japan running news

by Brett Larner
On June 15 Rikuren released the lineup of the Japanese team for next month's Asian Athletics Championships, to be held July 7-10 in Kobe. The long distance squads are overall strong, with the men's team in particular featuring the top three Japanese men from both the 5000 m and 10000 m at last weekend's National Championships. The women's team includes the 2nd through 4th place women from the National Championships 5000 m, missing just winner Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno), but is weaker in the 10000 m as only the 4th and 5th-place finishers from Nationals are on the list. A conspicuous absence from both Nationals and the Asian Championships team is top-ranked Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal).
2011 Asian Athletics Championships - Japanese National Team July 7-10, Kobe, Hyogo click here for complete Japanese team lineup
Men's Long Distance Kazuya Watanabe (Team Shikoku Denryoku) Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.) Akinobu Murasawa (…

by Brett Larner
The national corporate federation has released the entry lists for this year's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, to be held Mar. 20 in Yamaguchi, this year with the addition of a women's road 10 km.
Notable names include men's half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) who has been out of competition since finishing 3rd at the 2010 Tokyo Marathon, 2011 World Championships team member Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN), 2010 Nagoya Half Marathon winner Jacob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko), 2010 Marugame Half Marathon winner Daniel Gitau (Kenya/Team Fujitsu), 2011 Tamana Half Marathon winner Dishon Karukuwa (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo), former university star Masato Kihara (Team Kanebo), sub-28 track ace Ryuji Ono (Team Asahi Kasei), and, continuing his comeback from the injuries that knocked him out of the 2008 Beijing Olympics marathon, Satoshi Osaki (Team NTT Nishi Nihon).
The women's half marathon features the top two …

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/news/20110206k0000e050020000c.html
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/news/110206/oth11020617280011-n1.htm
http://www.47news.jp/CN/201102/CN2011020601000204.html
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/news/110206/oth11020617300012-n1.htm
http://www.shikoku-np.co.jp/sports/local/article.aspx?id=20110206000201

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Last year's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships winner Samuel Ndungu (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) won the 2011 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon on Feb. 6, clocking a PB of 1:00:55. Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta), the 12th-placer at last year's World Half Marathon Championships, was 2nd in a PB of 1:00:58, the all-time 3rd-fastest Japanese mark. Course record holder Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Aidem) was 3rd after slowing dramatically in the final kilometer of the race. Times were fast overall as eight of the top ten recorded new PBs. Beijing Olympics marathoner Tsuyoshi Ogata (Team Chugoku …

by Brett Larner

You can't keep a great champion down. Mostly absent from competition with injuries and motivation issues for the two years since winning the 2009 Osaka International Women's Marathon, 10000 m national record holder Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) looked well on her way to staging the nth comeback of a career full of ups and downs Jan. 23 at the Kita-Kyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden, the last major women's ekiden of the season. Starting the 11.7 km anchor leg 47 seconds back from leader Yurika Nakamura of 2010 National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden winners Team Tenmaya, Shibui virtually singlehandedly won the race as she finished the stage 48 seconds ahead in 1st. Although she was far from the stage record, Shibui also took the best time on the stage by 15 seconds over 2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon winner Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC), clocking 37:12.

Before Shibui's outstanding performance Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo was runni…

by Brett Larner

2009 World University Games 10000 m gold medalist and 5000 m silver medalist and 2010 National University 5000 m champion Kasumi Nishihara (Bukkyo Univ.) took another step toward the top with a 15:27.94 PB to finish 1st in the final women's 5000 m at the 2010 Nighter Time Trials in Marugame on Oct. 9. With runner-up Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya) over 15 seconds behind, Nishihara's solo effort makes her the third-fastest Japanese woman of the year over 5000 m behind national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) and Nishihara's younger teammate Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo Univ.). Nishihara's progression since high school has been impressively consistent:

