japan running news

The Osaka team took its 5th national title Sunday at the 9-stage, 42.195 km National Women's Ekiden in Kyoto over Hyogo and Nagano . Nagano's Haruna Tabata opened a 5-second lead on the 6.0 km First Stage, the first time a high schooler had won the opening leg since Ririka Hironaka in 2019. With that momentum Nagano held the lead through the first 6 stages. But a change came on the 4.0 km Seventh Stage. Starting 19 seconds back in 3rd, Osaka's Rio Kawamura put in a brilliant run to overtake both Hyogo and Nagano, handing off with a 16-second lead by the end of the stage. Hyogo went past Osaka on the 3.0 km Eighth Stage to take the top position for the first time, but with only a 5-second gap at the start of the 10.0 km Ninth Stage it came down to a battle between Hyogo anchor Rio Einaga and Osaka's Ayu Henmi . After catching up Henmi stayed locked to Einaga throughout the stage before kicking just past 1 km to go and running away to break the finish line tape in ...

Host team Kyoto was back on top at Sunday's National Women's Ekiden , taking the lead on the 2nd of the 42.195 km race's 9 legs and rolling on to win its 19th national title in the event's 43-year history in 2:15:26 with 4 individual stage wins. Kyoto's lead runner Kokoro Nakachi was only 3 seconds behind First Stage winner Erika Tanoura of Chiba , and it didn't take much for its next runner Yua Sato to move into the top spot by 3 seconds. That lead grew to 50 seconds at the end of the Fifth Stage before a stage-winning run from Nagano 's Nami Kawakami on the Sixth Stage cut it back to 33 seconds. But driven by stage wins from 7th runner Momoka Onishi and anchor Kaede Kawamura , from there to the end Kyoto pulled away to its final margin of victory of 2:26. Nagano and Osaka were locked in a duel for 2nd for most of the way, but with only 3 km to go on the 10.0 km anchor stage Fukuoka and early leader Chiba caught up to make it a four-way race. Nagano...

The top Japanese woman in the marathon at last summer's Oregon World Championships, Mizuki Matsuda went from 3rd to 1st on the anchor stage to give the Osaka team its fourth national title Sunday at the National Women's Ekiden in Kyoto. Osaka was 4th after the 6.0 km 1st leg and was never worse that than. 2nd runner Saya Nakajima put them in the lead, where they stayed for the next five of the 42.195 km race's nine stages except for a brief drop back to 4th when its fourth runner Chihiro Sato struggled. Fifth runner Yua Tsukamoto turned it back around, but with only a 1-second lead at the start of her stage junior high schooler Rio Kawamura couldn't hold off Fukuoka 's Shiina Sugahara and Tokyo 's Yuna Oki and dropped to 3rd. Matsuda started only 5 seconds out of 1st and had no trouble overtaking Tokyo anchor Yuri Karasawa and Fukuoka's Wakana Itsuki to go back out front. Matsuda turned in the fastest run on the 10.0 km anchor stage, 31:22, to br...

Updated to include DNS announced 6/15 Entry lists are out for the June 24-27 National Championships in Osaka. It's been a season that has seen the JAAF gaming the system with multiple high-scoring meets with little to no international competition, boosting multiple Japanese athletes into the quotas on points in events where Japan has historically had only one athlete every few Olympics. Coming in just under the deadline for Olympic qualification, Nationals are the last chance for two dozen of those athletes to score enough points to scrape by onto the home soil Olympic team.  Some events have already been held separately, but below are entry list highlights for the events that will happen in Osaka. Times listed are the athlete's best time within the Nationals qualifying period. Olympic standards are listed in parentheses after the event name. Athletes in italics are currently inside or within 5 points of the quote without having hit the Olympic qualifying standard in their eve...

