, with the 58th East Japan Corporate Men's Ekiden Championships. Running without half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara, 2015 winner Honda returned to the top with an exciting anchor stage win in 3:47:55 for the 7-stage, 77.5 km course.

The Hitachi Butsuryu team's leading man Yuki Muta got them off to a good start on the opening stage, but a 1-2 punch from DeNA's Kenta Murozuka and Bedan Karoki put DeNA 20 seconds ahead of the early leaders. 7th on the First Stage, Honda worked its way up to 3rd by the end of the Third Stage just a second behind Hitachi Butsuryu.

Honda moved into 2nd on the next stage, but its gap to leader DeNA stayed steady at 21 seconds. Fujitsu passed Hitachi Butsuryu for 3rd thanks to a stage win from Ken Yokote, and a new stage record of 22:52 for the 7.8 km Fifth Stag…

a RunCzech press release

Abraham Kipyatich, one of the strongest performers on the RunCzech Racing team, is to spend the remainder of the year in Japan, competing for the Asahi Kasei Athletics Team. After a number of fine and stable performances last year, and a victory in the Birell Prague Grand Prix 2016, as a culmination of the fine season Abraham had.

The Asahi Kasei Athletics Team was founded in 1946 and is based in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture. The team is known for its great history, especially for producing Olympians (marathon), national record holders and other legends of our sport. In 2017, Asahi Kasei became first team in an 18-year period to win the New Year Ekiden National Corporate Men's Road Relay Championships with an all-Japanese lineup.

Kipyatich is the first non-Japanese runner in the team and only one out of two non-Japanese runners team has in its line-up for 2017 season. Kipyatich already had successful experience in Japan this year - he managed solid fourth p…

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20170515-00000124-sph-spo

translated by Brett Larner

今日から新しいチームメイトが旭化成に加わりました！！
共に世界を目指して頑張ります。
応援よろしくお願いします。#ケニア
#🇰🇪#左#アブラハム#右#ケネスhttps://t.co/OSMR3UynMNpic.twitter.com/UiuIcQTFUK — 市田 孝 (@TAKA_supra) May 15, 2017
On May 15 ekiden and marathon powerhouse Asahi Kasei welcomed its first-ever foreign-born team members, Kenyans Kenneth Kiprop Kipkemoi, 32, and Abraham Kapsis Kipyatich, 24, to the team's base in Nobeoka, Miyazaki. The highly accomplished Kipkemoi holds a 10000 m best of 26:52.65 far superior to the 27:29.69 Japanese national record held by Asahi Kasei's Kota Murayama, 24, and his 5000 m and half marathon bests of 13:03.07 and 59:01 are likewise better than the Japanese national records. By comparison, Kipyatich is still young with room to grow further in the future.

Regarding the reinforcement of the team's strength, an Asahi Kasei spokesperson commented, "The mission of our athletics program is to produce athletes who …

http://www.oita-press.co.jp/1010000000/2017/04/11/JD0055648052

translated by Brett Larner

The Oita Fire Department ekiden team is targeting the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships.  Thanks to the Miyazaki-based Asahi Kasei team's win at the 2017 New Year Ekiden, the number of spots available at the 2018 race to Kyushu region teams will increase by one to eight teams.  "This is our big chance," said OFD head coach Masakazu Mishiro, 40.  Police Department and Self-Defense Force teams have made the New Year Ekiden in the past, but to date no Fire Department team has ever qualified.

To make it to the biggest stage in Japan it's a constant struggle to balance a busy work schedule and training.  The OFD team has around 20 members, half of them full-on serious runners who competed in university, and with the addition of three new members at the start of the fiscal year in April its strength has only grown.  Forming the team's core are star …

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20170408-OHT1T50191.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

A long distance and marathon powerhouse, the 2017 New Year Ekiden national champion Asahi Kasei team has recruited Kenyan athletes for the first time. Surpassing even the 10000 m national record of 27:29.69 set by Asahi Kasei's Kota Murayama, 24, the pair of Kenyans includes a 32-year-old veteran who has run sub-27 and a young 23-year-old.  With experience coaching Kenyans at the Aisan Kogyo corporate team through the end of March, Isamu Sennai has also joined the Asahi Kasei staff in preparation for the Kenyans' arrival.

