japan running news

The team rosters for the 22 teams entered in the Nov. 25 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships were announced on Nov. 7. The field includes last year's top 8 plus the teams who placed in the top 14 at the Oct. 21 qualifying race. Among the each team's 10 entrants are some of the country's best distance runners.

Last year's national champion Panasonic features 2018 Jakarta Asian Games national team member Yuka Hori. Going for its second national title ever, 2016 winner Japan Post will field 2018 Hokkaido Marathon winner Ayuko Suzuki and 2018 Nagoya Women's Marathon 3rd-placer Hanami Sekine. In quest of its first national-level win, 2017 runner-up Daihatsu counts 2018 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Mizuki Matsuda among its lineup.
38th National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships FieldSendai, Miyagi, 11/25/18

Panasonic
Daihatsu
Japan Post
Daiichi Seimei
Tenmaya
Yamada Denki
Shiseido
Toyota Jidoshokki
Wacoal
Kyocera
Kyudenko
Seki…

A statement by Koichiro Nishikawa, chairperson of the Japan Industrial Track and Field Association

At the 37th National Corporate Women's Ekiden organized by the Japan Industrial Track and Field Association (JITA), a prohibited substance was detected in a sample taken from Moeno Nakamura, at the time a member of the Universal Entertainment team, in an in-competition drug test. After receiving notification of this result, in accordance with the recommendations of the Japan Anti-Doping Agency disciplinary panel, Nakamura was suspended for one year and three months beginning Nov. 26, 2017.

As the JITA not only do we hold anti-doping education sessions for athletes and coaches in partnership with the Japan Association of Athletics Federations and clearly specify that our events must be carried out in strict accordance with anti-doping regulations, but as the JITA chairperson I have personally given strong emphasis to the importance of "Clean Sport." In spite of these effort…

2012 national champions Universal Entertainment returned to the top Sunday in Sendai, running down breakaway leader Panasonic late in the race to win the 2017 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships.

Panasonic was an unexpected highlight, winning the first three stages and building a 42-second lead by the start of the 3.6 km Fourth Stage, the race's shortest leg. There Panasonic's Chiaki Tobe struggled, losing ground to Universal Entertainment, defending national champ Japan Post, and Shiseido, who drew within 10 seconds.

On the 10.0 km Fifth Stage Universal's Moeno Nakamura, a member of its 2012 national champion squad, took her time closing on Panasonic's Shiori Morita, not fully closing the gap until exactly halfway through the stage and then pushing ahead to open a 12-second lead of her own. Behind her, marathon university national record holder Sairi Maeda of the Daihatsu team delivered what was no doubt the run of the day, making a superb comeback fr…

Dodging a bullet as an approaching typhoon that spelled potential cancellation shifted to the east, the Princess Ekiden, the qualifying race for second-tier teams for next month's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships, went off Sunday afternoon in Fukuoka. The top 14 of the 29 teams in the field would qualify to join the seeded first-tier teams at Nationals in the third year of the event's current format shift from a series of regional qualifiers.

12th in 2015 and 4th last year, Panasonic took over the lead on the 3.6 km Second Stage and tried to run away with it, but behind them Toyota Jidoshokki grew closer and closer after a weak opening stage. With just one second separating them at the final exchange it was going to be close, but although Panasonic anchor Sakiko Naito was strong, covering the 6.695 km Sixth Stage in 21:43, Toyota Jidoshokki's Misaki Hayashida went one better, dropping a course record 21:35 to run Naito down and put Toyota Jidoshokki acr…

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20161216/ath16121617340001-n1.html

translated by Brett Larner

The Shiseido corporate women's team announced on Dec. 16 that Manabu Kawagoe, 54, will return to his former position as head coach in January next year.  "I want to bring the team together to target winning the National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships and to inspire women everywhere through their running," Kawagoe commented.

