japan running news

by Brett Larner Just 17 years old, 2016 Bydgoszcz World U20 Championships men's 5000 m bronze medalist Wesley Ledama of Kenya turned up at Akita's Towada Hachimantai Ekiden running for the Subaru corporate team to rock a new record on the 13.6 km First Stage.  Hammering experienced 32-year-old Ethiopian Kassa Mekashaw (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) into the ground, Ledama took almost a minute and a half off the 39:49 stage record set last year by Kenyan Charles Ndungu (Team Komori Corp.) as he handed off in 1st in 38:28.  Mekashaw likewise broke the record, next into the first exchange zone in 38:35, with Yuki Takamiya (Team Yakult A), the top Japanese man at this year's Tokyo Marathon and winner on Towada's First Stage in 2014, 3rd in 40:27. Both Yachiyo Kogyo and Yakult ran down Subaru on the 13.4 km Second Stage, stage record holder Bernard Kimanyi (Team Yakult A) coming just 2 seconds short of Shota Kai (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) for the lead at the second exchange zon...

http://www.komaspo.com/4956 translated and edited by Brett Larner With one month to go until the 2015 Hakone Ekiden, the Komazawa University sports department held a school rally for its 2011-2014 national champion ekiden team on Dec. 2 at the Komazawa Campus Memorial Hall.  Comments from team staff and seniors: Hiroaki Oyagi, head coach Our second place finish last time was disappointing and frustrating.  In our year of development since then we've looked at this as our season to be the best, and we're going in with the will to win no matter what.  The athletes share the same feeling and have been deliberate in their approach over the last two years.  This team has the ability to win the most important race, the one they absolutely must win.  For the next month we will only be thinking about bringing home our first win in seven years as we make our final preparations, and we ask for your continued support. Shogo Nakamura, senior, captain Personally I...

by Brett Larner Komazawa University delivered on expectations, winning a fourth-straight National University Men's Ekiden championship, its twelfth Nationals title under head coach Hiroaki Oyagi , by nearly a kilometer Sunday in Nagoya. With the first of the season's Big Three University Ekidens, the mid-October Izumo Ekiden, cancelled due to a typhoon ekiden fans were hungry for action at Nationals and were rewarded with one of the best pieces of collegiate racing in memory on the 14.6 km First Stage.  Identical twins Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.), 13:34.53, 27:49.94 and 1:00:50 (half marathon) this year, and Kota Murayama (Josai Univ.), 3:39.56, 13:34.57 and 58:26 (20 km) this fall, led things off with future Asahi Kasei corporate teammate and fellow identical twin Takashi Ichida (Daito Bunka Univ.), dropping the rest of the field early and running most of the stage as a trio pursued by intriguing indy Kentaro Hirai (Kyoto Univ.) and Kenyan John Kariuki (Daiichi...