Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Toshinari Takaoka

MGC Race Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier - Yuta Shitara

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:…

Osako Brings Japanese National Record Back to Chicago

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,…

Know Your Japanese Runners in Chicago

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 …

Boston Marathon Champion Yuki Kawauchi and Olympian Suguru Osako Join 2018 Bank of America Chicago Marathon Elite Field

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…

Toshinari Takaoka and Eri Yamaguchi on the Secret of the Marathon

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…

Takaoka on Shitara: "He Can Compete With the Best in the World"

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…

JFE Steel Team Announces Kunimitsu Ito as New Head Coach

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…

New Half Marathon NR Holder Yuta Shitara's Twin Brother Keita Joins Hitachi Butsuryu Corporate Team

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.…

'Why Does Japanese Marathoning Suck Now?"

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.

In Takaoka's View: Kawauchi Has a Chance of Making it to the Top at World Championships

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…

Corporate League Federation to Put Up Million Dollar Bonus for New Japanese Marathon National Record

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…

Marathon National Record Holder Takaoka to Take Over as Kanebo Head Coach

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…

Osako Sets 3000 m National Record in Rieti

by Brett Larner



Already on the edge of national records for 3000 m, 2 miles, 5000 m and 10000 m, Suguru Osako (Team Nissin Shokuhin) stepped up in his last race on the summer European circuit, the 3000 m at Italy's Rieti Meeting 2014.  Partially based in the U.S. since graduating from Waseda University this spring, Osako has been training with the Alberto Salazar-coached Nike Oregon Project.  Before the race NOP assistant coach Pete Julian told JRN, "He's been hitting all the workouts with Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, so he's pretty worn out at this point.  With a couple weeks of rest he'll be stronger but we don't expect much for this race."

Despite the fatigue Osako went with the 2:29.24 opening 1000 m in Rieti, hanging on to the leaders through some ups and downs in the pacing and crossing the line in 7:40.09 to break marathon national record holder Toshinari Takaoka's 15-year-old 3000 m record by almost two seconds.  Among distances officially recorde…

Japan's Marathon Women Can Still Aim for the Win

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/running/kataru/20140723-OYT8T50026.html

translated by Brett Larner

Part of a series, an interview with former women's marathon world record holder and Sydney Olympics gold medalist Naoko Takahashi, the first woman to ever break 2:20 for the marathon.

With regard to the Japanese athletics world, ever since Mizuki Noguchi won the medal at the Athens Olympics women's long distance has taken a downturn.

Yes, it has fallen a bit, hasn't it?

Are there any athletes in particular that you're paying special attention to?

Personally speaking, I'm watching Natsuki Omori from Ritsumeikan University. She never made the National High School Championships, but now that she's in her second year of university she has just exploded and is developing quickly. She's aggressive and has really nice form, so if she can keep going like this for four years without getting injured then I want to see her go to the marathon. She's somebody I'm really ex…

Kawauchi Lays Out Two Big Goals for Hamburg

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/p-sp-tp0-20140427-1291697.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20140426-1291316.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

2014 Asian Games marathon national team member Yuki Kawauchi (27, Saitama Pref. Gov't) laid out a new goal on Apr. 26: the sub-20 marathon.  To date Kawauchi has run 34 marathons, going sub-20, 2:19:59 or better, in 33 of them and sub-10 in 6. If he runs sub-10 in his next marathon, the May 4 Hamburg Marathon, he will surpass national record holder Toshinari Takaoka to become the Japanese man with the most career sub-10s.  The new goal Kawauchi is adding to Hamburg is something he saw on a website: the Japanese record for most sub-20 marathons. "Apparently Takeshi Soh has the sub-20 record at 34 times," he said.  "Including two races on uncertified courses, I'm going to tie that number in Hamburg."

