japan running news

The Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai is one of the best races on the calendar in Japan or anywhere else, 43 Tokyo-area university men's teams of 10 to 12 runners each racing a half marathon head-to-head in hopes of becoming one of the lucky 10 teams to join the field for the 2020 Hakone Ekiden. Tens of thousands of alumni, fans, and school marching bands aligned under the crisp autumn skies of suburban parkland, all united in anticipation of that single moment when the announcer calls out the name of the final team to make the cut.

In the only race of its kind on the university circuit, teams are scored on the aggregate time of their first 10 finishers, with the 10 fastest going on to January's main event. In warm and sunny conditions that seemed to hold times back by about a minute, Ledama Kisaisa (Obirin Univ.) led the way in 1:01:01 to become the first man in 18 years to win the Yosenkai 3 years in a row. After setting a 1:00:44 course record last year Kisaisa sought to become the f…

Tokyo Kokusai University made history Sunday night at Kanagawa’s Sagamihara Gion Stadium, winning the Kanto Region Qualifier for November’s National University Ekiden to make the national championship ekiden for the first time.

One of the wave of new programs to break onto the Hakone scene in recent years, won by a margin of just 13 seconds for the combined times of its eight runners in four heats of 10000 m, downing major established schools like Meiji University, Waseda University and Nittai University to take the top spot. A big part of that was first-year Vincent Yegon, who won the most competitive heat in 28:04.56 to give Tokyo Kokusai an edge on cumulative time. But with a margin of more than 2:40 over the final qualifying team, 5th-place Chuo Gakuin University, the rest of the team pulled its weight and would have almost certainly qualified even without the boost from Yegon.

Chuo University was the unlucky 6th-placer at less than 18 seconds behind Chuo Gakuin, about 2 seconds p…

At the May 12 Sendai International Half Marathon, Akito Terui (25, ND Software) finished 6th overall in 1:03:01. As a member of the Kanto Student Alliance team Terui ran the fastest time on the anchor stage at the 2017 Hakone Ekiden. Running for the Nanyo, Yamagata-based ND Software team, Terui embraces the slogan 'From the Northeast to the World.' In Sendai he beat a number of athletes who have qualified for September's MGC Race, the new trials event that will determine the marathon team for the Tokyo Olympics, marking him as a potential contender for future Olympic teams.

In one of the nation's leading half marathons Terui made his presence felt among the elite competitors. Starting off in the third group, mid-race he began to move up through the field to finish as the 4th Japanese man. Three runners he beat in the final stages, 7th-place Daichi Kamino (New Balance), 8th-place Yoshiki Takenouchi (NTT Nishi Nihon) and 10th-place Masato Imai (Toyota Kyushu), were MGC …

In preparation for its second-straight appearance at the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden, Tokyo Kokusai University held an open practice session for the media at its campus in Sakado, Saitama. Among its members is 2011 World Championships 5000 m team member Kazuya Watanabe, 31. "I want to do my part to pass on the tasuki and help us make the podium," said Watanabe of his hopes for the team to improve on its 17th-place finish last time.

That time Watanabe finished 7th on Hakone's Seventh Stage. "I want to help generate momentum," he said. "If I can I want to run the Fourth Stage on Day One. I want to finish higher up in the field that I did last time, top 3 if I can." Watanabe is studying to earn a degree in physical education. During the summer he had a heavy class load. Asked about his summer training he answered tersely, "I couldn't concentrate on running." He skipped month-long team training camps in Hokkaido and Gifu in late July to attend c…

by Brett Larner

The Osaka International Women's Marathon and Osaka Half Marathon were the weekend's main races, but across the country there was plenty of other action on the roads.  Highlights:

In Yamagata, Sakata Minami High School 10th-grader Masato Arao ran 29:27 for 2nd at the Yamagata Prefecture Winter Road Race 10 km, one second behind winner Shuhei Moriya.  Arao's time was 21 seconds faster than the best-ever track 10000 m time by a Japanese 10th-grade boy, Keigo Iijima's 29:48.25.Now in semi-retirement and working as an assistant coach for the Hitachi women's corporate team, former high school star Satoru Kitamura won the men's 10 km at Ibaraki's 65th Katsuta Marathon in 30:06.  Hitachi women defended their titles in both the 10 km and marathon, Ryo Koido winning the 10 km in 33:16 and Kana Kurosawa the marathon in 2:43:03 and both slightly faster than last year.  The men's marathon, by contrast, was very slow.  After a 2:13:15 course record by …