japan running news

Things have really been coming up fast the last year or so in Japanese distance running, but even so this year's New Year Ekiden really felt like the era has changed. GMO took the lead on the second of the race's 7 legs and went on to take over 2 minutes off the overall course record for the 100.0 km course, winning its first national title in 4:44:00. En route 6 of the 7 legs had new CR, a lot of them with multiple people breaking them, and the only leg that didn't, the 12.3 km First Stage, saw Shunpei Tomita of Logisteed run 34:23, only 7 seconds off the CR held by sub-27 Kenyan Martin Mathathi . The level at the collegiate Hakone Ekiden keeps going up up up , and that showed here as 3 of the new stage CR were set by guys in their first season in the corporate leagues who were some of the biggest stars at Hakone last year. Aoyama Gakuin University grad Aoi Ota sneaked in 1 second ahead of Toyota 's Jin Yuasa to set a 46:00 CR on the 15.9 km Fifth Stage. Collegi...

The first two regional qualifying races for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships happened Monday in the two most competitive regions, the Tokyo-area East Japan region and Fukuoka-centered Kyushu region. The New Year Ekiden is pretty much the only major ekiden that doesn't have a seeded podium that guarantees top-placing teams a place at the follow year's race, meaning even the best of the best have to go through the formalities of a regional qualifier and all the disruption it brings to whatever fall racing schedule Japan's top corporate men might be trying to put together. 12 places were available in the East Japan race and 9 in Kyushu, and in honor of the New Year Ekiden's 70th anniversary one more slot was available in both regions to the next team to finish if they made it to the line within 10 minutes of the last regular qualifier. Logisteed took the top spot in East Japan thanks in a big way to a brilliant run on the race's lo...

After tuning up with a 3:40.19 win in the men's 1500 m A-heat in Fukagawa on Wednesday , South Korean Jae Ung Lee turned in the performance of the day at the second Hokuren Distance Challenge meet in Shibetsu Saturday. Going to the front after 900 m, Lee ran a 3:38.55 for the win, just enough to achieve his goal of breaking the 1993-era Korean national record of 3:38.60 and almost 6 seconds up on nearest Japanese competitor Rikuto Iijima (Ami AC), 2nd in 3:44.27. Na Yeon Park also repeated her Fukagawa win, slightly slower this time in 4:15.58 over Rose Wangui (Daiso), 2nd in 4:16.09. Other standout performances included an 8:55.45 win in the women's 3000 m by Yvonne Jepchirchir Chepkosgei (Higo Ginko), a 7:52.11 win by Isaac Ndiema (Mazda) in the men's 3000 m, and a 14:55.45 win by Caroline Kariba (Japan Post) in the women's 5000 m. No Japanese athletes hit the qualifying standards for next month's National Championships at any distance. The next meet in t...