2006: 15:47.52
2007: 15:41.54
2008: 15:36.72
2009: 15:32.89
2010: 15:27.94

Yoshimoto was also scheduled to run but was a DNS, raising concerns about her condition after several weak performances earlier this fall season. With Bukkyo runners Mai Ishibashi and Rika Kawashima also under 16 minutes in heats 5 and 6, i…

2010 National Jitsugyodan T&F Championships - Top Results
click here for complete results
Men's 5000 m - Final
1. Jonathan Ndiku (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) - 13:45.69
2. Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota) - 13:48.26
3. Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) - 13:49.06
4. Micah Njeru (Kenya/Team Toyota Boshoku) - 13:51.13
5. Hideyuki Anzai (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 13:52.14
6. Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) 13:52.48
7. Kenta Murotsuka (SDF Academy) - 13:53.13
8. Takaya Iwasaki (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 13:53.68
9. Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) - 13:56.84
10. Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Team Konica Minolta) - 13:57.61

Women's 5000 m - Final
1. Ann Karindi (Kenya/Team Toyota Jidoshoki) - 15:25.40
2. Doricah Obare (Kenya/Team Hitachi) - 15:27.89
3. Tomoka Inadomi (Team Wacoal) - 15:29.56
4. Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Giken) - 15:29.58
5. Kaori Urata (Team Tenmaya) - 15:31.47
6. Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) - 15:45.80
7. Christine Muyanga (Kenya/Team Panasonic) - 15:46.61
8. Shoko Mori (Team Otsuk…

by Brett Larner

After being named to this year's World Half Marathon team on the strength of her runner-up finish at last month's National Track and Field Championships, Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) closed off this year's Hokuren Distance Challenge with a bang. Kizaki won the HDC's Abashiri meet 10000 m in 31:38.71, a PB by over 45 seconds and a time which missed putting her in the top 10 worldwide so far this year by only 1 second. Second place finisher Kayo Sugihara (Team Denso) was nearly a minute behind in 32:33.37. Sugihara was the only runner in the top 5 not to run a PB.

Kizaki is now ranked 3rd among Japanese women for 10000 m in 2010. Combined with her rankings of 6th for 5000 m, 7th for half marathon and 5th for marathon she is the frontrunner to be named Japanese women's distance runner of the year.

Kenyan ace Edward Waweru (Team NTN) took the men's 5000 m in a quick 13:18.54, while 5th-placer Seung-Ho Baek (S. Korea), a university student and this year…

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/news/20090224k0000m050029000c.html
http://www.mit.vc/fxc/2009news01.pdf

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Rikuren has announced the elite field for the 23rd Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet, to be held Mar. 7 in Fukuoka's Uminonakamichi Park. Together with the Feb. 15 Chiba International Cross Country Meet, Fukuoka serves as a selection race for the national team which will compete in the Mar. 28 World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan. Despite the meet's name, only three non-Japanese runners are scheduled to run. Joseph Kiptoo Birech (Kenya) and Jay Twist (Australia) will run in the senior men's 10 km, while Kseniya Agafonova (Russia) will run the senior women's 6 km.

At the top of the senior men's 10 km race are Beijing Olympians Atsushi Sato (marathon, Team Chugoku Denryoku), Takayuki Matsumiya (5000 m, 10000 m, Team Konica Minolta) and Yoshitaka Iwamizu (3000 m SC, Team Fujitsu). Other competitors includ…

by Brett Larner

Japanese teams performed strongly at the 10th Asian Cross Country Championships in Bahrain on Mar. 1, bringing home three individual medals and team medals in three of the four team categories. Running against teams of African mercenaries masquerading as national teams belonging to Qatar and Bahrain, the Japanese senior women's team brought home the gold medal led by Aya Nagata's individual bronze medal performance, with Tomoka Inadomi and Risa Shigetomo rounding out the scoring positions in 4th and 5th.

The junior men's scorers placed identically, Shota Hattori earning a bronze medal and his teammates Yuki Oshikawa and Kyohei Nishi coming 4th and 5th, but the team received only the silver medal as they were beaten by one point by a Bahraini team made up of two Kenyans and one Ethiopian.

