japan running news

The first Nittai University Time Trials meet of the season and the National Corporate Track and Field Championships delivered most of the weekend's pre-Doha World Championships action on the track.

At Nittai, Australian Melissa Duncan (Shiseido) and Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) tuned up for Doha with a head-to-head race over 3000 m, Duncan taking it by 0.40 in a sprint finish with a 9:05.45. The men's 10000 m was reasonably quick, with newcomer Razini Lemeteki (Takushoku Univ.) running a PB of almost two minutes to lead the top three under 28 minutes in 27:51.91.

But the most interesting result came in the women's 5000 m A-heat, where amateur club runners Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) and Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto) went 1-2 in another sprint finish, outkicking 2016 Gold Coast Marathon winner Misato Horie (Noritz), 2:23 marathoner Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and every other corporate leaguer in the field to do it. Yamaguchi, who ran a PB of 2:33:09 last weekend for 4th…

Tokyo Kokusai University made history Sunday night at Kanagawa’s Sagamihara Gion Stadium, winning the Kanto Region Qualifier for November’s National University Ekiden to make the national championship ekiden for the first time.

One of the wave of new programs to break onto the Hakone scene in recent years, won by a margin of just 13 seconds for the combined times of its eight runners in four heats of 10000 m, downing major established schools like Meiji University, Waseda University and Nittai University to take the top spot. A big part of that was first-year Vincent Yegon, who won the most competitive heat in 28:04.56 to give Tokyo Kokusai an edge on cumulative time. But with a margin of more than 2:40 over the final qualifying team, 5th-place Chuo Gakuin University, the rest of the team pulled its weight and would have almost certainly qualified even without the boost from Yegon.

Chuo University was the unlucky 6th-placer at less than 18 seconds behind Chuo Gakuin, about 2 seconds p…

On Jan. 2 Kohei Arai ran the Hakone Ekiden's 21.3 km First Stage for the final time before his graduation from Daito Bunka University. Right after the start he sprained his left ankle and fell, but somehow still managed to complete the stage and hand off his team's tasuki. Now recovered from the injury, Arai is running again. Exactly five months on from that nightmare moment, he returned to racing in the 5000 m at the June 2 Nittai University Time Trials meet. In an interview with Sports Hochi he talked about that day and his desire to make a full comeback.

It was the final Hakone Ekiden of the Heisei Era. As Daito Bunka's star runner Arai was taking on the First Stage for the third time. "I was in good shape and feeling like I'd be able to do something in the race," he said. "I was a senior and had run that stage twice before, so I wanted to put the team into good position by placing near the top on the stage."

But.  Disaster struck just 29 second…

On May 7 Nihon Taiiku University announced the new lineup of its ekiden team coaching staff. Junichiro Yokoyama, 55, was named to the head coach's position, with recent graduate Shun Onoki, 24, named assistant coach.

Last September Nittai head coach Masaaki Watanabe was fired over violence and abuse of authority toward students. He was temporarily replaced as head coach by Koji Watanabe, 81, with former pole vault national record holder Fumiaki Kobayashi, 44, overseeing the ekiden program until a permanent replacement could be found.

Watanabe retired from his temporary position at the end of March, with Kobayashi continuing on as head coach of the overall track and field program.

source article:
https://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20190507/ath19050718210005-n1.html
translated and edited by Brett Larner

After giving World XC a miss, Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) got his outdoor season off to a good start with a 13:33.70 PB for 5th at California's Mt. SAC Relays. His teammate Yuki Nakamura ran only 14:34.97, while the U.S.-based Takeshi Okada (UC Berkeley) ran 9:02.75 for 12th in the 3000 mSC. Toyota Jidoshokki teammates Momoka Kawaguchi and Nao Yamamoto ran the women's 5000 m, Kawaguchi the faster of the two at 15:54.82.

