japan running news

The first major national-level high school ekiden of the season, the 39th Kurayoshi Joshi Ekiden and 44th Nihonkai Ekiden took place Sunday in Kurayoshi, Tottori. Serving as the girls' race with 5 legs totaling 21.0975 km, Kurayoshi saw Osaka's Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. return to the top spot for the first time in 5 years with a 1:08:58 win, its 3rd time ever winning. A total of 51 teams competed in the girls' race, included most of the best programs from across the country. The Kunei Joshi Gakuin girls were 3rd after the first leg, with lead-off runner Yuika Tsuzurahara (2nd-yr) trailing leader Yua Sato (3rd-yr, Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) by only 3 seconds. Second runner Yua Tsukamoto  (3rd-yr) ran the fastest time on her leg, moving up to 2nd behind last year's winner Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. Third runner Rio Kawamura  (2nd-yr) also won her leg and gave Kunei Joshi Gakuin a lead that fourth runner Aika Murai (1st-yr) and anchor Miyu Funaki (2nd-yr) held until the end. To...

The U20 Asian Championships started June 4 in Yecheon, South Korea with competition in eight events. In the men's 3000 m, Sonata Nagashima ran 8:19.49 to win the gold medal. With only five athletes in the race, Nagashima took the lead in the first 200 m with a 2:40 first 1000 m. Nobody else could follow that kind of pace, and with a 5:24 split at 2000 m his lead only grew as he coasted in to his first international title. Nagashima joined the Asahi Kasei corporate team in April after graduating from Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. Active in track and field since junior high school, he was a podium placer at the National High School Ekiden and won the opening stages at both last December's National High School Ekiden and January's National Men's Ekiden. In the women's 5000 m, Nanaka Yonezawa of national champion Meijo University took the gold medal in 16:37.37, with Akari Matsumoto of the Sekisui Kagaku corporate team winning silver in 16:42.22. Nozomi Sakurai (Semi H....

Corporate women and junior high school students have already had their nationally-televised national championship ekidens, but tomorrow's National High School Ekiden in Kyoto kicks off the busiest part of the year, with 5 days of championship ekiden racing in the span of 10 days. NHK broadcasts high school Nationals live and ad-free on Dec. 25, with the girls' race starting at 10:20 a.m. and the boys at 12:30 p.m. local time. There's not likely to be any internationally-available streaming, but get a VPN and you should be good. With JRN's holiday travel plans canceled because of the weather in the PNW, we'll probably be covering both races live on @JRNLive . Buy us a coffee to help us get through the day. The top high school teams in Japan would do pretty well in the NCAA on both the girls' and boys' sides, meaning two high-level races. In the girls' race, 21.0975 km in five legs, Sendai Ikuei H.S. won in 1:07:16 by over a minute last year but is d...

Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. won its second-straight Hyogo Prefecture High School Ekiden Sunday in Tamba Sasayama, Hyogo to qualify for December's National High School Ekiden Championships . 3rd-year Sonata Nagashima , 3:44.87 for 1500 m in July, 2021 and 13:37.46 for 5000 m in May this year, led things off with a new 28:31 course record for the 10.0 km First Leg. The rest of the Nishiwaki Kogyo team road Nagashima's momentum to a 2:03:31 overall CR for the full 7-stage, 42.195 km course, its 28th time scoring Hyogo representation for Nationals. Runner-up Suma Gakuen H.S. was a kilometer back in 2:06:33, with 3rd-placer Hotoku Gakuen H.S. the only other team under 2:10 in 2:08:40. Nishiwaki Kogyo placed 7th at last year's National High School Ekiden Championships. Its last national title came in 2002, but its overall win record of eight titles still ranks it 2nd-best behind Hiroshima's Sera H.S. 's eleven wins. © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

The traditional first big race of the high school ekiden season was back Sunday, with the Kurayoshi Joshi Ekiden and Nihonkai Ekiden returning from corona cancelations the last two years. One race with different event names for girls and boys, 70 girls' teams ran the half marathon distance divided into 5 stages, and 96 boys' teams the marathon distance divided into 7 stages. Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. won the girls' race for the first time since 2011. 4th after the 6.0 km First Stage, Ritsumeikan Uji's Ai Segawa opened a 30-second lead on the 3.0 km Third Stage that fourth runner Chiseno Ikeda and anchor Yumi Yamamoto extended to 1:21 by the end of the race. Ritsumeikan Uji won in 1:08:57, early leader Hakuoh Joshi H.S. hanging on to 2nd in 1:10:18 and Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. taking 3rd in 1:10:42. Kyushu Gakuin H.S. took the lead from the start in the boys' race, Shu Nagamoto winning the highly competitive 10.0 km First Stage in 29:04 with the top 21 all clearing...

