japan running news

by Brett Larner

Following the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden and Jan. 2-3 HakoneEkiden, the year's first full weekend of road racing included at least four major half marathons across the country.

きょう、げんきあっぷはーふまらそんはしりました!
たいむべすとでました! pic.twitter.com/2fcLzcZCB1 — Stanley (@stanleysiteki) January 8, 2017
At Tochigi's Takanezawa Genki Up Half Marathon, Kenyan Stanley Siteki, a Tokyo Kokusai University teammate of Hakone anchor stage "phantom winner"Akito Terui, outran Hakone champion Aoyama Gakuin University's alternates and B-team memeber to win in 1:03:20.  Last year's Takanezawa winnerAritaka Kajiwara was 4th in 1:03:45, exactly a minute slower than his 2016 course record.

In Tokyo, the High-Tech Half Marathon, a rebranded version of the popular Mari Tanigawa Half Marathon, saw former JR Higashi Nihon runner Shusei Ohashi win the men's race in 1:05:29.  Eri Suzuki, at 5th the top Japanese woman in last month's Honolulu Marathon, won the women's race in 1:…

2015 was a threshold year in Japan, one of record highs and lows.  JRN asked a number of its prominent regular readers to give their picks for the year.

Andrew Arminger – president, Boulder Track Club

The performance of the year had to have been the 10000 m NR by Kota Murayama with Tetsuya Yoroizaka also under the old NR. That record sat for far too long.
NR!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/18VGxJbsvL — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) November 28, 2015
The performer of the year is Yuki Kawauchi, based on his typical body of work and most notably his 6th at NYC. Not only in the money in a World Marathon Major but genuinely competitive on foreign soil which is especially commendable. These both stand out for both genders, it just happens that the men really came through this year. Especially good to see going into 2016.


Jimmy Ashworth – 1985 Berlin Marathon winner and first man to break 2:12 in Berlin

It sounds a bit daft to narrow it down to a few athletes that have caught my eye as all th…

by Brett Larner
videos by naoki620


Another week, another world record-setting Japanese collegiate race.

Virtually every major Japanese university men's distance race since Tokyo won the 2020 Olympic bid has seen incredible new course records and world records set for depth at quality.  Today's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, the 20 km road race qualifier for the season-capping January 2-3 Hakone Ekiden, was no exception.

49 schools from around the Kanto Region lined up in Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park to try to be one of the lucky 10 programs to join those who had already reserved their place at the 2016 Hakone Ekiden by finishing in the top 10 in Hakone this year.  Each of the schools at the Yosenkai qualifier fielded 10 to 12 runners with the team scored on the aggregate time of its first 10 finishers.  The 10 fastest schools go on to Hakone, clean and simple.

After heavy rain with 5 minutes to go 2015 Kanto Region DI Half Marathon champion Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Nihon University), 2nd…

by Brett Larner



The Japanese university ekiden season, the highlight of the year for distance fans, peaks with the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden, Japan's biggest and best race.  Hakone determines everything for the following year, with the top 10 of its 20 teams guaranteed a place on the starting lines of both the next Hakone and the season-starting Izumo Ekiden.  For the bottom 10 it means their season gets going a week at the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai, a 20 km qualifying road race in and around Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park where they must face off against 40 to 50 other university teams joining the ranks of the Hakone-bound and where school cheerleaders and marching bands and tens of thousands of fans bearing school color flags assemble before a live TV broadcast to create one of the greatest race atmospheres in the sport.

With the first-ever cancellation of the Izumo Ekiden last weekend after a typhoon swept through race day, the millions of ekiden fans across the country are eager fo…