Currently leading the Edion corporate women's team, Kawagoe was head coach of Shiseido for three years beginning in 2004.  A native of Kagoshima, in 2007 he resigned from Shiseido to found the club team Second Wind AC.  In 2011 he moved again to become head coach at Edion.  Kawagoe will leave Edion to return to Shiseido.  In March this year Shiseido head coach Toshitaka Anyoji resigned to take over the top position at the Panasonic corporate women's team.  Shiseido assistant coach Masahiro Inoguchi has been serving as interim team leader …

by Brett Larner

Two important women-only ekidens celebrate their 30th anniversaries this weekend.  In eastern Japan, Fukushima's East Japan Women's Ekiden features a scaled-down version of January's National Women's Ekiden, with teams made up of pro, collegiate, high school and junior high school athletes representing each of the 18 prefectures in the region.  Defending champion Chiba fields a very different lineup from last year's winning team led by one of Japan's current best track runners Riko Matsuzaki (Team Sekisui Kagaku).  Gunma, featuring last weekend's East Japan Corporate Women's Ekiden anchor stage course record setter Yuika Mori and Yamada Denki corporate teammate Shiho Takechi, Saitama and Shizuoka look to be Chiba's main competition.  The East Japan Women's Ekiden will be broadcast live starting at noon on Nov. 9.

Further west in Fukui, the Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden delivers an interesting format pitting top corporate teams agains…

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/kanagawa/news/20140714-OYTNT50555.html

translated by Brett Larner

Yokohama natives and graduates of the city's Eda H.S. where they made a major impact on the distance events at last year's National High School Track and Field Championships, 18-year-old identical twin sisters Kaori and Shiori Morita joined the Yokohama-residing Panasonic women's corporate team this spring with the shared dream of making the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  While working office jobs in the same division at Panasonic, the pair are pouring their sweat and tears into their training, preparing themselves with a solid base.

The sisters began to run seriously their first year of junior high school and, both showing exceptional coordination and ability, together qualified for the 800 m and 1500 m at Nationals just a year later.  At home they studied running form by trying to copy what they saw in videos, devoting themselves more and more to the world of competition.

At Eda H.S. t…

http://www.townnews.co.jp/0104/2012/05/31/146074.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

At the May 13 Sendai International Half Marathon, Team Panasonic's Asami Kato (21) made news when she won in a PB of 1:11:21.  A week later her teammate Mika Yoshikawa (27) convincingly won the 5000 m at the East Japan Corporate Track & Field Championships.  We talked to these two women who represent the 2011 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships runner-up Panasonic's talented group based in the Saedocho of Yokohama.

Set on the Olympics

Yoshikawa won five-straight national 1500 m titles.  Switching her focus to the 5000 m and 10000 m last year, she is the Panasonic team's star runner.  Winning the 54th East Japan Corporate Track & Field Championships women's 5000 m on May 20 in a time of 15:33.48, she was awarded the meet's fighting spirit award.

"I was focused on placing well to help me visualize Nationals in June," she says, looking back on th…

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20080201-OHT1T00015.htm

translated by Brett Larner

Akane Taira (25, Team Panasonic) is a runner with plans to be in Beijing this summer. She will be running her debut marathon on March 9 at the Nagoya International Women's Marathon against world-class athletes such as Naoko Takahashi (Team Phiten) and Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC), a race which will be her chance to join the world stage. "The marathon is something I can't imagine. I have no idea what kind of time I am capable of," says Taira. To help get an idea of her potential she has chosen the Ome Marathon 30 km road race as a step toward her marathon debut.

Taira's first glimpse of 'the world' came four years ago, the same year as the Athens Olympics. In April of that year she ran on the Japanese national team at the Beijing International Women's Ekiden, her first overseas race. Taira ran 33:47 for the 10 km 3rd stage, beating the Chinese team's run…

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20080124-OHT1T00032.htm

translated by Brett Larner

On Jan. 23 the organizing committee of the Ome Marathon* announced the elite field for this year's 42nd running on Feb. 3. Headlining the men's 30 km race is Japanese marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka (37, Team Kanebo). In the women's race, last year's World Road Running Championships competitor Akane Taira (25, Team Panasonic) will take part. The guest starter for the 30 km will be course record holder Toshihiko Seko (51, Team S&B). 20000 people entered this year's race.

Having failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics with a disappointing 10th place finish at December's Fukuoka International Marathon, Takaoka will be trying to launch a comeback. Before running a spring marathon, either in Japan or overseas, Takaoka decided to tackle Ome. "If I can win here it will give me renewed strength and confidence," Takaoka told reporters. He was sch…