At a press conference in Osaka on Dec. 22 the Kansai Region University Athletics Association announced the launch of the new National Mixed Gender University Invitational Ekiden Feb. 21 on a road loop course in Osaka's Nagai Park. Run on a 3 km loop, the course will consist of six stages, 3 km, 2 km, 4 km, 3 km, 2 km and 5 km, totaling 20 km, with three men and three women from making up each school's team. 19 universities have committed to taking part. From the Kansai region, participating teams are Osaka Gakuin University, Osaka Taiiku University, Kansai University, Kansai Gaikokugo University, Kwansei Gakuin University, Kyoto Sangyo University, Kobe University, Kobe Gakuin University, Bukkyo University, Ritsumeikan University, and a Kansai Region University Select Team. From the Kanto region, Juntendo University, Josai University, Takushoku University, Chuo University, Tsukuba University, Tokai University, Toyo University and Nittai University are scheduled to run. Four nat...

In the midst of rapidly rising new coronavirus infection numbers, Osaka held the 88th edition of its prefectural track and field championships at the massive Nagai Stadium over Thursday and Friday's national holidays. Not usually a big draw for high-level talent, the lack of racing opportunities these days meant more big names than usual, including 2017 and 2019 World Championships men's 4x100 m bronze medalist Shuhei Tada (Sumitomo Denko), who won the 100 m final in 10.46 (-0.5), and women's discus throw national record holder Nanaka Kori (Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ.), who dropped one of ten new meet records at the meet, six by women and four by men. A breakdown of the new records: Seika Aoyama (Osaka Seikei AC) ran the second-fastest 400 m time ever by a Japanese woman, 52.38, to win her qualifying heat in meet record time, going on to win the final in 54.11. Yuzu Nishide (Kansai Gaikokugo Univ.) took almost 15 seconds off the women's 3000 m steeplechase meet r...

We are pleased to announce that the date and venue of the long distance component of the 104th National Track and Field Championships, postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, have been finalized. Date : Friday, Dec. 4, 2020 Location : Yanmar Stadium Nagai, Osaka Events : 5000 m, 10000 m, 3000 m steeplechase This year is the only time the 5000 m and 3000 m steeplechase will be held on the same date as the 10000 m. Taking into consideration World Athletics' determination to exclude performances until the end of November from both the world rankings and 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualification, the JAAF made the decision to stage all three events on the original rescheduled date for the 10000 m, Dec. 4. Preparations for the National Championships will go ahead while monitoring the status of the coronavirus situation. Other events at the National Championships are planned for Oct. 1-3 in Niigata. Please be aware that there is still a possibility the Championships will be c...

On Apr. 26 it was announced that this year's National High School Championships have been canceled. Isao Yasuda , head coach of two-time National High School Ekiden champion Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S., can't how hard the situation has thrown him for a loop. "I've never experienced something like this before," he said. "As a coach, what is the right advice to give my students?" Yasuda said that while the team hasn't been able to do anything together while schools have been shut down for the last few weeks, its athletes have each been training on their own. "The National High School Ekiden is in December and that's one of our biggest goals, especially for our third-years," he said. "All we can do is believe that the race is going to be held." The city of Osaka has announced that it will extend its closure of all public schools until May 10. source articles: https://www.mbs.jp/news/sp/kansainews/20200427/GE00032765.s...

At the Kinki Region High School Track and Field Championships Saturday in Osaka’s Nagai Stadium, 17-year-old Ryuji Miura of Rakunan H.S. took down one of the oldest records in Japanese athletics, breaking the 30-year-old 3000 m steeplechase high school record by 5 seconds to win in 8:39.49. Running in heavy rain after clocking the fastest time in the qualifying rounds , Miura went straight to the front in the final and was on his own within 200 m. From the start the record was in reach as he went through 1000 m in 2:49 and 2000 m in 5:43, building up a lead of about 200 m over the rest of the field. Miura’s final time of 8:39.49 was the fastest in the world this year by an U18 athlete and 6th-best among U20 men, a new Japanese U18 record and all-time #2 for the U20 category. He came short of the outright Japanese high school record of 8:19.21 held by future marathon great Daniel Njenga , but took 5 seconds off the Japanese citizen high school record of 8:44.77 set back in 1989 ...

