japan running news

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/sports/yuki-kawauchi-marathon.html

A correction to the NYT article: At the time of this year's Boston Marathon, Kawauchi's 2:08:14 PB was over a minute faster than Rupp's. Rupp later ran 2:06:07 in Prague after his DNF in Boston.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/prague-international-marathon-galen-rupp-winner-1.4650600

Prague Marathon Men's Results
Prague, Czech Republic, 5/6/18
click here for complete results

1. Galen Rupp (U.S.A.) - 2:06:07
2. Sisay Lemma (Ethiopia) - 2:07:03
3. Stephen Chemlany (Kenya) - 2:09:42
4. Barselius Kipyego (Kenya) - 2:10:18
5. Yuma Hattori (Japan/Toyota) - 2:10:26
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8. Suehiro Ishikawa (Japan/Honda) - 2:16:39

Saturday night's Birell Prague Grand Prix 10 km looks set to be the biggest race of the weekend.

Returning to Prague after both going under Paula Radcliffe's 10 km world record of 30:21 en route to more world records at April's Prague Half Marathon, Joyciline Jepkosgei (Kenya) and Violah Jepchumba (Bahrain) will face off again in a race that organizers hope will produce the first-ever women's sub-30 clocking on the roads. In April Jepkosgei clocked 30:04 and Jepchumba 30:05 at the Prague Half, and with decent temperatures around 20˚C and moderate winds forecast for the evening race the chances look good.

Fancy Chemutai (Kenya), Netsanet Gudeta (Ethiopia) and Kayoko Fukushi (Japan/Wacoal) have all cleared 31 minutes on the track or roads and could factor into the second pack with solid performances, but whether any is up for being paced by three men to go under 30 minutes is a question mark. Fukushi in particular has taken it relatively easy since the Rio Olympic marath…

Six Japanese athletes will line up at Saturday's Birell Prague Grand Prix 10 km road race in the Czech Republic. Rio Olympian, 2013 World Championships marathon bronze medalist and 5000 m and half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) is the lone Japanese woman in the race. Now 35, Fukushi has mostly taken it easy since Rio, her season bests just 33:09.26 for 10000 m on the track and 33:48 for 10 km on the road. Standoffish with Japanese media about her future plans, it remains to be seen how hard Fukushi will run in Prague.

Teammates at the 2017 national champion Asahi Kasei corporate team, Kenta Murayama and Tetsuya Yoroizaka lead the five Japanese men on the list. Murayama, the U18 national record holder for 10000 m on the track and twin brother of adult national record holder Kota Murayama, ran well in the spring with a 1:00:57 for 5th at March's United Airlines NYC Half but underperformed at May's Ottawa 10 km. Yoroizaka, who has the unlucky distinc…

by Brett Larner


London World Championships marathon team member Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov’t) lined up at the Volkswagen Prague Marathon with support from JRN in a bid to break his four-year-old best of 2:08:14. Planning to go with second group pacer Eliud Macharia of Kenya at 3:02/km, Kawauchi and Macharia found themselves part of the lead group when its pacers were unable to hit their target 3:00/km in the challenging early part of the Prague course. The lead group accelerated approaching 15 km, while Macharia, Kawauchi and Moroccan Salah Eddine Bounasr stayed their course and hit it dead on 2:08:00 pace in 45:30.


Over the next 10 km the leaders again slowed, letting Macharia’s trio return and even go to the front without changing their pace. Following the pacers’ departure it was down to a race of six, the Ethiopian trio of Gebretsadik Abraha, Bazu Worku and Mekuant Ayenew, Kenyan Benson Kipruto, Bounasr and Kawauchi. The group hit 32 km in 1:37:43, well off the hoped-for s…

by Brett Larner


Japan's Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) will run Sunday's Volkswagen Prague Marathon with support from JRN in preparation for August's London World Championships marathon. At the pre-race press conference organizers expressed their hopes of seeing a 2:06 men's race, led by past 2:06 men Lani Kiplagat Ruto and Frankline Chepkwony of Kenya.  For his part Kawauchi said that his goal is to break his 2:08:14 PB dating back to 2013.  "I haven't broken my PB for four years, so I'm here to run 2:07," he said.

Organizers were even more optimistic about the potential outcome of the women's race, which features 2:20 women Feyse Tadese and Amane Beriso, two other Ethiopians with bests under 2:23, and 1:07:50 half marathoner Valary Jemeli Aiyabei. With the quality of field assemble, favorable weather conditions and the split timing and finish time projection system devised by Dr. Helmut Winter and used at the London, Berlin, Chicago and…

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2017/03/19/kiji/20170319s00056000211000c.html
https://www.daily.co.jp/general/2017/03/19/0010014104.shtml

translated and edited by Brett Larner
photo by Tsukasa Kawarai

Fresh from being named to the London World Championships men's marathon team on Friday, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) ran the first race of his London buildup Sunday at the Kuki Half Marathon, winning by a massive margin in a course record 1:05:03.  The site of his unofficial half-marathon-in-a-suit world record in its first edition last year, the Kuki Half Marathon is Kawauchi's hometown race.  With a course change sending the race past his alma mater Washinomiya J.H.S. this year, Kawauchi ran wearing his junior high school-era uniform.  "It was a headwind the whole way," he laughed about his time, almost three minutes slower than his PB.  "Now isn't the time to push it. I feel good."

