japan running news

by Brett Larner

Marathons are often surprisingly unpredictable, but while there were a couple of big surprises at the 33rd edition of the Osaka International Women's Marathon, what was most surprising was how predictable three of the big results were.

One surprise was how aggressively Poland's Karolina Jarzynska took the race out.  With a best of just 2:26:45, Jarzynska pushed the first half through in 1:11:30 and by 30 km had a lead of 12 seconds as she clocked a 1:42:22 split.  Not too surprisingly, she tied up in the final 12 km and dropped to 3rd but was rewarded for taking her shot with a new PB of 2:26:31, just short of a new national record.

Two of the predictable elements came from the two women who ran her down.  For the third time, Ukrainian national record holder and defending champion Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko rocked the Osaka course with the fastest second half and final 2.195 km in the field to take her second Osaka win, coming from 42 seconds behind at halfway to w…

by Brett Larner

Sunday's Osaka International Women's Marathon features an interesting showdown between the race's last three winners, defending champion Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko (Ukraine), all-time Japanese #9 Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), and, in her final race before retiring from the jitsugyodan corporate system, Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren). Gamera-Shmyrko won last year's Osaka over future World Championships bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) in a PB 2:23:58 with the kind of miraculously fast second half she and other Eastern European women have produced in recent years, especially at Japanese marathons.  Since then she was a DNF at November's New York City Marathon, where Shigetomo was 11th in 2:31:54.  Shigetomo has never run well in a marathon since her 2:23:23 win at Osaka in 2012, but she has been on top of her game this ekiden season most recently with a 31:50 win on the Jan. 12 National Women's Ekiden's 10 km anchor stage.  Akaba, whose…

https://twitter.com/a_yamako/status/424296422305849344/photo/1

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The organizers of the 58th Kumanichi 30 km and 3rd Kumamoto-jo Marathon on Feb. 16 announced the 20 members of its 2014 elite field on Feb. 2.  Previously-announced Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), has elected to run the marathon division rather than defend his course record win last year in the 30 km division, but the 30 km will focus on university athletes from the popular Hakone Ekiden, making it one of the freshest young fields in years.  From Hakone winner Toyo University come ace Yuma Hattori who took 3rd on Hakone's Second Stage, its most competitive, and Eighth Stage winner Ryu Takaku. Hakone runner-up Komazawa University sends two of its best men, team captain Shinobu Kubota and 2013 National University Half Marathon champion Shogo Nakamura.  3rd-place Nittai University sends top man Takumi Honda.  2012 National University Half Marathon winner Toshikatsu Ebina is a…

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/fourth-japanese-marathon-victory-for-mayorova

http://running.competitor.com/2013/09/news/henry-rutto-wins-rock-n-roll-virginia-beach_82513

Note: The article misspells the name of runner-up Yuka Hakoyama (Team Wacoal), while Competitor Magazine's tweeted link to the article misspells the name of winner Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal).  3rd-placer Chihiro Takato (Team Wacoal) is correctly identified. One out of three ain't bad.

by Brett Larner

2011 World Cross Country silver medalist Paul Tanui (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) delivered the biggest run of a weekend of regional corporate track and field championships, setting a meet record at the Kyushu region championships 10000 m in a world-leading 27:21.50. His teammate Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) likewise brought her best with a meet record 15:17.47 in the women's 5000 m.  Moscow World Championships marathon team members Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) and Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) both ran well behind Tanui to go sub-29, Nakamoto for only the second time in his career.

Less than an hour after Tanui's world leading run, London Olympics 10000 m 5th-place Bedan Karoki (Kenya/DeNA RC) flashed the flamboyant colors of the new DeNA uniform to win the East Japan region 10000 m in 27:30.65, the fastest time in the world this year behind Tanui.  Ethiopian Asmeraw Mengistu (Team Honda), hired as the Honda team's B-African behind 2011 world c…

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20121218/ath12121816390000-n1.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Dec. 18 the organizing committee of the Jan. 27 Osaka International Women's Marathon announced the domestic and international elite fields for next year's Moscow World Championships selection race edition. Osaka will be an historic showdown between Japan's #1 long distance woman Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal), marathon national record holder and Athens Olympics marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex), and 10000 m national record and former marathon national record holder Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo). Others in the field include three-time World Championships team member Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz), Beijing Olympian Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya), 2011 Tokyo Marathon winner Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) and London Olympics marathon 5th-place finisher Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko (Ukraine).

Noguchi was scheduled to run the 2012 Osaka International Women&…

http://www.sanyo.oni.co.jp/news_s/news/d/2012120123222333/

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The organizers of the 31st Sanyo Ladies Road Race in Okayama have finalized the elite field for the Dec. 23 race.  130 women will line up in the Yuko Arimori Cup Half Marathon division, with 234 in the Kinue Hitomi Cup 10 km division, making for a combined field of 364 that almost ties last year's record number of entries, 366.