The high school season-opening Nihonkai Ekiden and Kurayoshi Women's Ekiden took place Oct. 6 in Kurayoshi, Tottori. A total of 226 high school teams took part in the two events, both of which delivered heated battles. In the boys' race, the 39th edition of the Nihonkai Ekiden covering 42.195 km in seven stages starting and finishing at Kurayoshi Municipal Field, Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. emerged victorious for the second time with a time of 2:04:40 after taking control on the opening stage. After getting off to a weak start, Sera H.S. took 2nd, with Toyokawa H.S. 3rd after briefly leading mid-race. The top team from Hyogo prefecture, Suma Gakuen H.S. was 6th in 2:06:43, with rivals Hotoku H.S. 8th in 2:07:02 and Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. 10th in 2:07:41. Held the same day, the girls competed in the 34th running of the 21.0975 km Kurayoshi Women's Ekiden, likewise starting and finishing at Kurayoshi Municipal Field. Defending champion team Osaka Kunei Joshi G...

On Sept. 19 it was learned that former Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. head coach Koji Watanabe , 80, will take over as head coach of the Nittai University ekiden team. Previous head coach Masaaki Watanabe , 55, was fired on Sept. 11 after revelations of his violence toward and mental abuse of students surfaced. New coach Watanabe commented, "I want to create an environment where team members can be in the competition." His posting is planned to last from Oct. 1 to the end of March next year. A Nittai graduate, new coach Watanabe led the Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. boys to eight National High School Ekiden Championships titles. He previously served at Nittai as chairperson of the Special Development Committee from 2012 to 2014. National powerhouse Nittai has competed in 70-straight Hakone Ekidens, winning Japan's most prestigious title ten times. It is scheduled to compete at both the Oct. 8 Izumo Ekiden and Nov. 4 National University Men's Ekiden, and will be going for a fourth...

Key players in Hyogo Prefecture's first National Women's Ekiden in 14 years in January, following their graduation from Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. at the end of this month Nozomi Tanaka and Yume Goto  will join a club team at the start of the spring season. Both have enrolled at Doshisha University where they will study in the Sports Health Science Department but will run for the ND 28 Athlete Club based in Amagasaki. Tanaka is the all-time #2 Japanese high school girl over 3000 m with a best of 8:54.27 and beat a field of Kenyan student runners to win last fall's National Sports Festival 3000 m. Goto won the Sixth Stage at the National Women's Ekiden and took 4th in 1500 m at the National Sports Festival. Regarding their decision to join a club team, Tanaka and Goto commented, "Ccorporate leaguers and university runners seem like they're focused on ekidens, so we've chosen a way that'll give us more freedom to run track." Neither will join t...

Qualifying action for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships continued Sunday with the combined Chubu and Hokuriku regional ekidens . Running both an A and a B team with only the A team having a chance of going on to race on New Year's Day, Toyota destroyed the field as it took 1st and 3rd overall. After a slow start the A-team's Chihiro Miyawaki broke the course record on the 11.5 km Third Stage, covering it in 32:55 to move into the lead. Toyota A-team runners won the last three of the race's seven stages, winning by more than three minutes over closest competition Aisan Kogyo as they broke the overall course record with a new mark of 4:05:35 for the 83.5 km event. Toyota's B-team finished just 16 seconds behind Aisan Kogyo, showing just how much of a stranglehold Toyota has on the Chubu Region. YKK was the top team from the tiny Hokuriku Region, finishing 9th overall in 4:13:34 but moving on to the New Year Ekiden. In Kyoto, ...

https://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/201705/0010198888.shtml translated by Brett Larner Women's 1500 m national record holder and 2008 Beijing Olympian Yuriko Kobayashi , 28, a resident of Kakogawa, Hyogo and born in Ono, Hyogo, gave birth to her first child, a boy, the morning of May 18. Kobayashi retired from competition in December, 2014. In December, 2015 she married a man the same age as her involved in the landscaping business who had run in the National High School Ekiden Championships while attending Hyogo's Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. In addition to giving lectures and making appearances at amateur races, Kobayashi has been teaching mathematics at a prison for juvenile offenders in Kakogawa. About three and a half hours after giving birth she commented, "That gave me a taste of a whole different kind of suffering and excitement from athletics. I hope that he grows up a healthy boy." Translator's note: Kobayashi holds a total of four youth, junior and open...

by Brett Larner highlights video courtesy of race broadcaster NHK click here for National High School Boys Ekiden results 2014 national champion Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. ran one of the fastest times in National High School Girls Ekiden history, breaking its school record to win its second national title in three years. Osaka Kunei got off to a relatively slow start, its leading runner Kanami Sagayama just 10th on the 6.0 km First Stage behind defending champ Sera H.S. , last-year's runner-up Tokiwa H.S. , powerhouse Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. and others.  Osaka Kunei's star runner Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu , with an 8:58.86 best for 3000 m while still just 16 years old, got the team back in the game, running the second-fastest time on the 4.0975 km Second Stage to put Osaka Kunei into 1st. Third and fourth runners Ayaka Murao and Saya Nakajima both won their stages, giving Osaka Kunei a 26-second lead over the relatively unheralded Nagano Higashi H.S. heading o...

