japan running news

by Brett Larner

Japan's best spring distance meet, the Golden Games in Nobeoka came up short on Rio qualifying marks but still delivered some fast times with the winners of all the major races running PBs to get to the top.

Ethiopian newcomer Shuru Bulo (Team Toto) was the only woman to clear the 15:24.00 women's 5000 m Rio standard, winning the women's A-heat in a PB 15:18.54.  Top Japanese woman Sakie Arai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) was far short of the mark in 15:42.29 for 4th.  After having helped Sera H.S. break the legendary Samuel Wanjiru-era National High School Boys Ekiden course record last December, Kenyan Paul Kamais (Team Chugoku Denryoku) continued to dominate in the 5th week of his pro career, leading four Japan-based Africans under the 13:25.00 men's Rio standard to win the 5000 m C-heat in a PB 13:17.50.  Hopes of another Japanese man getting the standard went unrequited, but top Japanese man Hazuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.) still delivered a solid 13:34.64, 4 se…

by Brett Larner

Japan-based Kenyans Rosemary Wanjiru (Team Starts) and Paul Kamais (Team Chugoku Denryoku) scored tight wins to take the Grand Prix 5000 m titles at the 50th Oda Memorial Track and Field Meet at Hiroshima's Edion Stadium on Saturday.  Wanjiru, a graduate of Aomori Yamada H.S., led start to finish in the women's race, taking it out at 15:20 pace and closing in 2:58 to beat teammate Grace Kimanzi by just over a second.  Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), already the fastest Japanese woman so far this year for 10000 m, delivered the fastest 5000 m, 15:37.21, to take the top Japanese spot in 5th.

Kamais, a brand-new graduate of Hiroshima's local National High School Boys Ekiden course record-setter Sera H.S., alternated the lead with two-time World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko) throughout the men's race before closing in 2:33 for the win.  Shuho Dairokuno (Team Asahi Kasei) was the top Japanese finisher in 13:31.56 for 5th, …

by Brett Larner

Championship ekiden season has come and gone, but Sunday saw high-level action at two popular and long-running ekidens at opposite ends of Japan.  In western Japan, course record-setting 2015 National High School Ekiden champion Sera H.S. of Hiroshima definitively took the win at the 79th Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden, beating Mazda, Chugoku Denryoku, JFE Steel, Chudenko and other corporate team competition with ease.  Sera third-year Paul Kamais opened a lead of over two minutes with a course record 42:04 for the 15.1 km First Stage, and from there Sera never lost the top position.  Mazda came the closest, closing to within 3 seconds by the end of the Fourth Stage, but a Fifth Stage win by Sera's Taiju Nakashima put them back out front with a margin that Sera's remaining two runners held onto until the end.  Sera covered the seven-stage, 84.4 km course in 4:07:29, the best-ever by a high school team, with Mazda ending up nearly two minutes back in 4:09:24.  Chugoku…

by Brett Larner
video highlights courtesy of broadcaster NHK

The shadow of the late Samuel Wanjiru still looms large over the National High School Boys Ekiden Championships, his 2004 stage record-setting run powering Sendai Ikuei H.S. to a course record 2:01:32 win that no team since has ever approached.  The buzz was in the air this year that defending champion Sera H.S. was ready to do it, its seven starters averaging 14:01.95 for 5000 m, enough to compete at the university level.  Before the race captain Shiki Shinsako made it clear, saying, "This team is good enough to break 2:01."

For that to happen the race, 7 stages totalling 42.195 km, had to start fast on its longest stage, the 10.0 km First Stage.  Luck was with Sera as the talented Takuya Hanyu (Yachiyo Shoin H.S.) was happy to oblige, dropping a 2:47 opening km, 27:50 pace, and pulling the whole field with him.  The entire way Hanyu kept things moving, shaking the front end competition down to just himself, Sera&#…

by Brett Larner

Yuka Mukai, an 11th-grader at Hiroshima's Sera High School ran a world youth leading time of 15:31.92 to win Saturday's Challenge Games in Oita women's 5000 m.  Mukai led the race together with 12th-grade teammate Shinobu Koyoshigawa unchallenged by the university and corporate runners in the field, and both were rewarded with places in the all-time Japanese high school top ten.  Mukai's winning time was good for all-time #6, with Koyoshigawa's 15:36.96 coming at all-time #9.

The Sera H.S. boys, the defending National High School Ekiden champions, likewise led the way in the 5000 m A-heat, sweeping the top five and taking seven of the top nine places.  12th-grader Paul Kamais was 1st with a meet record 13:42.90, but 11th-grader Keita Yoshida made bigger news in 3rd place with his time of 13:50.67, all-time #10 on the Japanese high school lists.  Sera H.S. now has a top seven runner 5000 m average of 14:01.96, putting them in range of the legendary 2:…

by Brett Larner
videos by naoki620



After setting a National High School Track and Field Championships record to win the girls' 400 m on Wednesday and anchoring her school's 4x100 m relay team, Haruko Ishizuka (Keiai Higashi Osaka Prep H.S.) tore it up again on the Championships' third day of competition.  After dominating the 400 m hurdles semifinals and her 800 m heat Ishizuka was sensational in the 400 mH final, kicking hard in the last 100 m to win in 57.06, a new junior national record, high school national record and meet record.  Her Keiai teammate Mizuki Murakami and 3rd-placer Yuri Arashima (Kurashiki Chuo H.S.) both ran PBs under 59 seconds but were nearly 2 second behind.  Incredibly, less than an hour later Ishizuka was back to win her 800 m semifinal in 2:08.65, the slowest of the three semifinal winning times but still credible given the dangerously hot conditions and, of course, the fact that she had just broken a junior national record.  1500 m champion Chika…