Back home, Bernard Kibet (Kyudenko) ran an early season world-leading time of 27:36.24 to win the Hyogo Relay Carnival Grand Prix men's 10000 m, beating the 27:43.34 by Macharia Ndirangu (Aichi Seiko) a day earlier in Hyogo's Asics Challenge men's 10000 m, at the time also a world-leader. Kibet's teammate Shohei Otsuka was the fastest Japanese man of the weekend at 28:25.42 in the Asics Challenge race.

Women's Grand Prix 10000 m winner Rosemary Monica Wanjiru (Starts) came up short of a world-leading time but was just a few seconds off t…

Three main races make up this weekend's action, the Fukuoka International Marathon, Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler and Nittai University Time Trials. 2018 has been the best year in history for Japanese men's marathoning, and Fukuoka is sure to add to the numbers. There hasn't been a Japanese winner in Fukuoka since Tsuyoshi Ogata in 2004, and with ten recent sub-2:10 Japanese in the field including half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) and a few others with potential for high-level breakthroughs or longshot comebacks it wouldn't be surprising to see someone overcome the relatively weak international field.

The loss of Callum Hawkins (Great Britain) to injury takes some of the spark out of the international contingent, leaving a group of East Africans at their peak a few seasons back and now in range of any Japanese man looking to run at the 2:07 to 2:08 level. 2011 World Championships silver medalist Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) is the only one to stand out of …

It's a busy weekend ahead on the track and the roads at home and abroad. Saturday and Sunday's Nittai University Time Trials feature 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama (Asahi Kasei) in the 5000 m A-heat, where he hopes to run a season best time ahead of a return next month to the track where he set the national record at the Hachioji Long Distance Meet. Half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) is also entered in the 10000 m A-heat along with pretty much the entire Honda roster, in Shitara's case a tuneup for November's Ageo City Half Marathon.

There's also a fast 3000 m on deck Sunday at the Sumitomo Cup meet in Hyogo, where wunderkind Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) is going for time with pacing from Ethiopian Yeneblo Biyazen (Yachiyo Kogyo) and Kenyan John Maina (Fujitsu). One of Japan's top current men on the track, Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) is entered both there and in the Nittai 5000 m. Saturday's Heisei Kokusai University Time …

Monday marks the 30th anniversary of the start of university men's ekiden season, the first of the Big Three University Ekidens, the Izumo Ekiden. When you think Japanese university distance running the first thing that comes to mind is the Hakone Ekiden and its ten half marathonish stages. Izumo is short and sweet by comparison, with just six stages averaging 7.5 km apiece.

Aoyama Gakuin University has been the king of Hakone for four years straight and looks bound to hang on to its hegemony this season with all the tenacity of the white men of the Republican party. Last year Tokai University shook AGU up with a surprise win at Izumo, and this year it's bound to be a race between the two of them. Tokai has a slight edge, its ten-man entry roster featuring eight men with sub-14 minute bests for 5000 m and four sub-29 for 10000 m with AGU having seven and four respectively. Tokai's top pair of third-years Shota Onizuka and Hayato Seki have bests of 13:38.58 and 28:17.52 and…

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…

On Sept. 12 Nittai University announced that it will fire ekiden team head coach Masaaki Watanabe, 55, over the current power harassment scandal surrounding him. According to the university's public relations office, interviews by the alumni association with five current and one former team member reported multiple acts of violence by Watanabe including kicking athletes' legs and grabbing them by the chest.

The interviews also reported that Watanabe verbally abused and threatened student athletes and attacked their character. When runners fell off pace during workouts he was reported to have shouted, "Get the hell out of this university!" and, following the runners in a car, "I am going to f*cking run you over and kill you." Injured team members were also reported to have been subject to verbal humiliation by Watanabe, including, "Look at this f*cking cripple," and "You f*cking deserve it." Watanabe admitted the accusations but said tha…

Following revelations of power harassment in scandals involving the Nihon University football team coaching staff, the amateur boxing and gymnastics association and other bodies of authority across the Japanese sports world, on Sept. 7 the tabloid magazine Friday reported accusations of power harassment abuse by Masaaki Watanabe, 55, head coach of Hakone Ekiden powerhouse Nittai University. "I never want to see that guy's face again," the magazine quoted one former team member as saying. "As long as he's the head coach I can't run for this team. I really wanted to run Hakone one more time. If anyone would hire me I wanted to keep running for a corporate team. But instead I've come to hate running itself."

