japan running news

Yuta Shitaraage: 27
sponsor: Honda
graduated from: Musashi Ogose H.S., Toyo University

best time inside MGC window:
2:06:11, 2nd, 2018 Tokyo Marathon (NR)

PB: 2:06:11, 2nd, 2018 Tokyo Marathon (NR)

other PBs:
5000 m: 13:34.68 (2015) 10000 m: 27:41.97 (2017) half marathon: 1:00:17 (NR, 2017)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
1st, 2019 Gold Coast Marathon, 2:07:50
4th, 2018 Fukuoka International Marathon, 2:10:25
2nd, 2018 Tokyo Marathon, 2:06:11 (NR)
6th, 2017 Berlin Marathon, 2:09:03

other major results:
10th, 2019 HDC Abashiri 10000 m, 28:17.38
8th, 2019 National Championships 5000 m, 13:47.31
1st, 2019 Golden Games in Nobeoka 10000 m, 27:53.67
5th, 2019 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 1:01:36
5th, 2019 Kanakuri Memorial Meet 5000 m, 13:35.70
4th, 2018 Ageo City Half Marathon, 1:01:59
1st, 2018 East Japan Corporate Ekiden Seventh Stage (12.9 km), 37:42 – CR
1st, 2018 Karatsu 10-Miler, 46:12
2nd, 2018 Marugame Half Marathon, 1:01:13
1st, 2017 Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, 45:…

Just over seven months since Yuta Shitara broke Toshinari Takaoka's longstanding 2:06:16 national record from the 2002 Chicago Marathon with a 2:06:11 in Tokyo in February, U.S.-based Suguru Osako brought the record back home to Chicago with a 3rd-place finish in 2:05:50.

Running the same pattern as in his first two marathons, Osako sat back in the lead men's pack, never exerting himself as it whittled down to the core members. Just past the turn into Chinatown near 35 km his Nike Oregon Project teammate and 2017 Chicago winner Galen Rupp fell off the front group to leave Osako in contention with former NOP member Mo Farah, 2:04 Ethiopian Mosinet Gemerew, former Asahi Kasei runner Kenneth Kipkemoi and 2017 world champion Geoffrey Kirui.

As in Boston and Fukuoka last year, when the real move came, this time in the form of a surge by Farah and Gemerew, Osako was left behind to battle it out for 3rd. While Farah kicked away for the win by 13 seconds in a European record 2:05:11,…

Motivated in part by the legacy of Toshinari Takaoka's longstanding former national record of 2:06:16 at its 2002 race, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon has long been a draw for top-level Japanese athletes male and female. Few men have made much of an impact in Chicago, with none making the top five in the last 14 years and only two, Hiroaki Sano and Koji Kobayashi, breaking 2:11 in the same time period. But they still keep coming, and this year's crew of five looks to have the best chance of bettering the results of the last decade and a half.

【#シカゴ・マラソン】
10月7日（日）号砲🔥#川内優輝 選手（埼玉県庁）、#大迫傑 選手（Nike）、#木滑良 選手（MHPS）、#鈴木洋平 選手（愛三工業）、#藤本拓 選手（トヨタ自動車）の大会前コメントです🇯🇵🎤🙋‍♂️
▼こちらから▼https://t.co/En6uRnqTNj#JAAF#陸上#ChicagoMarathon#MGCpic.twitter.com/VyjFpTjzdI — JAAF（日本陸上競技連盟） (@jaaf_official) October 6, 2018
Taku Fujimoto(Toyota)

PB: 2:15:30 (15th, Lake Biwa Marathon, 2018)
Major recent results:
7:59.30 - PB (6th, Hokuren Distance Challenge Fukagawa meet 3000 m, 2018)

Fujimoto got a flash …

A Bank of America Chicago Marathon press release

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon announced today that reigning Boston Marathon champion and “citizen runner” Yuki Kawauchi and 2016 Olympian and Nike Oregon Project runner Suguru Osako will join the elite competition as they both seek to become the first Chicago Marathon champion from Japan since Toshihiko Seko took the crown in 1986.

"I'm really happy to have the chance to race in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and the Abbott World Marathon Majors," Kawauchi said. "I'm looking forward to running the same race where Toshinari Takaoka set the former national record and so many other great Japanese athletes have run well. My results in the other American Abbott World Marathon Majors races, Boston and New York, were pretty good, and I'll do everything I can to line up in Chicago ready to produce good results there too."

“Yuki and Suguru are exciting additions to our elite field,” said Executive Rac…

Former Japanese men's national record holder in the marathon and Kanebo corporate ekiden team head coach Toshinari Takaoka, 47, appeared at a training and conditioning symposium last week in Osaka to discuss his training during his career as an athlete. His talk revealed the secret of how to successfully tackle 42.195 km.

Before Yuta Shitara (26, Honda) set a new national record at February's Tokyo Marathon, Takaoka's mark of 2:06:16 stood as the Japanese national record for 16 years. In his lecture Takaoka mainly discussed his training for the 2003 Fukuoka International Marathon, a selection race for the 2004 Athens Olympics marathon team. Takaoka focused on five points:
40 km runsmileageutilization of racingspeed workmaintaining a pace of 3:00/km From August through November that year Takaoka did nine 40 km runs at 3:30/km for a total time of 2 hours and 20 minutes. "At first 40 km runs were painful because I wasn't accustomed to the distance," he said. &qu…

At Sunday's Tokyo Marathon, half marathon Japanese national record holder Yuta Shitara (26, Honda) ran 2:06:11 to set a new Japanese national record. Taking almost 3 minutes off his PB, Shitara bettered the old record set by Toshinari Takaoka in 2002 by 5 seconds. Shitara finished 2nd overall, 41 seconds behind winner Dickson Chumba (Kenya).

