japan running news

Yuya Yoshida 's story is really the kind you love to read. A guy who never got to run the big races at Aoyama Gakuin University until his very last chance his senior year, when he dropped a course record at the 2020 Hakone Ekiden in what he was thinking of as his last race. Then a 2:08:30 marathon debut for 3rd at Beppu on his coach's advice. Then a 2:07:05 win at the Fukuoka International Marathon later the same year after deciding to keep going and joining the GMO corporate team. A few years of setbacks, then a 2:06:37 PB in Osaka this spring. And now this. A 2:05:16 CR for the win in Fukuoka, 1:02:58 at halfway and a smoking 1:02:18 mostly solo 2nd half, 2 seconds under the old record set back in pre-super shoe days in 2009 by the great Tsegaye Kebede . Really, what else is there to say? Yoshida was great. In the pack through 25 km, then throwing down at dropping 2:06:31 man Yusuke Nishiyama and everyone else except Israeli Tadesse Getahon , who lasted another 5 km befor...

The Dec. 1 Fukuoka International Marathon is the first of this winter season's big selection races for the home soil team for next year's Tokyo World Championships, and the domestic field is a great one. Kenya Sonota , 2:05:59 in Tokyo last year, and 2:06 men Yusuke Nishiyama , Yuya Yoshida , Kazuya Nishiyama and Daisuke Doi make up the main contenders to get a spot, with internationals Lemeck Too , Jie He , Bethwel Yegon , Vincent Raimoi , last year's winner Michael Githae , and Shaohui Yang perfectly positioned to add momentum to the shot at the 2:06:30 Worlds standard that they'll all be taking. 8 other Japanese men in the 2:07 to 2:09 range make it one of the most competitive Fukuoka editions in a long, long time. Last year Githae outkicked Yang by 1 second to win 2:07:08 to 2:07:09, Yang with a Chinese NR that was broken a few months later by He in Wuxi. Chinese men's marathoning has momentum right now too, and it wouldn't be surprising to see either He...

In the early days of the Hakone Ekiden Koreans were the first group from outside Japan to run and make an impact on the event's history . 60 years after the first two Koreans ran Hakone, Kenyan Douglas Wakiihuri became the first Kenyan to come to Japan to run when he joined the S&B corporate team. After he won the 1987 Rome World Championships marathon and took silver a year later in the Seoul Olympics the door was open for Kenyan and other African athletes to follow Wakiihuri's lead to the corporate leagues, to universities, and even to high schools. Tsutomu Akiyama was responsible for bringing the first two Kenyans to Hakone, recruiting Joseph Otwori and Kennedy Manyisa Isena to go to Yamanashi Gakuin University . "I went to Kenya to see what the people and environment were like," he told JRN. "I watched a cross-country race and thought, 'We have to get someone like that to run for Yamanashi Gakuin.'" Yamanashi Gakuin had debuted at Hakon...

With less than 4 weeks to go the organizers of the Dec. 3 Fukuoka International Marathon have announced this year's elite field. And here it is. The field is set up to try to help top Japanese man Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima), who fell and dropped out during last month's Olympic marathon trials, to 2:05:50, where he'll take the third spot on the Paris Olympic team away from trials 3rd-placer Suguru Osako (GMO). Hosoya ran 2:06:35 in the Miracle at Lake Biwa in 2021, but although he's been pretty stable since then he hasn't been able to get under 2:08 again. Abebe Negewo Degefa (Ethiopia) is the only athlete in the field to have gone under 2:05:50 in the last 3 years, with Kenyans Bethwel Yegon and Abel Kirui , 5th last year at age 40, both at the 2:06 level. Beyond that it looks like a solid 2:07 race with 6 men including last year's 2nd through 4th-placers Vincent Raimoi (Suzuki), Michael Githae (Suzuki) and Australian NR breaker Brett Robinson . An in...

Japan had not one but two top-level men's marathons happening at the same time today. Conditions were a little too windy at the rescendent Fukuoka International Marathon to produce the kind of times organizers were hoping for, but there was still a great race up front. Almost dead-even on 3:00/km pace the entire way despite a building headwind from around 11 km to 18 km and again from 25 km to 32 km, and a strong tailwind from 32 km to the track finish, by 35 km a lead pack of 30 dwindled down to just 2021 winner Michael Githae (Suzuki), debuting teammate Vincent Raimoi (Suzuki), 40-year-old double world champ Abel Kirui (Kenya) and Ethiopian Israeli Maru Teferi . Teferi didn't really break it apart as much as he held steadier than everyone else. From 30 to 35 km he clocked 15:01 and from 35 to 40 km 14:59, while the other three slowed to the 15:17~15:23 range on the way to 40 km. Teferi kept that pace all the way to the end, winning in a PB 2:06:43 that broke his own Israe...

