japan running news

by Brett Larner Near typhoon conditions throughout Japan on Friday and Saturday brought a nationwide heat wave and strong winds on Sunday, less than ideal for a handful of major races across the country. The biggest of them, the Olympic selection-edition Yokohama International Women's Marathon, turned into a race of attrition decided by a final kick to the new waterfront finish, Yokohama's third course in three runnings.  With all three female pacemakers running into trouble and dropping out suddenly at 8, 12 and 19 km rather than the planned 25 km, the race proceeded slower than the planned 2:22 pace, but favorites nevertheless dropped behind one by one.  After a conservative first half far behind the lead pack, 2008 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Mara Yamauchi  (Great Britain) took the lead just before 25 km.  After a big move from Kaoru Nagao  (Team Univ. Ent.) at 31 km the race came down to three, defending champion Yoshimi Ozaki  (Team...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20100731-OHT1T00286.htm http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2010/08/01/10.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Tenri Seko at Nationals, July 31. Click photo for full-sized image. The third son of marathon and ekiden legend Toshihiko Seko (54), Tokai Prep Urayasu H.S. senior Tenri Seko (18) ran the 800 m at the 2010 National High School Track and Field Championships July 31st on Amami island. The younger Seko ran 1:57.10, finishing 3rd in his heat. After the race he revealed that next year he will attend Tokai University where his goal is to make the school's Hakone Ekiden squad. Tenri ran the 5th heat at Nationals, leading until the final 100 m when he was outkicked. Finishing only 3rd, he did not advance to the semifinal. "My goal was to make the final," he said with obvious disappointment. "I'm still not strong enough yet, and I didn't have my mental game together today either. But I know I'm capable ...

by Brett Larner The 2009 National University Ekiden takes place this Sunday, Nov. 1. Twenty-five teams will line up in the eight-stage 106.8 km championships to try to take the crown away from three-time defending champion Komazawa University. TV Asahi will broadcast the ekiden live nationwide from 8:00 a.m. to 1:40 p.m. Japan time, and international viewers will be able to watch online by clicking here . For the first time ever, JRN will offer live English-language commentary on a major Japanese race broadcast. Click here to follow live raceday commentary via Twitter feed. Komazawa is without a doubt the school to beat. By far the most dominant team in the country over the past ten years, Komazawa's poor performance at the 2009 Hakone Ekiden proved to be just a glitch as it returned in force earlier this month to win the Hakone Ekiden Qualifier 20 km where its top three runners broke one hour with several more less than 10 seconds off. Head coach Hiroaki Oyagi 's prioritie...

by Brett Larner Daniel Gitau in another stage-record win. Click photo for full-sized version. Running in his final Izumo Ekiden on Oct. 12, Kenyan senior Daniel Gitau delivered Nihon University the win for the second year in a row. Last year Gitau started the 10.2 km anchor stage 1:29 behind the lead and won by a margin of 14 seconds. The only sub-28 minute 10000 m runner in the field, this year he confidently predicted before the race that if he was within two minutes of the leader at the start of the anchor stage he would again take first. He was clearly thinking of his Japanese rivals and not of another Kenyan. Nihon University first-year Kenyan Benjamin Gando made his ekiden debut on the first stage, putting Nihon into 3rd. The rest of the Nihon team kept the school toward the front of the field, with only fifth stage runner Kentaro Ikeya slipping back to 5th. Things looked set for an easy ride for Gitau except that Yamanashi Gakuin University's Kota Otani delivered a stage-be...

by Brett Larner Japan's ekiden season begins each year with the university men's Izumo Ekiden , a 44 km six-stage course pitting the Kanto-region Hakone Ekiden schools against the best the rest of the country has to offer and a team made up of Ivy League alumni. With individual stages ranging from 5.0 to 10.2 km Izumo is completely different in character from other university ekidens, with less emphasis on strategy and endurance and more on pure speed. This was clear at last year's Izumo when Kenyan Daniel Gitau (Nihon Univ.) made up a 1:29 deficit on leaders Komazawa university over the 10.2 km anchor stage to steal the win with a stage-record 28:28. Gitau returns to lead Nihon, but despite the graduation of top Japanese member Takuma Sasaya Nihon must be viewed as the favorite once again, particularly if it fields but Gitau and first-year Benjamin Gando. It is unusual for a Japanese race to allow a team to field two foreign runners, but at last year's Izumo 4th-placer...