Just before the interview Kawauchi ran the 1500 m at the Nittai…

Unknown Runner Emerges, Outruns Kawauchi for Tanigawa Mari Half Course Record (updated)

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20140112-1243077.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20140112-1243078.html
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20140112-1243079.html
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20140113-OHT1T00039.htm

translated and edited with additional background information by Brett Larner

At the 15th Tanigawa Mari Half Marathon, Jan. 12 along the Arakawa River in northern Tokyo, unknown university runner Hideyuki Ikegami (20, 2nd-yr., Kyoto Kyoiku Univ.) ran 1:03:09, opening a massive lead over defending champion Yuki Kawauchi (26, Saitama Pref. Gov't) and 2012 winner Kazuyoshi Tokumoto (Team Monteroza) to take the win. Around 10 km he attacked with a series of surges before pulling away to run the final 10 km alone. Thinking, "What do you know, Kawauchi's mortal after all," Ikegami broke the finish line tape with a lead of 1:08, his time a PB by more than two and a half mi…

This One Goes Up to Eleven

by Brett Larner
photo by Dr. Helmut Winter


Boldly saying that he wanted “to go where nobody has gone before,” with his 2:09:15 second place finish at the Dec. 15 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon independent Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov’t) completed his eleventh marathon of the year, an historic accomplishment in more ways than one. Two of his marathons were sub-2:09, four sub-2:10, six sub-2:12, one a national all-comers’ record, two PBs, four course records, five wins and eight top-three finishes. All while faced with an endless chorus of people telling him that it's such a fine line between brilliant and stupid, that he can’t keep getting away with this kind of craziness.


On the individual level he set world records twice for the shortest time ever between sub-2:10 marathons, taking one day off the record when he ran 2:08:14 and 2:08:15 forty-two days apart in March and February and then knocking an unthinkable twenty-eight days off that record with his 2:09:05 at the Dec. 1 Fukuoka I…

Historic Himeji Castle 10-Miler to Fold in Favor of Full Marathon Format

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/201309/0006363197.shtml

translated by Brett Larner

A favorite of athletes from junior high to the corporate leagues, Hyogo prefecture's Himeji Castle Road Race is set to be discontinued after February's 54th running.  With a new Himeji Castle World Heritage Site Marathon set to be launched in 2015, the 10-miler's race organization committee will be dismantled and the event's long history of hosting many of the country's best athletes will come to an end.

According to the Hyogo Prefecture Track and Field Association's 50th anniversary commemorative magazine, in 1948 there was a move to inaugurate a series of 10-mile road races in January in all the major cities of the country, but in 1960 the series came to a halt.  With Hyogo's event having been held at Himeji Castle since 1954 and having already developed a reputation as a fast course, it was relaunched in 1961 as the first Himeji Castle Road Race with a certified course…

Catching Up With Arata Fujiwara

by Brett Larner


2:07:48 marathoner and London Olympian Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) is one of seven Japanese athletes running next week’s Great North Run half marathon in the U.K. with support from JRN. Out of competition with injury since a memorable run at last December’s Fukuoka International Marathon, the Great North Run will be Fujiwara’s first race of 2013. On Sept. 3 JRN met up with Fujiwara at his training base in St. Moritz, Switzerland. While doing a 33 km trail run together starting at 1772 m and peaking at 2755 m, we chatted about his current condition and plans for the upcoming season.

Are you an E.L.O. fan?  That's what I was listening to the whole way up here. "Mr. Blue Sky" came on just before the train pulled into St. Moritz station, appropriately enough.
No, I don't really know them.  I've been listening to a lot of early Pink Floyd lately.

How long have you been up here?
About a month. I needed to get away and focus for a while.

How are you fe…

Grand Tour Kyushu to End With This Year's 62nd Running

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nnp/f_sougou/article/24670

translated by Brett Larner

A fixture in local culture with runners from Kyushu, Okinawa and Yamaguchi handing off the tasuki on the late autumn roads of Kyushu, the organizers of the Grand Tour Kyushu ekiden announced that the historic event will come to an end following this year's 62nd running from Oct. 27 to Nov. 3.  Organizing board chairman Hiroshi Okazaki told reporters, "This race has long played an important role for the athletics world in Kyushu and across Japan, but we were forced to make this decision due to a combination of growing traffic and budget problems."

With enthusiastic support from dedicated athletes and fans alike the organizers have tried to make adaptations to keep the race alive.  To cope with increased automobile traffic timing rules for the white sash starts were tightened, the number of lead and accompanying vehicles was reduced and more police were employed along the course, but in recen…