japan running news

Japan's last major non-ekiden road race of the year happens Sunday in Okayama at the Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon and 10 km. Four women in the half marathon, Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (U.S.E.), Yuka Ando (Wacoal), Desta Burka (Denso) and Joanne Kipkemoi (Kyudenko) have recent sub-1:10 times, Omare leading the way with a 1:07:56 from her win at last year's National Corporate Half Marathon. Ando isn't far behind with a 1:08:13 in the same race, but at the Queens Ekiden three weeks ago she showed signs of heavy fatigue from October's Olympic marathon trials. Track specialist Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) is also in the race, only 1:11:19 in Sanyo last year but with potential to go a lot better. Eva Cherono (Toto) is the class of the 10 km field with a 30:33 road best from Lens two years ago. Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) and Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) were both under 31:30 minutes in Sanyo in 2021, with Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko) and Kaede Kawamura (Iwatani Sangyo)...

It's the last big racing weekend of the year in Japan, with three big road races at home and one marathon abroad featuring a familiar face under a new name. Biggest of the big is the National High School Ekiden Sunday in Kyoto. Despite rapidly rising COVID-19 numbers across the country organizers have managed to pull off staging the race, which brings together five-runner girls' teams and seven-runner boys' teams from the top high school in each of Japan's 47 prefectures. The whole thing is broadcast live nationwide commercial-free on NHK , with the girls' race broadcast starting at 10:05 and the boys' at 12:15. JRN will also be covering it on @JRNLive . We'll tweet live stream info as it becomes available. With weather conditions looking good serious shots at the course records are expected in both races. In the girls' race, a half marathon distance in five stages, Kagoshima's Kamimura Gakuen H.S.  is the favorite, running 1:06:04 in its prefectur...