by Brett Larner In what was really and truly probably the last noteworthy ekiden of the season, course records fell Feb. 17 in two of the three divisions at the 37th Chunichi Hamanako Isshu Ekiden at Lake Hamana in Shizuoka.  Despite the absence of aces Martin Mathathi  and Yusei Nakao , the Suzuki Hamamatsu AC  team had no trouble winning the 53.5 km men's race, clocking 2:42:49 to runner-up Teikyo University 's 2:44:15.  Suzuki men took three of the five stages, with 2010-11 steeplechase national champion Tsuyoshi Takeda setting a course record of 29:12 for the 9.6 km Fourth Stage. In the six-stage, 42.0 km high school boys' race, 2012 National High School Ekiden runner-up Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.  ran 2:07:38 to set a new overall course record thanks to four of its runners scoring stage bests.  Fourth man Yuki Hirota , running the same 9.6 km course as Takeda in the men's race, set a new high school division record of 28:44, almost 30 seconds better th...

by Brett Larner With a live nationwide commercial-free TV broadcast, the National High School Ekiden Championships take to the air this Sunday, Dec. 23.  The top teams from each of Japan's 47 prefectures square off in Kyoto, boys over seven stages and 42.195 km, girls over five stages and 21.0975 km.  In-country fans can catch the action on NHK, the girls starting at 10:05 a.m. and the boys at 12:15 p.m.  Overseas viewers can give it a go on Keyhole TV or follow @JRNLive for race coverage. Why should you care about a Japanese high school race?  Well, they're pretty good.  Take a look at the top ten boys' and girls' teams. As reader Bruce Carrick   pointed out earlier this year , a lot of the boys' teams would do pretty well in NCAA DI.  Top-ranked Toyokawa H.S.  and #2 Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.  have better seven-man 5000 m averages than 2012 NCAA DI cross-country 3rd-place University of Colorado .  The top nine high school...

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0005100503.shtml translated by Brett Larner The hope of the junior high world, Chikashi Ikeda  (Kakogawa Yamanote J.H.S.) is in great shape.  At a time trial meet at Baycom Field in Amagasaki on May 25 he ran 8:21.22 for 3000 m, breaking the seven-year-old J.H.S. national record.  Following closely behind a star runner from the illustrious Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. team, he ran with determination and surprised even himself when he crossed the finish line.  "Did I really run that fast?" he asked in open shock. Throughout the run Ikeda tailed Keisuke Nakatani  (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.).  "He threw is some wild surges but I stuck with him," said Ikeda.  The pair split 2:50 through 1000 m and 5:38 through 2000 m, with Ikeda running a 2:43 final 1000 m.  With each lap Ikeda's turnover increased as the pace got faster and faster from what was planned.  He ran out of gas with one lap to go, taking 70 seconds fo...

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0002629542.shtml translated by Brett Larner 1999 World Championships marathoner Tadayuki Ojima (33, Team Asahi Kasei) announced on Jan 8 that he will retire from competition following his run at February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. After retirement Ojima plans to concentrate on his work obligations with Asahi Kasei. A native of Sasayama, Ojima went to the competitive Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. where he was part of the school's two year-straight national champion ekiden team. Following his older brother Muneyuki to Team Asahi Kasei, Ojima had a remarkable string of successes as a pro. He was a member of the Japanese national team at the 1999 World Championships marathon in Seville. At the 2004 Biwako Mainichi Marathon he ran 2:08:18, 2nd overall and the top Japanese finisher. The mark put him into contention for the Athens Olympics marathon team but ultimately he was not selected. Ojima commented, "Before I joined Team Asahi Kasei, Nishiwa...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/flash/KFullFlash20090615111.html http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0002019671.shtml translated and edited by Brett Larner On June 15, Team Subaru announced that its leader Wataru Okutani, 34, a member of the 2005 and 2007 World Championships marathon teams, has retired from competition to take a coaching position on the Subaru staff. Okutani ran a PB of 2:08:49 at the 2006 Fukuoka International Marathon and was the fastest runner on the Japanese 2007 World Championships marathon squad, but shortly before the competition he had emergency internal surgery which forced him to withdraw. He spent the next year and a half trying to make a comeback but could never regain his prior form. Okutani was born in the town of Harima in Hyogo Prefecture and attended Nishiwaki Kogyo High School. In 1992 he was a member of Nishiwaki's winning team at the National High School Ekiden Championships. After unsuccessful stints with Team Daiei and Team Sekisui he jo...

by Brett Larner Hometown team Ritsumeikan Uji capped a strong season by winning the girls` division of the All-Japan High School ekiden for the first time in 7 years, while powerhouse Sendai Ikuei scored its seventh victory in the boys` race, returning to the top after last year`s loss to Sera. The two races were held back-to-back on the streets of Kyoto on Dec. 23 and broadcast live and commercial-free on national television. Each race featured the 47 prefectural champion high schools, the girls covering a hilly half-marathon course divided into 5 stages and the boys an even hillier full marathon course divided into 7 stages. Conditions at the start of the girls` race were 10 degrees with light rain and no wind, but the weather soon broke and the day became warm, sunny and breezy. Girls` Race The girls` race was billed as a battle between defending champions Suma Gakuen of Hyogo Prefecture and local high school Ritsumeikan Uji. Ritsumeikan had the faster qualification time leading int...