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Former Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. Head Coach Koji Watanabe to Take Over at Nittai University

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-straig…
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Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. Stars Tanaka and Goto Go Own Route in Joining Club Team

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 the Doshisha…
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Toyota and Tanaka Drop New Course Records - Ekiden Weekend Roundup

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, Kwansei Ga…
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1500 m National Record Holder Yuriko Kobayashi Gives Birth to First Child

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 nationa…
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Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. Wins Second National High School Girls Ekiden Title in Three Years

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 onto the 5.0 km anchor …
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Course Records at Chunichi Hamanako Ekiden

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 than Takeda's mark.  T…
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Toyokawa Set to Sweep Boys' and Girls' Races at Sunday's National High School Ekiden Championships

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 Carrickpointed 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 schools have a better average than 4th-place Northern Arizona…
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14-Year-Old Chikashi Ikeda Breaks J.H.S. Boys' 3000 m National Record (updated)

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 for the final 400 m, but even so h…
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Tadayuki Ojima to Retire After Beppu-Oita

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, Nishiwaki …
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World Championships Marathoner Okutani Retires

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 joine…
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Ritsumeikan Uji Girls and Sendai Ikuei Boys Return to the Top in All-Japan High School Ekiden (updated)

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 into …
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