japan running news

Yuya Yoshida winning Fukuoka in CR time was a great story, and here's another one. Kana Kobayashi didn't run track or ekidens in junior high, high school, or at Waseda University and just ran for fun, but after a 2:36:54 debut at last year's Osaka International Women's Marathon and a 2:29:44 PB there this year she got an offer from the Otsuka Seiyaku corporate team. After a good championship ekiden season she ran today's Hofu Yomiuri Marathon , and with a 5-minute PB she won in a CR 2:24:59. It was an impressively even effort, 1:12:13 through halfway and breaking competition that included 2:22:29 runner Mao Uesugi and 2:23:05 runner Natsumi Matsushita . Her final margin of victory over Matsushita was almost 3 1/2 minutes, with Uesugi another 4 1/2 minutes further back. It's not quite the top level of the sport in Japan, but it for sure puts Kobayashi near the top of the list of rising talent. The men's race went through halfway on CR pace, with last ye...

The Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon is the least well-known of the four big Japanese men's marathons in five weeks, traditionally a place for debuts and 2nd-tier talent. And for the second year in a row a debuting Waseda University runner took the top spot this time, Yota Ifuku making history as the first runner ever to break 2:11 in Nobeoka with a 2:09:26 school record for the win. 5th on the Hakone Ekiden's Eighth Stage for Waseda six weeks ago, Ifuku was at the front of the pack of 19 at halfway in an ambitious 1:05:02. Just past 25 km he took off with a 15:10 split to 30 km that put him out front by 28 seconds, then went even faster with a 15:06 to 35 km. With a 38-second negative split Ifuku broke the tape in 2:09:26, one minute 39 seconds under the older CR of 2:11:05 set by Yuichi Washio back in 2006. 【 #延岡西日本マラソン 　速報】 🥇1位　伊福陽太(3) 2:09:26 (速報) 伊福が早稲田記録の2:09:50を更新する2:09:26で優勝！ この記録は大会記録＆学生歴代5位！！ 昨年の佐藤航希に続き、早稲田勢がこの大会2連覇です #臙脂で染めろ pic.twitter.com/uIra5rh3uh — 早稲田大学競走部 (...

After a rough start to the season last month at the Izumo Ekiden , Tokai University lived up to its #1 ranking as it held off defending national champion Aoyama Gakuin University on the anchor stage of the National University Men's Ekiden to win its first national title in 16 years. In a lot of ways it was one of the more chaotic major university ekidens in recent memory, with almost every team that ended up on the eight-deep podium suffering at least one disastrous stage that saw one of its runners finish in the double digit placings on stage time. But over Nationals' full eight-stage, 106.8 km course these seemed to cancel each other out, the expected top nine teams all landing in the top ten with one unexpected interloper. A bizarrely slow First Stage, 15:20 through 5 km, resulted in a predictably blazing last 4.5 km, with last year's Second Stage winner Tomoya Ogikubo (Josai Univ.) getting away to hand off in 1st in 27:49 almost 10 seconds up on top two-ranked...

Kenyan James Ndiwa Bunuka took the top spot at Sunday's Yaizo Minato Half Marathon , the first runner from Surugadai University to win in Yaizu's 33-year history. Bunuka had pressure early on from three members of 2017 Izumo Ekiden winner Tokai University , but over the second half he pulled away to win by a 22-second margin in 1:03:49. Haruki Minatoya led teammates Shun Yuzawa and Takeshi Nishida in 2nd in 1:04:11. 第30回記念大学ペアマラソン[結果] 優勝 ブヌカ・ジェームス(1)1'03"49 6位 西沢 晃佑(4)1'05"07 河合 拓巳(2)1'07"25 総合2位 2'08"56 応援ありがとうございました！ pic.twitter.com/q0Ut9Lgr0F — 駿河台大学 駅伝部 (@surugadi) April 8, 2018 Yaizu Minato features a unique "pair marathon" team scoring competition, with universities entering three-runner teams from which the top two's times are combined to produce the pair marathon score. Tokai won the pair marathon in 2:08:28, Surugadai a surprise 2nd in 2:08:56. 21 other teams took part, Asia University rounding out...

