japan running news

by Brett Larner

The organizers of the Mar. 17 National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships, Japan's last major road race before track season, released its 2013 entry lists on Mar. 5.  With no World Half Marathon Championships this year there are no national team places on the line, but the fields are deep nevertheless.

Having struggled in recent years, 2008 Kenyan national XC champion Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) heads the men's list along with last year's runner-up Jacob Wanjuki (Team Aichi Seiko), 2010 World Half Marathon 9th-place Tomoya Onishi (Team Asahi Kasei), Micah Njeru (Team Toyota Boshoku) and 2012 Sendai International Half Marathon winner Johana Maina (Team Fujitsu).  Besides Onishi eight other Japanese men with sub-62 bests are close behind, led by Yuta Igarashi (Team JR Higashi Nihon) and Daisuke Matsufuji (Team Kanebo).  2012 national 5000 m champion Kazuya Deguchi (Team Asahi Kasei) will be looking to join the sub-62 ranks along with t…

by Brett Larner

On the quietest weekend of the fall at the cusp of ekiden season, the main action came at track time trials across the country as Japan's coaches sort out their lineups for the upcoming round of regional and national championship ekidens at the end of this month and the beginning of next.

The biggest meet of the weekend took place at Shizuoka's fast Ecopa Stadium.  Fresh from an anchor stage record at the Kanto Regional University Women's Ekiden national championships qualifier, Tsukuba University ace first-year Haruka Kyuma won the women's 5000 m A-heat by four seconds, running a solid best of 15:39.87 to just miss the Japanese top ten for the year.  Her twin sister Moe Kyuma, also of Tsukuba, was 14th, the last woman in the A-heat to break 16 minutes as she crossed the line in 15:58.07 in an off day. Another set of twins, Kaori and Shiori Morita of Eda H.S., also dominated the women's 3000 m A-heat, going 1-2 a step apart in 9:10.97 and 9:11.15.

T…

by Brett Larner

Kenyan teammates Paul Tanui and Sally Chepyego of the Kyushu-based Team Kyudenko swept the 10000 m A-heats on the first day of this year's National Corporate Track and Field Championships, Sept. 21 at Hakatonomori Field in Fukuoka.  Holding the home-soil advantage, Tanui and Chepyego ran virtually identical races, going out solo and leading throughout the race to take the win unchallenged, Tanui in 27:30.22 and Chepyego in 31:33.76.  For Tanui it was a successful defense of his 2011 national corporate 10000 m title.

In both the men's and women's races a pack of three pursued the leader.  In the men's race the pack included Kenyans Edward Waweru (Team NTN) and Patrick Muwaka (Team Aisan Kogyo) along with 21-year-old Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota), the sixth-fastest Japanese man ever over 10000 m with a best of 27:41.57 from last November.  Miyawaki fell off the pace of Waweru and Muwaka but, as with his PB run last fall, ran a fast final km, closing in 2…

by Brett Larner

Right on schedule the organizers of the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the last chance for Japanese men to make the London Olympics marathon team, have announced the complete field for this year's race.  Coming on Mar. 4 just a week after the Tokyo Marathon, Biwako, as the race is known in Japan, has managed to put together a strong international field, both at the front end and further back at the level where people will be trying to meet their countries' Olympic qualification times.  The clear favorites in the first category are 2:06 Kenyan Nicholas Manza and 2:07 Ethiopian Bekana Daba, but with Japan based Kenyans Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and Samuel Ndungu (Team Aichi Seiko) on the list to make their debuts the lead pack could be deeper than usual.  Biwako has always been good to Spanish marathoners, and with sub-28 runner Ayad Lamdassem entered for an apparent debut it is possible that this year could see another one factor into the race.

Among t…

The first of JRN's four-part series interviews in the weeks following Samuel Wanjiru's death with the people in Japan who knew him best and made him what he was. For an explanation of the origin of these interviews please click here. In this interview, Stephen Mayaka, the first Kenyan to run in Japan all the way from high school through university and on to a pro career and a mentor to Wanjiru and other Japan-resident Kenyans, talks about his experiences with Wanjiru. Tomorrow's interview will be Wanjiru's coach at the Toyota Kyushu corporate team, Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita.

Stephen Mayaka interviewed by Brett Larner in Takasaki, Gunma, 6/23/11
© 2011 Brett Larner All rights reserved No part of this interview may be reproduced or quoted without express written permission.
photo © 2011 Daniel Seite
All rights reserved
To start with, could you talk about the early stages?  Wanjiru’s discovery, his life in Kenya before he came to Japan, how …