The junior women's team also won silver, again with a bronze medal run from Aki Odagiri followed by team scoring 4th and 5th placings by Rei Ohara and Sairi Maeda. Like th…

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/News/Tn200902250050.html

translated by Brett Larner

Kojokan High School is sending three athletes to compete at the Asian Cross Country Championships in Bahrain on Mar. 1. Seniors Rei Obara (18) and Ai Kuboki (18) will join alumna Risa Shigetomo (21, Team Tenmaya) on the Japanese national team in Bahrain. For Kuboki it will be her first overseas race. "I want to soak up the atmosphere and the chance to race against foreign athletes and hope that it helps me to take my running to the next level," she told reporters.

Obara will be running in the junior women's 6 km race. Obara comes to the championships after having won both the 5000 m at October's nationals and the 1st stage of December's National High School Ekiden. Kuboki will be in the same race, having finished 3rd nationally in the 3000 m and helping her team finish as runner-up in the National High School Ekiden with a 4th place run on the 5th stage.

Shigetomi will run in the senior w…

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/news/20090204k0000m050050000c.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Rikuren has announced the lineup for the Chiba International Cross Country Meet to take place Feb. 15. As a selection race for the Japanese national team for this year's Jordan World Cross Country Championships in March, the Chiba XC Meet has attracted a range of top athletes looking to represent their nation.

The men's 12000 m race includes 3000 m steeplechase Olympian Yoshitaka Iwamizu (Team Fujitsu), 2009 Interprefectural Ekiden 7th stage winner Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku), two-time Olympic marathoner Jon Brown (Canada/U.K.) and 2009 Shibuya New Ekiden 1st stage winner Jason Lawrence (New Zealand).

The women's 6000 m race features Beijing Olympics 5000 m runner Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshokki), 2007 World Championships 6th place finisher Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC), and veteran Harumi Hiroyama (Team Shiseido).

In the junior men's 8000 m race, t…

http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/article.php?mid=P2008122200197&genre=L1&area=K00

translated by Brett Larner

On Dec. 22 the entry lists were released for the 47 prefectural teams which will compete at the 27th National Interprefectural Women's Ekiden on Jan. 11 in Kyoto. Beijing Olympics women's marathoner Yurika Nakamura (Okayama Pref.) will defend her stage best title from last year's 1st leg, while Beijing Olympics steeplechase runner Minori Hayakari (Kyoto Pref.) will take part in the ekiden for the 20th time. Sydney Olympics women's marathon 7th place finisher Eri Yamaguchi will act as head coach for the Okayama Prefecture team.

Athens and Beijing Olympian Kayoko Fukushi (Aomori Pref.) will be running for the first time in 3 years. In her last appearance Fukushi ran as anchor of the Kyoto Prefecture team, but due to a rule change at the 2008 edition of the ekiden will now be able to run for her hometown Aomori Prefecture team after a 5-year absence. Fukushi'…

by Brett Larner
Click photo for video highlights courtesy of NHK.






The All-Japan High School Ekiden Championships took place Dec. 21 in Kyoto, broadcast nationwide and commercial-free on government-sponsored NHK Television. A widespread heatwave brought warm, sunny conditions for the first race of the day, the five-stage, 21.0975 km High School Girls Ekiden. In only its third appearance in the championship ekiden, Toyokawa High School of Aichi Prefecture overcame a new rule intended partly to limit the effectiveness of its Kenyan ace Wysela Wylim to take its first national title. Defending champion Ritsumeikan Uji High School finished 3rd, a fantastic performance by anchor Ikumi Natsuhara not quite enough for her to catch rival Ai Kuboki of Kojokan High School, who finished in 2nd just 4 seconds back from Toyokawa's Wylim.

1st Stage - 6.0 km
A new rule this year in both the girls' and boys' races followed a nationwide trend in championship ekidens by banning non-Japanese runner…