On Sept. 7 Nittai University responded to the abuse allegations against Watanabe, 55. According to the university's Public Relations department, the school is currently in the process of verifying the facts of the situation and plans to questi…

Following up the Ritsumeikan University women's 4x100 m meet record in the qualifying heats on the first day of the 87th National University Track and Field Championships, Nittai University did Ritsumeikan one better in day two's final. Nittai came on strong on the third leg with a solid run from third year Mae Hirosawa, but it was first-year anchor Miku Yamada who really impressed, pulling away to open almost half a second on Ritsumeikan in the best first-year relay anchor performance since future Olympic silver medalist Shota Iizuka's 2010 Kanto Regionals run. Yamada crossed the line in 44.59 to take 0.23 off Ritsumeikan's day-old meet record and 0.21 off the 12-year-old national university record.



Just a week after missing out on a medal at the Jakarta Asian Games, Meg Hemphill (Chuo Univ.) rounded out her collegiate heptathlon career by tying the meet record of 5550 set last year by Jakarta bronze medalist Yuki Yamasaki. Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Meijo Univ.) cont…

The Kanto Region Qualifier for this fall's 50th National University Men's Ekiden happened Saturday at Saitama's Urawa Komaba Stadium. The meet is made up of four heats of 10000 m with two runners from each competing school in each heat, the aggregate times of its eight runners determining a school's total time. The eight fastest programs go on to join other regional qualifiers and the six seeded teams already on the bill for November's Nationals. Considering that it's been since 2009 since a school from outside Kanto made the top ten at Nationals and 1999 since one made the seeded top six, what happens at the Kanto Region Qualifier has a lot of weight on what happens come ekiden season.

10th at Nationals last year, Hosei University's fortunes continued to climb as it took the top spot in 4:06:08.63 by less than 12 seconds over last year's 11-th placer Koku Gakuin University. Hosei 4th-year Yuta Bando led the way with a win in Heat Three in 30:40.75, si…

One of Japan's best long distance women is back on track. 5th in the women's 10000 m at the 2013 Moscow World Championships before declaring her retirement in January, 2014, Hitomi Niiya (30, Nike Tokyo TC) ran her first race in almost five years in the 3000 m at the June 9 Nittai University Time Trials meet. Post-race she said, "Yeah, it's been a while. Feels like I'm on my way back."

Describing herself as, "an athlete whose history is only in the past," Niiya ran 9:20.74 for 2nd in the 3000 m A-heat at Nittai. "That's a really half-assed time, huh," she said afterwards. Her bib number was 30, the same as her age now. "That pissed me off," she laughed. "I'm not happy about it." Sounding just like her old self there was no doubt that her sharp tongue, at least, hasn't lost its edge.

After running in the 2012 London Olympics, in November that year at the age of 25 Niiya was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis i…

Weekend Japanese track action kicked off at the Bryan Clay Invitational at California's Azusa Pacific University. Passing on a spring marathon in favor of a shot at the 10000 m national record this season, 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) ran 13:29.11 for 3rd in the 5000 m, the best time so far this year by a Japanese man.

Bigger news came in the men's 1500 m, where Shoma Funatsu (Chuo Univ.) capped a residency in Oregon with a 3:38.65 to move up to all-time Japanese #5 and collegiate #2. Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) also ran 3:41.51, with U.S.-based Yusuke Uchikoshi (Boise State Univ.) going 3:44.50, Funatsu's Chuo teammate Kazuyoshi Tamogami 3:45.84, another U.S. transplant Yasunari Kusu (AMAC) 3:46.98 and Hirotaka Nakatani (Uchida Chiryoin AC) 3:49.28.

