japan running news

The IAAF World Relays in Yokohama were the weekend's main track action, but the first round of regional corporate championships and a few other meets brought distance action across the country.

The women's 10000 m was the highlight at the Kansai Region Corporate Championships, with Wacoal teammates Yuka Ando and Mao Ichiyama recovering from decent runs at the London Marathon last month to go 1st and 5th, Ando the fastest in 32:43.18. Their fellow MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials qualifier Madoka Nakano (Noritz) was 2nd in 32:50.18, doubling the next day in the 5000 m where she was 5th in 16:07.24. Former Hakone Ekiden rivals and now teammates at NTT Nishi Nihon, Kenyans Patrick Wambui and Dominic Nyairo went 1-2 in the men's 10000 m in 28:41.84 and 28:43.86. Ryota Motegi (Sumitomo Denko) just missed the meet record in the men's 1500 m, winning in 3:44.12.

At the Chubu Region Corporate Championships Kenyans Rodgers Chumo Kwemoi (Aisan Kogyo) and Macharia Ndirangu …

It’s one of the sad truths of Japanese distance running that you never see them at their absolute best unless you get to see the New Year or Hakone Ekidens. That was in full effect today on Day One of the 95th Hakone Ekiden, with record-breaking runs on three of the day’s five stages and just a few seconds off a record on a fourth.

Aoyama Gakuin University came to this year’s race having transformed itself from a lovable underdog to an unbreakable four-straight champion of Japan’s most prestigious race. Last year Toyo University, the last team to win pre-AGU, gave them hell over the first day, beating them to finish on the shores of Lake Ashi only to fall victim to AGU’s superior depth on the return trip to Tokyo the next morning. This time it was all about the two of them again.

Toyo 2nd-year Kazuya Nishiyama, winner of the 21.3 km First Stage last year, took it out hard this time for a few hundred meters, just enough time for disaster. 30 seconds into the race Daito Bunka University…

It's yet another busy mid-ekiden season weekend, but there's no question what its biggest race is. In a country packed with all of the world's deepest half marathons the Ageo City Half Marathon is the deepest of them all, universities targeting the legendary Hakone Ekiden transforming what would otherwise be an ordinary country town road race into something really special as each team's runner try to convince their coaches they belong on the Hakone A-squad.

Since 2011 the New York Road Runners have thrown fuel on the fire by inviting the top two Japanese collegiate finishers to March's United Airlines NYC Half in a program conceived and coordinated by JRN. The first runner to earn an invite was Toyo University second-year Yuta Shitara, who went over and ran what was then the fastest time ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil, 1:01:48, in his international road racing debut. Now the half marathon national record holder and a corporate leaguer for the Honda team, Shit…

Favorites Aoyama Gakuin University and Tokai University made it a two-team race at the 50th edition of the National University Men's Ekiden in Sunday in Nagoya, with Tokai breaking away in the early going only to be run down near the race's end.

With a new course configuration that shortened the early stages and lengthened the seventh of its eight stages, Nationals this year put an emphasis on 10000 m speed early and half marathon stamina late. AGU's Hakone downhill specialist Yuji Onoda looked like he was going to set the example for his team with a hard surge 8 km into the 9.5 km First Stage, but he and the other Hakone Ekiden stars from the Kanto Region got a surprise when Yuki Ishii of the Kansai Region's Kwansei Gakuin University dropped them all to hand off in 1st.

Teikyo University was unexpectedly next at the exchange 3 seconds back, with AGU a step behind and Tokai another 2 seconds back. Other pre-race favorites Komazawa University and Toyo University got off…

Thursday saw the first day of the 87th National University Track and Field Championships get underway at Kanagawa's Todoroki Stadium. The most surprising result of the day came in the first heat of the women's 4x100 m relay qualifying round, where both Ritsumeikan University and Aoyama Gakuin University broke the meet record. Ritsumeikan was just 0.02 off the national collegiate record in 44.82 with AGU right behind in 44.89. No other team broke 45 seconds, promising a head-to-head race for the collegiate record and national title in tomorrow's final.

In the men's 4x100 m qualifying round national collegiate record holder Chuo University was the only team to break 39 seconds, marking itself as the heavy favorite in the final with a time of 38.90.



In early finals action, Rika Kaseda (Meijo Univ.) and Josphat Ledama Kisaisa (Obirin Univ.) won the women's and men's 10000 m, Kaseda in 33:29.20 and Kisaisa in 28:28.48. Mayu Nasu (Sonoda Gakuen Joshi Univ.) won the …

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…

The final day of the 97th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships kicked off as usual with the D1 and D1 men's half marathon. Logistics of the meet's new location this year at Sagamihara Gion Stadium in Kanagawa meant a complicated course, with the two divisions starting 9 minutes apart with four laps of the track, twelve laps of a 1.58 km road loop, and a track finish. In both divisions the runners-up from Thursday's 10000 m taking the top spot. In D2 Simon Kariuki (Nihon Yakka Univ.) ran the fastest time of the day, 1:03:09, for his second-straight win. In D1 it was Dominic Nyairo (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) in 1:03:49, his third-straight D1 Kanto Half title.



The men's 5000 m went to both divisions' 10000 m winners, with D1 champ Patrick Mathenge Wambui (Nihon Univ.) taking the top spot in his race in 13:45.30 to score his third-straight Kanto double and D2 winner Josphat Ledama Kesaisa (Obirin) leading his in 13:49.86. 3rd in the D1 10000 m, Kazuya S…