japan running news

by Brett Larner
#316 Tatsuro Okazaki leads half marathon Asian jr. area record holder Suguru Osako, #315, in the 1500 m on Apr. 2 at Tokyo's National Stadium. Click here for more pictures courtesy of WESC.
Even as road races continue to be cancelled in the wake of last month's earthquake and tsunami, track season got underway this weekend with a handful of competitive meets across the country. Among highlights of the distance events: At the Mar. 30 Kokushikan University Time Trials in Tama, Tokyo, women's 10000 m junior national record holder Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno) returned from a long layoff due to injury to run 15:46.58, the lone woman in a men's 5000 m.


2011 Hakone Ekiden winners Waseda University dominated the distance events at the Tokyo Six University Meet at the National Stadium on Apr. 2. Seniors Yo Yazawa and Yuki Yagi went 1-2 in the 5000 m, clocking 14:03.04 and 14:15.73. Sophomores Kohei Kudo and Noriki Tazawa likewise went 1-2 in the 3000 m SC in 9:…

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/e-japan/nagano/news/20110117-OYT8T01097.htm
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2011/01/17/kiji/K20110117000067200.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

Saku Chosei H.S. head coach Hayashi Morozumi, 44,announced Jan. 17 that in April he will take over as head coach of his alma mater, 2011 Hakone Ekiden 4th-place Tokai University. Morozumi will replace current Tokai coach Toshihiro Arai, 58, who coached Morozumi during Morozumi's student days and asked him to be his replacement. Morozumi told reporters, "My goal is not just to do well at the Hakone Ekiden but to produce Olympians." Morozumi graduated from Tokai Dai-San Prep H.S. before running for Tokai University where he competed in the Hakone Ekiden all four years. He later ran professionally for the Nissan and Daiei teams.

Morozumi has been head coach at Saku Chosei since 1995 and brought the school its first National High School Ekiden Championships title in 2008 along with twelve top-eigh…

by Brett Larner

Kashiwabara for the win. Click to enlarge photo.

For the third-straight year Toyo University's Ryuji Kashiwabara was the deciding factor on day one of Japan's biggest race, the Hakone Ekiden. Starting the 23.4 km, nearly 900 m climbing Fifth Stage in 3rd place 2:54 behind leader Hideki Inomata of rival Waseda University, Kashiwabara ended up 27 seconds ahead, giving Toyo the win as the team broke the five-stage, 108.0 km Day One course record by over a minute to finish in 5:29:50. Kashiwabara, who was been injured most of the year, missed his own course record by less than a minute but still finished faster than any other runner ever has, winning the stage in 1:17:53. Inomata, in his first and last Hakone, brought Waseda home in 2nd in 5:30:17, likewise clearing the old course record held by Yamanashi Gakuin University for eight years. With seven men holding sub-29 minute 10000 m PBs each Toyo and Waseda were already the best two university teams Japan has ever …

by Brett Larner

If you’re a distance running fan then it is nearly time for the best two days of the year: the 87th annual Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden. A ten-stage, 217.9 km university championship race spread over two days with a live nationwide TV broadcast that attracts domestic viewership ratings of over 30%, Hakone is a cultural institution in Japan and features the most gripping and dramatic racing of the year. There’s good and bad in that, but for now at least we’ll focus on the good.

Overseas viewers have the chance to watch Nihon TV’s Hakone broadcast online via Keyhole TV, available here. It’s not perfect, but in the absence of an overseas broadcast or official webcast it’s the only chance you have to be part of it if you live outside Japan. The broadcast begins at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on both Jan. 2 and 3 with the race starting at 8:00 a.m. and lasting until around 2:00 p.m. For those on the west coast of North America that means the race begins at 3:00 p.m. on Jan. 1 and goes unt…

by Brett Larner
Arata Fujiwara photo by Brett Larner

This is the second of JRN's four-part year-end review. Click here to read the second part, a ranking of the top 10 Japanese women of 2010. Look for the third and fourth parts, the top 10 Japanese men and women of 2001-2010 and a look at the history and future of Japanese marathoning, early in the new year.

To be honest, the Japanese man of the year should probably be either Shota Iizuka, the Chuo University first-year whose 4x100 m anchor leg at May's Kanto Regionals was heard 'round the world and who went on to win 200 m gold at the World Jr. Track and Field Championships, or Ichiro Suzuki, whose running abilities were critical in him scoring his tenth consecutive year of 200 major league hits, but as a distance running site JRN can only give them their due before turning to the long distance runners.

Contrary to appearances, 2010 was an improvement over 2009. For the second year in a row only one man broke 2:10 in the m…

by Brett Larner

As the year is winding down Japan's distance runners, all the way from junior high school to the jitsugyodan corporate world, are gearing up for the national championship ekidens. It's a quirk of the system that the biggest of them all, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden, is a regional university men's event for the Kanto area around Tokyo. Twenty teams, ten men per school, each man running one of ten stages roughly a half marathon in distance over the course of two days all with a live national broadcast with 30% viewership ratings and millions more lining the course. It's hard to overstate how important and popular it is and how captivating to watch.

The 2011 Hakone Ekiden entry lists were released today and overall the field shows unparalleled quality. 45 men hold 10000 m PBs under 29 minutes, 2 of them under 28, with a raft of others holding noteworthy marks at 5000 m, 20 km and the half marathon. Takushoku University's Kenyan first-years John Maina and D…