At the nearby Mt. SAC RelaysYui Fukuda (Toyota Jidoshokki) won the women's 1500 m in 4:16.64. Mai Shoji (Denso) was slightly off her season best in the 5000 m in 15:56.99, while her teamm…

Along with the Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, this weekend's Nittai University Time Trials formed one of the key tuneups for the upcoming National Junior High School Ekiden, National High School Ekiden, New Year Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden championship races. Following up on his 1500 m and 3000 m junior high school national records in September and October, 9th-grader Kosuke Ishida (Asakawa J.H.S.) delivered the biggest news of the meet as he took 4 seconds off the 5000 m junior high school record with a new mark of 14:32.44 for 6th in #39 of Sunday's 45 heats of men's 5000 m.



In Heat 45, Muthoni Muiri (Soka University) added a quality 5000 m time to his 27:38.05 in last weekend's Hachioji Long Distance 10000 m A-heat, winning in a PB of 13:32.42. Former high school star Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko), who turned 19 this year, followed a successful corporate ekiden debut last month with a 13:38.79 PB for 6th, ranking him all-time #5 among Japanese juniors. 17-year-old Ren Tazawa (…

Ekiden season is in full swing, and across the country it was another busy weekend. Although there were four major ekidens nationwide, the best action came as runners from high school to the pros tuned up for the string of national championship ekiden races stretching from the end of this month to mid-January. At Kanagawa's Nittai University Time Trials meet, two-time steeplechase junior world champion Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) pipped 5000 m junior world championships bronze medalist William Malel (Honda) at the line in the 10000 m A-heat, winning in 27:22.73 to Malel's 27:22.79. Four other Kenyans including Ndiku's junior teammate Richard Kimunyan broke 28 minutes as their coaches eye who to run at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden.



Evans Yego of the tiny Sunbelx supermarket team won the more conservative 5000 m A-heat in 13:48.04, a race most notable for high schoolers Luka Musembi (Sendai Ikuei H.S.), Masato Suzuki (Suijo H.S.) and Reito Hanzawa (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.) …

Sunday's Saitama International Marathon leads a busy weekend of women's racing across the country. 4th in August's London World Championships marathon, last year's winner Flomena Cheyech Daniel (Kenya) returns to lead the tiny elite field of six internationals and two domestic women. Cheyech's strongest competition is Japan's Reia Iwade (Dome), the former under-20 marathon record holder who abruptly quit the Noritz corporate team earlier this year to go the solo route. Whether her new situation finds her ready to go remains to be seen. Close behind and maybe a more likely bet to stay with Daniel is Shitaye Habtegebrel (Ethiopia). Iwade, Kaori Yoshida (Team RxL) and any other Japanese women in the general elite field will have the chance to qualify for Japan's 2020 Olympic Trials race if they go under 2:29:00.

Starting 30 minutes after the elite women, Saitama also features a coed mass participation field. Local poster boy Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov&#…

Kanagawa's Tokai University outran two-time defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University to win the 2017 Izumo Ekiden, its first win at one of the Big Three university men's ekidens under head coach Hayashi Morozumi and Tokai's first Izumo title since 2007.

Formerly head coach at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. where he produced the fastest-ever all-Japanese high school team and standout Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) on a cross-country based training regimen, since taking over at Tokai in 2011 Morozumi has set about systematically developing the Tokai program into one with the greatest depth in Japanese university running. On paper AGU had a slight advantage over Tokai over the first half of Izumo's six stages, but with Tokai's second half runners, including its top two men Shota Onizuka and Hayato Seki, ranked at the top of their stages AGU needed a decent lead by halfway to stand a chance.

From the start it wasn't to be. In hot and sunny conditions Tokai&#…