japan running news

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20140807-OHT1T50169.html

translated by Brett Larner

Tossed about by the winds of a complex fate, Josai University's twin runners Ryota and Keita Kishima, both seniors, face their final year at the Hakone Ekiden together.  At the last Hakone this past January, the younger Keita was scheduled to run the anchor Tenth Stage but was replaced by the older Ryota on race morning.  In his debut at Japan's greatest race Ryota finished only 18th, while Keita still awaits what will be his first and last time setting foot on Hakone's hallowed ground.  This season the pair are aiming to make the team together, handing off the tasuki one to another and going for the top.

This year Hakone celebrated its 90th running.  Course record holder Toyo University's twins Yuta Shitara (now Team Honda) and Keita Shitara (now Team Konica Minolta) won the Third and Fifth Stages, playing crucial roles in guaranteeing Toyo the overall win.  While the Shitara twins ba…

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nnp/f_chikugo/article/101635

translated by Brett Larner
photo by rikujolove

Omuta H.S. second-year Shota Onizuka, 16, is bound for Eugene, Oregon in the U.S.A. where he will compete in the July 22-27 World Junior Championships.  The meet features outstanding under-20 competitors from around the world including 43 from Japan selected from among the country's best high school and university athletes.

Onizuka is the first-ever Omuta H.S. student to be picked for the national team.  Last year he was Omuta's anchor in its runner-up finish at the National High School Ekiden Championships.  On the track he was also 2nd in a tight race at the National High School Championships, but the disappointment of losing by a margin of only one second served as motivation for his training and at a time trial meet this May he ran 13:58.43, the fastest time so far this year by a Japanese high schooler [above photo].

Onizuka leaves Japan on July 17 and will run the 5000 …

by Brett Larner

Two weeks after finishing 4th and 6th in 1:02:44 and 1:02:58 at the Great North Run half marathon, London Olympian Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) and the Koichi Morishita-coached Ryuji Watanabe (Team Toyota Kyushu) scored wins on the roads at opposite ends of Japan.

Running at Hokkaido's Hakodate Half Marathon against a strong domestic field including perennial rival Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) who was 8th at the Great North Run, Fujiwara bided his time in hot conditions before attacking 2008 World Half Marathon 5th-placer Yusei Nakao and Taiga Ito of Suzuki Hamamatsu AC with 1.5 km to go and taking the win in 1:04:19.  "It was quite hot out there, so it ended up being a slow day," Fujiwara told JRN post-race.  After not having raced domestically since last December, though, he added, "Everyone made it a great race and I'm really happy to have gotten the win."  It was only the third road race victory of Fujiwara's career.

Kawa…

by Brett Larner

Having been runner-up in the Fukuoka Prefecture Road Race Championships 10-miler twice, the popular Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) finally took the win in the 2012 edition, Sept. 30 in Omuta, Fukuoka. Despite tough conditions at the tail end of the passing typhoon that stuck Japan over the weekend, Imai outpaced teammates Ryuji Watanabe and Yuki Oshikawa over the latter stages of the race to win in 47:53, the second-fastest known time in the Championships' 66-year history behind only Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru's 46:18 course record from 2005 and the first Japanese man to break 48 minutes on the challenging Omuta course since 2003. As his best performance since his 2:10:32 PB at last year's Fukuoka International Marathon, Imai's run bodes well for the upcoming season and his bid to make the Moscow World Championships marathon team after missing out on London.

66th Fukuoka Prefecture Road Race Championships
Omuta, Fukuoka, 9/…