Things are in kind of a strange situation this December when it comes to Japanese marathons. When the Fukuoka International Marathon announced it was shutting down after last year's 75th race the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon two weeks later was quick to move to Fukuoka's traditional first-Sunday-of-December date for 2022. When the announcement came of Fukuoka's return it was like a game of musical chairs, with both races trying to cram into the same day. As a result you've got a pretty serious split when it comes to domestic entries. Fukuoka has its traditional small international field to justify its name, veteran Abel Kirui (Kenya) facing off against a trio of 2:06 men, past winners Yemane Tsegaye (Ethiopia) and Michael Githae (Kenya/Suzuki), Marugame Half winner Brett Robinson (Australia), the debuting sub-60 half marathoner Vincent Raimoi (Kenya/Suzuki) and more. The domestic field has three men at 2:08 and six at 2:09, Daiji Kawai (Toenec) leading the way with a ...

The Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon returns Apr. 24 with a mostly Japan-based field that at least on the men's side is still just about the best in its 11-year history.  On the women's side, 2022 National Corporate Half Marathon winner Dolphine Nyaboke Omare is the heavy favorite after running 1:07:56 to win the corporate title. Australian Sinead Diver , a DNF at last month's Nagoya Women's Marathon, is the only other woman in the field to have broken 70 minutes in the last 3 years with a 1:08:50 in Marugame 2 years ago. Along with Eloise Wellings and Natalie Rule Diver is part of an Australian trio that is the only segment of the race coming from outside Japan. Yuma Adachi (Kyocera) and Anna Matsuda (Denso) are the top Japanese women, Adachi with a 1:10:21 in Osaka in January and Matsuda a 1:10:29 behind Omare in February. Nobody is coming from overseas to run in the men's race, but the Japan-based Kenyan field is just about as good as Gifu could hope for any year....

Heavy favorite Aoyama Gakuin University set up for its sixth overall Hakone Ekiden  victory in the last eight years, taking the Day One win by over two and a half minutes and leading defending champ Komazawa University  by more than three.  Yamato Yoshii  (Chuo Univ.), Japan's 5000 m U20 NR holder and 2nd-fastest U20 half marathoner, led the 21.3 km opening leg start to finish, starting with a 2:50 CR pace opening km, splitting 27:58 at 10 km, and ending at 1:00:40, 26 seconds under the old record held by Yuki Sato and equivalent to a 1:00:06 half marathon. The rest of the field was fast too, Komazawa's Takumi Karasawa leading them in in 1:01:19 with AGU's Hayato Shiki  6 seconds further back. Komazawa's top man Ren Tazawa , who ran an all-time Japanese #2 27:23.44 for 10000 m last month, took his time calmly reeling in Chuo's Shun Teshima on the 23.1 km Second Stage, taking just over 7 km to close the gap and never looking back once he did. The expectation ...

The 100th edition of Japan's biggest collegiate meet, the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships kicked off Thursday at Kanagawa's Gion Stadium. Or more exactly it kicked off at the Yomiuriland amusement park closer to Tokyo, where the men's half marathon was held on a closed circuit course inside the park. D1 top three Vincent Raimoi  (Kokushikan Univ.), Charles Ndungu  (Nihon Univ.) and Paul Onyiego  (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) stayed together the entire way until Raimoi pulled away in the last sprint to win in 1:01:13. Ndungu clocked 1:01:14 and Onyiego 1:01:15. 4th-placer Shunsuke Shikama (Juntendo Univ.) just missed, running 1:02:26 for the top Japanese spot with the next four all under 1:03. The D2 race was just as exciting and almost as deep, Ryo Nishikubo  (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and Kyosuke Hanao  (Komazawa Univ.) outkicking Luka Musembi (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.)) and both timed at 1:02:00 but Nishikubo earning the win. Musembi was 3rd...

It was a strange sight to see the biggest race of them all run through empty streets mostly stripped of the millions of fans who always line them. But as Japan's coronavirus bill comes due, it was a relief just to see the Hakone Ekiden 's 97th running happen at all. The first km of the 21.3 km First Stage was possibly the slowest in Hakone history, with the entire field practically walking its way through the first 800 m before Kiseki Shiozawa  (Tokai Univ.) got it moving enough to clock a 3:35 opening split. Things quickly picked up to more normal between 2:50 and 2:55/km, but the slow start meant that 18 out of the field of 21 were still together when the pack hit the climb onto the bridge just before 20 km. There and on its downhill end some of the bigger names made moves that broke the pack down, with Shiozawa and Koki Kamata  (Hosei Univ.) pulling away to make it a head-to-head race for the stage title.  Surprisingly Kamata was the one who got away, giving Hosei its...