2011 Daegu World Championships marathon 5th-place finisher Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) and other world-class competitors will grace the streets of Okayama with their running.  Having set the half marathon course record of 1:09:16 last year, it looks as though Akaba will again be the one dictating the terms of competition.  2011 Tokyo Marathon winner Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) should be her major rival.  Local Team Tenmaya will supply Beijing Olympics marathoner Yurika Nakamura, team captain Yuka Izumi and first-year pro Nanami Matsuura.  Also on the entry list …

http://www.wacoal.jp/cgi-bin/sports/detail.cgi?idx=407

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Nov. 11, 2011 Tokyo Marathon winner Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) won the Great Eastern Women's Run half marathon in Singapore, running 1:19:35.  After the race Higuchi commented, "It was hot!  My time isn't really anything to be proud of, but I learned a lot running in this kind of tactical race.  The experience will help me in my future races."

by Brett Larner

The Japanese selection races for the country's marathon teams for the London Olympics wrap up this Sunday with the new-and-improved Nagoya Women's Marathon.  Modernizing from a small, elite-only race to the world's largest women-only mass participation field of 15000 and an accompanying co-ed half-marathon, Nagoya retains its elite history with what may be the closest thing the country has seen to a straight-up single-race Olympic trial.  Fifteen elite Japanese women will be going for what are generally believed to be the two remaining Olympic team places, at least eight of them with a realistic chance of making the team.  Fuji TV will be broadcasting the race live nationwide starting at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, Mar. 11, and overseas viewers should be able to watch online for free via the lo-res splendor of Keyhole TV.  Twitter coverage via @JRNLive will unfortunately not be available for this race.

Races need an international field of at least five different n…

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20120124-OYT1T00932.htm?from=main6
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/120124/spg1201241730001-n1.htm

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The Tokyo Marathon Foundation announced on Feb. 24 that a doping test performed at the Feb. 27, 2011 Tokyo Marathon on women's winner Tatyana Aryasova of Russia returned positive for HES (hydroxyethyl starch), a banned substance typically used to conceal use of other banned performance-enhancing substances.  As a result of the positive test Aryasova has been stripped of her 2011 title.  Runner-up Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) has been elevated to the winner's place and will be paid the difference in prize money from her previous finishing position.

According to the Japan Anti-Doping Agency, HES is used to conceal blood doping carried out to improve aerobic performance.  This is the first time the substance has been detected at a race within Japan, but the number of athletes caught using it in overseas cyclin…

by Brett Larner

This year's Hokkaido Marathon is set for Sunday, Aug. 28, directly opposite the Daegu World Championships.  With a 12:10 start time Hokkaido is always hot and has some of the most strategic racing on the Japanese calendar.  The men's race features both defending champion Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) and 2009 winner Daniel Njenga (Kenya/Team Yakult) along with sub-2:12 domestic men Seiji Kobayashi (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki), Masaya Shimizu (Team Asahi Kasei) and Masashi Hayashi (Team Yakult).  Njui is in good shape to defend his title after his second-straight win at last month's Sapporo International Half Marathon.  A number of competitive men are also entered in the general division, the best among these being 2:11:44 marathoner Kenichiro Setoguchi (Team Asahi Kasei) and Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu), Samuel Wanjiru's main training partner during Wanjiru's pro years in Japan.

The women's race likewise features the 2010 and 2009 …

http://www.47news.jp/CN/201107/CN2011072401000293.html
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2011/07/25/kiji/K20110725001275810.html
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/110724/spg1107241552001-n1.htm
http://gazoo.com/g-blog/tmcdistancerunning/351461/Article.aspx
http://www.plus-blog.sportsnavi.com/kmanabu/article/474

translated and edited by Brett Larner

The Shibetsu Half Marathon took place July 24 in Shibetsu, Hokkaido.  With starting temperatures of 25 degrees and dry, sunny conditions Norihiro Nomiya (Team Toyota) won the men's race in 1:05:09 and Yoko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) the women's race in 1:13:06.  Daegu World Championships marathon team members Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) and Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) also ran as part of their tune-up for the World Championships, Kawauchi placing 4th in the men's race in 1:06:24 and Ito 7th in the women's race in 1:16:15.

The women's race included the last three champions.  Winner Miyauchi broke away from all competition…

2011 Asian Marathon Championships
held at Pattaya International Marathon, Thailand, 7/17/11
Men
Lawrence Kiptoo Saina (Kenya) - 2:21:06
1. Mohamed Abdou Bakheet (Qatar) - 2:23:07
2. Teruto Ozaki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 2:23:09
Peter Keter (Kenya) - 2:23:34
Joseph Mwangi (Kenya) - 2:24:52
3. Kenji Takeuchi (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 2:25:33

Women
Elizabeth Chemweno (Kenya) - 2:24:09
1. Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) - 2:44:10
2. Jiang Xiaoli (China) - 2:52:24
3. Pham Thi Binh (Vietnam) - 2:53:09
4. Natthaya Thanaronnawat (Thailand) - 2:53:35
5. Fan Sui Ping (Hong Kong) - 3:02:57

Excellent quotes from 2011 Tokyo Marathon winners Hailu Mekonnen and Tatiana Aryasova along with top Japanese finishers Yuki Kawauchi and Noriko Higuchi, thanks to Ken Nakamura:

http://www.all-athletics.com/en-us/2011-02-28/summary-post-race-press-conference-tokyo-marathon

This translated article also has some good quotes from Kawauchi and one priceless piece of info about his World Championships plans:

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/sports/news/20110228p2a00m0na016000c.html

by Brett Larner

Update: Reader vilagoiberia just sent me a link to this video of the last 6.5 km of Kawauchi's run.



Dreams come true - Yuki Kawauchi

Losing its biggest stories one by one with the withdrawal of world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), defending champion Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda), debuting Kenyan star Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and debuting former university Hakone Ekiden star Hideaki Date (Team Chugoku Denryoku), in its fifth edition the Tokyo Marathon got something else entirely.

With the day dawning with ideal conditions, 7 degrees, light partial cloud cover and gentle winds, everyone knew the race would be fast. 19 year old pacer Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Team S&B), who ran a course record 27:52 a day earlier in the senior men's 10k at the Fukuoka International XC Meet, took the race out slightly ahead of schedule, splitting 14:56 for the downhill first 5 km and 14:59 for the next. 15 km went by in 44:49, 20 km in 59:53 and halfway in 1…