At this year's New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships, 30 of the 37 teams in the field featured foreign athletes.  In the midst of such a field, Asahi Kasei scored the first win by a Japanese-only team in 18 years.  Founded in 1946, Asahi Kasei produced greats including twins Shigeru and Takeshi Soh, 1991 World Championships marathon gold m…

https://www.iaaf.org/news/report/jepchirchir-breaks-world-half-marathon-record

The Ras Al-Khaimah Half was the fifth-straight win for Tokyo-based Bedan Karoki (DeNA RC), having won two track races in 24 hours at November's Nittai University Time Trials meet, the first a 10000 m in 27:07.30, a brilliant win in the most competitive January race in the world, the New Year Ekiden's 8.3 km Second Stage, and a tune-up for RAK with a win at the 10 km Discovery Cross meet in Kenya late last month.  Karoki is set to debut at April's London Marathon after a DNS there last year.

photo © 2017 Dr. Helmut Winter
all rights reserved

by Brett Larner
photos by @rikujolove

Living up to the promise of its 2015 recruiting coup after a disappointing performance last year, the Asahi Kasei team won its first New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships title in 18 years on the strength of its double set of twins.

ニューイヤー駅伝　優勝　旭化成
１区　村山紘太
２区　鎧坂哲哉
３区　大六野秀畝
４区　市田孝 pic.twitter.com/GGSNHGVsO3 — M.Kawaguchi (@rikujolove) January 1, 2017
Fresh from running 2016's fastest Japanese 10000 m, 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama led off for Asahi Kasei but unexpectedly proved to be its weakest link, finishing 13th of 37 on the 12.3 km First Stage, 11 seconds back from leader Masaki Toda (Nissin Shokuhin).  Defending champ Toyota also struggled to get off on the right foot, lead runner Taku Fujimoto only 10th.

One of only 7 teams in the field without an African on board to boost its chances, Asahi Kasei fielded Tetsuya Yoroizaka, all-time Japanese #2 for 5000 m and 10000 m, on the 8.3 km Second Stage.  Facing…

by Brett Larner



The New Year Ekiden is the peak of the year for corporate league men, their national championship race with 37 teams of seven squaring off over a total of 100 km in front of a live TV audience.  At 61 runnings it is still a newcomer compared to the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden and has long struggled to approach Hakone's popularity.  The upswing in talent at the university level over the last few years has brought more fans to the New Year Ekiden as one after another of the biggest Hakone stars have graduated and entered the corporate machine.

Last year Toyota scored a second-straight New Year Ekiden title with a very young team that averaged 23 years old.  This year its roster is bolstered by the addition of one of the most popular and talented 2016 graduates, 30 km collegiate national record holder Yuma Hattori, formerly of Toyo University. Hattori will tackle the New Year Ekiden's longest stage, the 22.0 km Fourth Stage, and with much of last year's lineup ret…

by Brett Larner

Ekiden season is the peak of the Japanese racing year, the long-distance road relays being the main event for most Japanese runners.  The season is already underway but Monday's Izumo Ekiden marks the start of the championship races.  Below is a quick guide to the season's main high school, university and pro ekidens and related events.  There are more, to be sure.

High School
After the high school season launch at the Kurayoshi Women's Ekiden and Nihonkai Ekiden October sees prefectural high school ekiden championship races across the country, followed up in November by regional championship races.  The peak of the season comes in late December with the National High School Ekiden featuring the top teams from each prefecture, both the girls' and boys' races broadcast live and commercial-free across the country.  It's sometimes the site of the birth of future greats, none more so than the late Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya whose 22:40 record for the 8.1…

http://www.jomo-news.co.jp/ns/4514557221513282/news.html

translated by Brett Larner



In a Feb. 17 interview, an official involved with the Takasaki Police Department's investigation of an incident at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships in which a roadside spectator's dog jumped out into the course causing a runner to fall confirmed that police are preparing to file charges against a 69-year-old male resident of Takasaki on suspicion of violating Gunma prefecture's Animal Welfare and Management ordinance with regard to requirements for keeping pets under control.

According to the police official, the incident occurred around 10:00 a.m. on Jan. 1 in the town of Kamiorui roughly 3.6 km into the Second Stage.  Running in the second pack, Paul Kuira (Team Konica Minolta) tripped and fell when a small dog suddenly jumped out into the course directly in front of him.  The owner is suspected of not having had control of the dog at the time, resultin…

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160104-00000008-mai-spo

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Having overcome serious illness, one runner has made a comeback to the top levels of the corporate leagues after almost three years away.  On Jan. 1 32-year-old Satoru Kasuya (Team Toyota Boshoku) ran the New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships having survived a diagnosis of malignant lymphoma blood cancer two and a half years ago.  At the New Year Ekiden he ran strongly on its longest stage, the 22.0 km Fourth Stage against other teams' best runners, saying, "I want people to know that you can still come back even after suffering a disease as serious as this."

At Komazawa University Kasuya ran the Hakone Ekiden during his 2nd through 4th years in 2003-05.  In 2006 he joined the Toyota Boshoku team where he excelled as a star athlete.  But in June, 2013, he said, "Something starting to feel wrong, like the way you feel when you run when you have a cold…