japan running news

This was Japan's biggest marathon weekend since pre-pandemic, with at least four major races going off as scheduled. With 11,597 finishers the Kanazawa Marathon was the fastest of them. Last year's women's winner Mai Fujisawa , 48, ran her fastest time of her six certified marathons so far this year, winning again in 2:38:29. Erika Omi led 8 other women under 2:50, 2nd to Fujisawa in 2:42:55. The men's race was closer, with Kenta Fukumura edging last year's winner Junichi Ushiyama by 17 seconds to win in 2:16:20. 3rd-placer Hayato Sugimoto was the only other runner under 2:20, running 2:19:27. The Mito Komon Manyu Marathon in Ibaraki also saw a close men's race. Former Nihon University star and longtime Japan resident Benjamin Ngandu returned from a 4-year drug suspension to win in a course record 2:18:02, outkicking this year's 100 km World Championships silver medalist Jumpei Yamaguchi by 12 seconds. Shinobu Ayabe won the women's race in 2:4...

In view of the continued development of the coronavirus crisis, the Yokohama Marathon organizing committee has decided to cancel the 2020 Yokohama Marathon , originally scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 1. Despite uncertainty about the future development of the disease, the organizing committee believed that the situation would improve in time for this year's race and opened entries on Apr. 1. But with the extension of the national declaration of emergency announced earlier this week, the organizing committee consulted a wide range of experts on whether an event with 28,000 runners, more than 8,000 volunteers, and many more roadside supporters could safely be held in November. The consensus was that at the present time it is not possible to plan adequate safety measures, recruit volunteers, or guarantee provision of on-site sanitation measures to combat the virus. Even if the coronavirus situation were to improve by November, due to the nature of the mass-participation marathon the ...

With the 22nd typhoon of the season hitting Japan's eastern coast, five of Japan's biggest amateur marathons faced the decision of whether to go ahead as scheduled. The biggest of them, the third running of the  Yokohama Marathon , 10th largest in the world last year with 22,594 finishers, was the only one to cancel, a controversial decision that went out Saturday evening ahead of milder-than-expected conditions on race morning. With almost 13,000 finishers last year, the Kanazawa Marathon scored a new course record in its third edition as Kazuya Deguchi (Asahi Kasei) won in 2:18:44, the event's first sub-2:20 apart from disqualified Russian Victor Ugarov 's 2:17:19 at Kanazawa's first running two years ago . Deguchi ran Kanazawa as a tuneup for December's Fukuoka International Marathon. Mitsuko Ino (R2 Nishi Nippon) took eight minutes off the women's course record with a 2:42:24 win. For the second time in its three runnings to date, local res...

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20150407/k10010040411000.html translated by Brett Larner It has come to light that the new mass participation Yokohama Marathon held for the first time last month in Yokohama did not receive certification from the JAAF because its course did not cover the complete full marathon distance.  Held on March 15th, the first running of the Yokohama Marathon featured 23,000 runners making it the third-largest in the country behind Tokyo and Osaka.  The scenic course passed many of Yokohama's most famous landmarks such as Chinatown and Yamashita Park, but it has become apparent that its length was less than the full marathon's standard 42.195 km. According to the organizing committee, on the day of the race they received notification from the JAAF that the official course measurement they had requested indicated that the course was shorter than the full marathon distance by at least several tens of meters, and that the event would be denied certif...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20141022/ath14102221220003-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Oct. 22 the organizers of the Nov. 16 Yokohama International Women's Marathon revealed that the event, jointly operated by the JAAF and the Asahi Newspaper group, will be discontinued after this year's sixth running due to ongoing financial difficulties with the race.  As a continuation of the former Tokyo International Women's Marathon it played an important role in establishing the prosperity of Japanese women's distance running over its 36-year history, a history on which the curtain is now set to fall after this year's race. Established in 1979 to encourage the participation and development of female athletes, the Tokyo International Women's Marathon was the first women-only marathon in the world to be officially certified by the IAAF and led directly to the introduction of a women's marathon to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.  It laid the ...