by Brett Larner The Osaka Marathon is something of an oddity.  The progeny of the post-Tokyo Marathon mass participation running boom, in its fifth running last year Osaka had nearly 30,000 finishers to rank as the 7th-largest marathon worldwide in 2015 .  But along with the United States' Marine Corps Marathon it was one of only two races in the top ten without an IAAF label, an indication that the JAAF has not positioned it as part of Japan's crowded elite race calendar.  And yet, Osaka typically has an invited elite field good enough for at least IAAF bronze medal status if it wanted it, good enough that it has yet to see a Japanese winner male or female.  There's something of an indication there of the tension between tradition and modernity in today's Japanese distance running world, neither purely elite nor purely mass participation. Whatever the organizers' intentions, Sunday's race features good fields on both the men's and women's sides wit...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20150111-OHT1T50282.html translated by Brett Larner Rising stars in the women's long distance world, the Takamatsu sisters powered Osaka to its first National Women's Ekiden win in three years on Jan. 11 in Kyoto.  Their father a Kenyan, Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (3rd year, Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin J.H.S.) ran the fastest time on the 3.0 km Third Stage to pass five people and put Osaka in 2nd before handing off to older sister Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu (2nd year, Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) who, even though losing ground, kept the team in contention with the leaders.  Both played important roles in Osaka winning over defending champion Kyoto by 1 second. Just before the finish and Osaka's come-from-behind win both Takamatsu sisters were all smiles.  Having repeated her stage win from last year, Tomomi said, "I had a lot of strong competition on the Third Stage so I'm really happy to win it again."  Getting a shout of...

by Brett Larner video highlights courtesy of race broadcaster NHK 2012 National Women's Ekiden champion Osaka returned with a vengeance, running down defending champion Kyoto on the anchor stage to win the 2015 national title by one second with fast-closing rivals Hyogo and Aichi coming in within the next two seconds. The National Women's Ekiden features teams from all 47 of Japan's prefectures, each team made up of its territory's best J.H.S., H.S., university and pro runners.  Kyoto got off to a rough start when its opening runner Nanako Kanno , 2nd on the 6.0 km First Stage last year, tripped and fell mid-stage, handing off in 10th 25 seconds behind leader Yuka Ando of Shizuoka .  Osaka was even rockier, last year's First Stage winner Natsuki Omori 8 seconds behind Kanno in 15th.  Undefeated in nearly a year, high schooler Azusa Sumi just missed the course record on the 4.0 km Second Stage to move the Aichi team into 1st by 3 seconds over Kagoshi...

by Brett Larner Ekiden season never really ends, but championship season hits its peak this weekend and next with the Jan. 11 National Women's Ekiden in Kyoto and Jan. 18 National Men's Ekiden in Hiroshima.  Both races feature teams from each of Japan's 47 prefectures, made up of the best pro, collegiate, high school and junior high school runners from each region, and both are broadcast live and commercial-free nationwide by NHK.  Follow @JRNLive for live coverage of both starting at 12:30 each day. At the 33rd running of the National Women's Ekiden defending champion Kyoto comes in with seven wins in the last ten years and home ground advantage on the nine-stage, 42.195 km course .  Its team is missing its magic ingredient, last year's Fourth Stage course record setter Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu), but features veteran Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) and 2011 Tokyo Marathon winner Noriko Higuchi (Team Wacoal) along with 2014 National University Ekiden winner ...

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http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/flash/KFullFlash20070702048.html translated by Brett Larner Wataru Okutani, the top member of Japan`s World Championships Marathon team, has been forced to withdraw from the team due to complications arising from an appendectomy. Okutani was the top Japanese finisher and 4th overall at last year`s Fukuoka International Marathon in a PB time of 2:08:49. He was also the third scoring member of Japan`s gold medal-winning team at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. Okutani has been replaced by alternate Tomoyuki Sato who was the top Japanese finisher and 2nd overall in this year`s Tokyo Marathon where he ran 2:11:22. Sato also ran Fukuoka, finishing as 5th Japanese and 10th overall in 2:12:29.