by Brett Larner Jonathan Ndiku, Kazuhiro Maeda and Martin Mukule battle in the Pro A heat. With the ekiden season drawing to a close, jitsugyodan and university teams across Japan are in the process of finalizing their lineups for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden and the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden . Massive track time trials are common this time of year; last week JRN detailed the 199th Nittai University Time Trials meet. This week on Nov. 29 Team Konica Minolta hosted the National Long Distance Meet series of 10000 m time trials at Tokyo's National Stadium. Not a public meet in the usual sense of something publicized to attract fans, the National Long Distance Meet is in fact a day-long set of 19 heats of men's time trials, 13 for university students and 6 for jitsugyodan runners and a select few university aces, along with one 5000 m heat for university women. All 6 of the professional heats featured top Kenyans as pacemakers, most notably 2:06:16 marathoner Daniel Njenga (Team Yaku...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20081008-00000018-sanspo-spo translated by Brett Larner Twenty-two teams are lined up to compete in the first of the season's big three university ekidens, Oct. 13's 20th anniversary Izumo Ekiden, a six-stage 44 km event covering a course from Izumo Great Shrine's main gate to the Izumo Dome. With a twelve-year gap since its last victory at Izumo, Waseda University is fielding a team featuring four first-year students,* among them Tomoya Nakayama. Nakayama's father is the legendary Takeyuki Nakayama, who finished 4th in the Seoul and Barcelona Olympic marathons and now coaches Team Aichi Steel,** leading many to view Tomoya as Waseda's 'secret weapon.' Waseda head coach Yasuyuki Watanabe commented, "I entered them [in Izumo] so I could try someone on one of the competitive stages. I'll definitely be using some of the first-years." Team captain Kensuke Takezawa (fourth-year), who ran the 5000 m and 10000 m at th...

by Brett Larner Men`s 5000 m national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica-Minolta) scored his second victory of the 2008 Japanese National Track and Field Championships, winning the 5000 m in 13:47.81. Although his winning time was far from the Olympic A-standard, Matsumiya came to the competition holding a valid A-standard and thus is guaranteed a spot on the Beijing Olympics team in the 5000 m to go with the spot he holds in the 10000 m. The real story, however, was not Matsumiya`s win but the return of Waseda University senior Kensuke Takezawa. Takezawa, one of the most talented runners Japan has ever produced, has been seriously injured since December and has not raced since January`s Hakone Ekiden. He was on the start list for the National Championships 10000 m but did not run. His appearance in the 5000 m caused audible surprise within Todoroki Stadium. Takezawa ran a conservative race, staying far back in the pack and not moving up until the final kilometer. With 200 m...

by Brett Larner In miserable conditions of rain and snow with temperatures of 3 degrees, Nagano overcame rivals Hyogo and a strong performance by Aichi on Jan. 20 to take back the title it lost at last year's All-Japan Men's Interprefectural Ekiden . The Interprefectural Ekiden features a 7-stage, 48 km course starting and ending at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. Like last week's women's edition of the event, teams in the Interprefectural Ekiden include star professional, university, high school and junior high school runners from each of Japan's 47 prefectures. It is an unusual sight to see young runners barely into their teens handing off to Olympian teammates, but this is one of the Interprefectural Ekiden's unique points. The last four years have been duels between Nagano and Hyogo, with Nagano coming out on top for three years straight before Hyogo's victory last year on the strength of its anchor Satoru Kitamura's dominating performance. This...

http://www.shinmai.co.jp/news/20080118/KT080117IWI090004000022.htm translated by Brett Larner The All-Japan Men's Interprefectural Ekiden takes places in Hiroshima this Sunday, Jan. 20. The course starts from Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park and covers 48 km in 7 stages. Last year's winner Hyogo Prefecture took the victory with a 1 minute 33 second margin over runner-up Nagano Prefecture, but this year with a strong group of university and high school students Nagano will be looking for its first victory in 2 years. World-class student runners who will be trying to help bring Nagano the victory include Yuichiro Ueno (Chuo University, Saku Chosei High School) and Yuki Sato (Tokai University, Saku Chosei High School). Sato, who set a new stage record on the 7th stage of this year's Hakone Ekiden, will be running the 8.5 km 3rd stage, while Ueno will be running the 13 km anchor stage for the 1st time in 3 years. The high school student stages will be dominated by members of...

by Brett Larner The 2nd place finishers at this year's Hakone Ekiden have made a major advance toward returning to the winner's podium after a 15-year absence. On Jan. 4, Waseda University announced that the top three runners from this year's crop of high school graduates will enter Waseda this April.* The new recruits include Yuki Yagi of Nishiwaki Kogyo High School, Yusuke Mita of Toyokawa Kogyo High School, and Takuya Nakayama of Suma Gakuen High School. Yagi, Mita and Nakayama finished 1-2-3 in the 2007 National High School 5000 m Championships and, along with fellow recruit Taro Inoue of Yawatahama High School, represent a major coup for Waseda. In the 2008 Hakone Ekiden Waseda suffered from weak performances by its injured star Kensuke Takezawa and several of its runners on the last few stages. Nevertheless, thanks in large part to outstanding mountain stage performances by Ryuta Komano and Sota Kota it won Day One and did not give up the lead to eventual winners Ko...