Sunday morning featured two big half marathons in Tokyo and Kyushu, both impacted by an unseasonal heat wave that swept the country over the weekend. At the National University Men's Half Marathon in Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park, Ryuya Kajitani (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) timed a break perfectly to win his first national title in 1:03:20. Hanging back in a secondary pack as rivals Takeshi Nishida (Tokai Univ.) and Shogo Ise (Komazawa Univ.) duked it out up front through most of the race, Kajitani went to the front with 5 km to go. Ise tried to match him but fell behind and ended up 2nd in 1:03:31, Nishida another 5 seconds back in 1:03:36 for 3rd. Four-time Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin placed three runners in the top ten without running any of its A-list men, a sign that depth was down overall from some of the record-breaking mass finishes in recent years. National University Men’s Half leaders 14:47 at 5k. Huge uninterrupted pack. pic.twitter.com/zBykCalXok — Japan Running Ne...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20170131-00000258-sph-spo translated by Brett Larner After a recruiting coup with its 2016-17 incoming class that saw eight first-years run sub-14 for 5000 m, sub-29 for 10000 m and/or sub-1:03 for the half marathon, Tokai University will see another class of "super rookies" in 2017-18.  The top three finishers on the First Stage at last December's National University High School Ekiden , its most competitive and prestigious stage, have all enrolled at Tokai, stage winner Ryota Natori (Saku Chosei H.S.), runner-up Kiseki Shiozawa (Iga Hakuho H.S.) and 3rd-placer Takeshi Nishida (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.). Looking at the previous year's First Stage, including both second and third-years at the time 7 of the top 10 will now be running at Tokai.  Every spring Tokai head coach Hayashi Morozumi holds a training camp to which he invites 200 runners from the ten best running high schools from across the country.  Explaining the secret ...

by Brett Larner videos by aoshin0507 and  Ekiden News The 2016 Japanese National High School Track and Field Championships wrapped up with a bang, the last three races delivering some of the best action seen in the meet's five days.  The girls' 3000 m final was out fast from the gun, a 68 second first lap immediately separating most of the field from a six-strong front pack that included Kenyans Helen Ekarare (Sendai Ikuei H.S.), Tabita Njeri Kamau (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.), Monica Margaret (Aomori Yamada H.S.) and Marta Mokaya (Oita Tomei H.S.) and Japanese runners Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu (Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S.) and Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.).  The front group stayed together through 2000 m, splitting 2:56 and 5:59 before Takamatsu, Tanaka and Mokaya slipped off the back. Ekarare, just 12th in the final last year, drove on to drop Kamau and Margaret for the win in 8:55.06, the 4th-fastest time ever by a foreign runner at a Japanese high school. ...

by Brett Larner video by Akiko Sani Brown Day Three of the World Youth Championships was relatively quiet for the Japanese contingent.  Of the two finals featuring Japanese athletes, Yuki Shibata (Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.) had better luck, placing 7th in the girls' 2000 mSC in 6:48.41, seconds out of the top 5 but 30 seconds behind winner Celliphine Chepteek Chespol (Kenya).  After running a 46.85 PB in the boys' 400 m semifinals, Minato Sasaki (Morioka Minami H.S.) struggled in the final, finishing last in 47.54. Two of Japan's gold medal contenders moved on through the opening rounds without problems.  100 m gold medalist Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Josai Prep H.S.) won his 200 m heat in 21.19, jogging down the home straight with ease, while boys' pole vault favorite Masaki Ejima (Eda H.S.) likewise advanced after clearing 4.95 m.  Kazuki Tamura (Shimonoseki Shogyo H.S.) also advanced in the boys' 200 m, with Takaaki Yoshida (Kanonji Chuo H.S.) joining...