With his record having stood for almost 16 years, Takaoka gave his blessings, saying, "My record being beaten has made the path forward to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics brighter. When I saw Shitara's race in Tokyo last year I knew the day my record would fall was close at hand."

Comparing the 2002 race where he set the old record of 2:06:16 and this year's Tokyo Marathon, Takaoka said, "Running a Japanese national record requires the right combination of weather, competition, pacing, and physical condition. It was a great thing for Shitara that Hiroto Inoue was there running ahead of him as well. The most important thing that…

On Jan. 23 the JFE Steel men's corporate team announced the hiring of former Kanebo head coach Kumimitsu Ito, 63, as its new head coach effective Feb. 1. During his days as an athlete Ito was named to the 1980 Moscow Olympic team prior to Japan's boycott of the Games. At the 1986 Beijing Marathon he ran 2:07:57 for 2nd, breaking the then-national record along with winner Taisuke Kodama. As a coach he led Toshinari Takaoka to set the current Japanese national record of 2:06:16 in the marathon. Takaoka later succeeded him as head coach at Kanebo.

JFE Steel's roster features 12 athletes including Kenyan Charles Ndirangu, a graduate of Sera H.S., and Yudai Okamoto, an Okayama Kogyo H.S. and  Chuo Gakuin University graduate. This season the team failed to qualify for the New Year Ekiden national championships for the first time in 42 years. Hired as head coach in 2014, Takashi Matsuyama, 44, will step down from his position on Jan. 31.

source article:http://www.sanyonews.jp/art…

Having left the Konica Minolta men's corporate team at the end of March this year, Keita Shitara, 25, announced on Sept. 19 that he will join the Hitachi Butsuryu team. The official announcement is scheduled for Sept. 20.

As a member of Toyo University Shitara was part of two Hakone Ekiden-winning teams before joining Konica Minolta following his graduation in 2014. His first year at Konica Minolta Shitara ran New Year Ekiden national championships' toughest stage, but since his second year he has experienced a slump. Saying, "I need to change my environment in order to get my head straight and back on track," Shitara chose to leave the team at the end of March, returning to Toyo as his training base.

The Hitachi Butsuryu team came into being in April, 2012 as the successor to the Hitachi Cable Marathon Team. It is based in Matsudo, Chiba. Under the leadership of head coach Manabu Kitaguchi, 45, it has grown steadily, placing 10th at this year's New Year Ekiden.…

Currently reading Why Does Japanese Marathoning Suck Now? by Toshimi Oriyama, a newly-published book in which the last seven Japanese men's marathon national record holders, Shigeru Soh (2:09:06, 1978), Toshihiko Seko (2:08:38, 1983), Takeyuki Nakayama (2:08:15, 1985), Taisuke Kodama (2:07:35, 1986), Takayuki Inubushi (2:06:57, 1999), Atsushi Fujita (2:06:51, 2000) and Toshinari Takaoka (2:06:16, 2002), and, in an afterward, Yuki Kawauchi, talk about their eras, the current situation and its future outlook.  It includes the record holders' training logs for the four months leading up to each of their seven national records.  Essential reading for anyone with Japanese literacy.  A translation would be the definitive English-language work on Japanese distance running, Rashomon to The Last Samurai.  Solid gold.

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2016/12/05/kiji/K20161205013849380.html

by Toshinari Takaoka, Japanese men's marathon national record holder and Kanebo head coach

translated by Brett Larner

This race brought together all of Kawauchi's past experience.  The first half was slower than expected, and the pacers dropped out earlier than scheduled. Most of the other runners were forced to make difficult decisions, but, accustomed to facing the unexpected, Kawauchi was able to make the right ones.

The race began just before 25 km, a point where it's very hard to feel like, "Time to race!"  You could see the strength of his feeling, and he more than demonstrated that he has no shortage of the most important ingredient, tenacity.

Counterintuitively, I think that the setbacks caused by his injuries may have freed him from pressure. As we saw last year at Fukuoka International when he was too focused on making the Olympic team, when he is feeling good there is more pr…

http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASH3F66N3H3FUTQP02J.html

translated by Brett Larner

A new Japanese national record in the marathon will now be worth 100 million yen.  To provide extra motivation to the Japanese marathoning world in the buildup to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Japan Industrial Track and Field Association overseeing the country's corporate running league has approved plans to establish the exceptional bonus [worth roughly $1 million USD at normal exchange rates] and will make the formal decision at a meeting of its board of directors in Tokyo on March 18.

The national records symbolize the stagnation of Japan's marathoning world.  They have not been touched since Toshinari Takaoka ran 2:06:16 in 2002 and Mizuki Noguchi ran 2:19:12 in 2005.  In the Olympics as well, nobody has won a medal since Koichi Morishita took silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and Noguchi gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

However, thanks to the popularity of the ekiden the depth of athletes…

http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASH3645Z2H36UTQP00B.html

translated by Brett Larner

On Mar. 6 Kanebo Cosmetics announced that Japanese men's 10000 m and marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka, 44, an assistant coach with the Kanebo distance running team, has been named head coach effective April 1.  Current head coach Masashi Otokita will retire.  Takaoka attended Kyoto's Rakunan H.S. and Ryukoku University before joining the Kanebo team in 1993.  He finished 7th in the 10000 m final at the 2000 Sydney Olympics before setting the national record of 27:35.09 the next year.  Turning his track speed to the marathon, at the 2002 Chicago Marathon he ran a national record 2:06:16.  Both records still stand.

Translator's note: Takaoka joined the Kanebo coaching staff in April, 2009 after retiring following a DNF at the 2009 Tokyo Marathon.  In the summer of 2013 the Kanebo team was suspended by its sponsor corporation after a scandal involving harmful side effects of Kaneb…