Having declared that the World Championships will be his …

by Brett Larner

Japanese athletes raced in three European road races in three different countries on Sunday, 2015 Zurich Marathon winner Yoshiko Sakamoto (Y.W.C.) leading the way at Germany's Volksbank Muenster Marathon.  Starting off at a conservative pace that left her 20 seconds behind the lead group at 5 km and over a minute and a half behind by 15 km, over the second half she overtook three women, Ethiopian Belaynesh Yigezu, then Kenyans Janet Cheruiyot and Salina Jebet, to move into 2nd.  2015 Nairobi Marathon winner Elizabeth Rumokol of Kenya, the only woman in the field to have broken 2:30, took 1st in 2:33:01, Sakamoto next in 2:38:46 and Jebet 3rd in 2:42:27.  "I wanted to try to run with the lead group, but they went out too fast," Sakamoto said post-race.  "I was hoping for a faster time but I'm really, really happy to have gotten 2nd.  This was the first time I've ever enjoyed myself while racing seriously."

In the Muesnter men's race 2…

Paris Marathon:http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/paris-marathon-2016
The great Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz), 40, was 6th in the women's race in Paris in 2:32:44, an apparent new masters' national record.  Click here for complete results.

Daegu Marathon:http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/daegu-marathon
Tomomi Higuchi (Team Daihatsu) took 7th in the women's race in Daegu in 2:38:31.

Prague Half Marathon:http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/prague-half-marathon-athletics-2016-prague
Misato Horie and Mei Matsuyama of the Noritz corporate team finished 14th and 15th in the Prague women's race in 1:14:12 and 1:15:38.  Click here for complete results.

http://www.sankei.com/region/news/160224/rgn1602240057-n1.html

translated by Brett Larner

On Feb. 23 Kanagawa prefecture, slated to host the northeastern African country Eritrea's pre-2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games training camps, announced the launch of the Sky Project exchange program.  As the first event in the program, Beijing and London Olympic marathoner Yared Asmerom, 36, participated in an interactive event with local kindergarteners.  Future activities will include similar events and promotion of Eritrea within Kanagawa.

On the 23rd, Yared visited nursery schools and kindergartens in two different locations in the prefecture.  At one, the Seisa Group Aobadai Nursery School and Kindergarten in Aobadai, Yokohama, children enjoyed running together with Yared, who laughed and smiled as he high-fived each student.  Yared told the children, "If you keep practicing seriously, then in sports or whatever other area you pursue, every one of you can become a champion.&q…

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/2015-prague-grand-prix-10km-jepchirchir

Prague Grand Prix 10 km
Prague, Czech Republic, 9/5/15
click here for complete results

Women
1. Peres Jepchirchir (Kenya) - 30:55
2. Linah Cheruto (Kenya) - 32:08
3. Kidsan Alema (Ethiopia) - 32:10
4. Eshete Shitae (Ethiopia) - 32:11
5. Viola Jelagat (Kenya) - 32:37
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8. Mizuki Matsuda (Japan) - 33:19
12. Ai Inoue (Japan) - 34:22

Men
1. Daniel Chebii (Kenya) - 27:42
2. Gilbert Masai (Kenya) - 27:45
3. Barselius Kipyego (Kenya) - 27:46
4. Japhet Kipyegon Korir (Kenya) - 27:48
5. Teshome Mekonen (Ethiopia) - 27:50
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18. Rikinobu Watanabe (Japan) - 30:04
20. Ryuji Okada (Japan) - 30:28

by Brett Larner

Following up on a disappointing showing at last weekend's Great North Run and Prague Grand Prix 10 km, Japan's corporate league runners underwhelmed again at Sunday's Köln Marathon and Usti nad Labem Half Marathon.  In a race won by Kenya's Anthony Maritim in 2:10:26 in Köln, 2:09:18 marathoner Yuko Matsumiya (Team Hitachi Butsuryu), the twin brother of 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta), could do no better than 2:18:41 for 3rd.  2:15:05 man Kenta Iinuma (Team Sagawa Group) fell well below the professional level, running only 2:23:12 for 4th.  Formerly Japan-based Kenyan Julia Mumbi took the women's race in 2:28:00.

Further east, Japanese results at the Czech Republic's Usti nad Labem mirrored those at the Great North Run, with 1:02 half marathoners Yuya Ito (Team Toyota) and Masamichi Yasuda (Team Aichi Seiko) and their 1:03 counterpart Atsushi Yamazaki (Team Subaru) all clocked leisurely 1:05 times…

by Brett Larner

As is his tendency, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) led the way on a busy weekend that saw Japanese athletes in at least four competitive overseas races. Running the second edition of the Saga Sakura Marathon in scenic southwesternmost Kyushu despite having changed his workplace this week, Kawauchi took almost nine minutes off the course record and beat last year's winner Tomonori Onitsuka (Team Kyudenko) by more than ten minutes in 2:13:02 CR, his third marathon of the year and second soloing a massive CR in an amateur-level race.  "I haven't been feeling well since the Incheon Half last week and have just been jogging 60 minutes a day, so I'm glad I could at least run passably," he told JRN post-race. "If there hadn't been a strong headwind between 25 and 35 km I would have been a minute faster." Like Onitsuka, women's course record holder Hiroko Yoshitomi (First Dream AC) was knocked back to 2nd as 20-year-old Hua Y…