japan running news

Hayashi Morozumi , 59, has stepped down as head coach at Tokai University following its 12th-place finish at this year's 102nd Hakone Ekiden. Morozumi will serve in an executive advisory role to Noriaki Nishide , 51, who moves up from the Tokai coaching staff to take on head coach duties. Morozumi came to at his alma mater Tokai in 2011 after serving at head coach at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. , where the team won the 2008 National High School Ekiden anchored by future marathon NR holder Suguru Osako . In 2019 Morozumi led Tokai to its first-ever Hakone title, making him the only coach to win both the biggest high school and college titles in his career. When Morozumi became head coach at Saku Chosei in 1995 he personally drove a bulldozer to build a cross-country loop at the school, combining his innovative coaching theory with deep passion to build the Saku Chosei program from zero to national championships in just 13 years. Along with Osako, now 34, some of his key proteges ...

After the great men's 10000 m and women's 5000 m results on day 1 of the last full Nittai University Time Trials meet of 2025, day 2 brought a lot of great 5000 m times from high schoolers, both at Nittai and at another meet in Kyoto. At Nittai, Bilith Boi (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) downed 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Subaru) in the last of the 35 heats of 5000 m, running 13:27.52 to Miura's 13:28.61. Ryo Goda (Yasukawa Denki) also got under 13:30, running 13:29.41 for 3rd, with 40-year-old Yuichiro Ueno (Hiramatsu Byoin) rocking on with a 13:32.12 for 4th. James Karuri (Aomori Yamada H.S.) was 8th in 13:35.46, with 17-year-old Naoya Doma (Sera H.S.) running an excellent 13:39.13 for 10th. Samuel Gayu and Yua Hayashi also got under 14 minutes in the same heat to make it 3 sub-14 for Sapporo Yamanote H.S. In Heat 34, Chien Tzu-Chieh (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) ran a Taiwanese NR 13:48.99 for 4th, with Yui Kudo and Yugo Yamamoto running sub-14 to bring the Aomori Yamada...

The ACN Expo Ekiden was the biggest race of the weekend domestically, but there was so much else going on domestically and internationally that it was hard to keep track. We'll do our best. Saturday in Fukuoka the Fst in Fukuoka road mile and 5 km moved from its usual fall date to a spring date for the first time. Ireland's Sophie O'Sullivan outran high school sensation Sherry Drury by 1 second for the win in the women's mile, 4:53 to 4:54. Drury's mark was a new U20 NR. The men's mile also came down to a 1-second win for Irishman Brian Fay over Japan's Jo Aoki , 4:12 to 4:13. Margaret Akidor had an easy win in the women's 5 km in 15:34, with veteran Yuichiro Ueno outrunning a doubling Fay in the men's 5 km to win in 14:07. Complete results here . The Matsue Ladies Half Marathon hosted the National University Women's Half Marathon Sunday. National champion Ritsumeikan University 's Makoto Tsuchiya outran Daito Bunka University 's...

  Fired by Rikkyo University as head coach of its track and field program four days before October's Hakone Ekiden qualifier half marathon after evidence emerged of an inappropriate relationship with a female team member , Yuichiro Ueno , 38, is set to join the Saga-based Hiramatsu Byoin corporate team in a return to a career as an athlete. Multiple corporate teams are said to have made offers for a "second chance" to Ueno, who was known as "the fastest coach in Japan," due to his ability and extensive knowledge and experience. Ueno appears to have selected the rapidly-growing Hiramatsu Byoin team from among the offers. A former star runner at Saku Chosei H.S. , Chuo University and S&B , Ueno was named head coach at Rikkyo in 2018 to lead the program back to the Hakone Ekiden in time for its 100th running in January, 2024. As part of his idiosyncratic coaching style he was known for running with the Rikkyo athletes. At last year's Hakone Ekiden qualif...

On Oct. 11 Rikkyo University announced that it has suspended Yuichiro Ueno , 38, head coach of its men's ekiden team, as of the 10th. A statement from the university's public relations department stated, "His department has determined that he is unsuitable to serve as a leader." Earlier on the 11th, the gossip magazine site Daily Shincho published an online article including a dozen photos suggesting that Ueno, who has been married since 2009 and has three children, was having an inappropriate relationship with a female member of the team. The PR department's statement said, "The university intends to consider disciplinary action after interviewing the parties involved, including the coach himself." The Rikkyo team is scheduled to compete in Saturday's qualifying race for the prestigious 100th running of the Hakone Ekiden. Ueno will not attend. After hiring the highly popular former national champion at the end of 2018 specifically to rebuild it...

Fresh off a near-miss on the world-leading men's 10000 m time with a 27:06.88 Japanese collegiate record at Nittai University on Apr. 22 , Tokyo Kokusai University 1st-year Richard Etir had the run of the day at Thursday's Golden Games in Nobeoka with the fastest outdoor 5000 m in the world so far this year, outkicking 10 mile world best holder Benard Koech (Kyudenko) and other top-level Japan-based Kenyans to win the B-heat in a new collegiate record of 13:00.17. With attendance reported by the JAAF at 22,000, fans lined the track beating on metal sponsor boards with batons to push Etir and the rest of the five-strong lead pack on to meet record times. All of them were well under the 13:10.69 MR set by Hyuga Endo last year, Koech just catching Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) for 2nd in 13:00.38, Kiplagat 3rd in 13:00.90, Michael Temoi (GMO) 4th in 13:01.48 and Benson Kiplangat (Subaru) 5th in 13:02.74. Etir's predecessor at TKU, Vincent Yegon (Honda) was 6th i...

There's a first time for everything. In the last major ekiden of the season, 37-year-old Yuichiro Ueno , head coach of the Rikkyo University team that ran the Hakone Ekiden three weeks ago, anchored the Nagano prefecture team to a second-straight course record win at the 28th National Men's Ekiden in Hiroshima. Nagano's Soma Nagahara got things off to a solid start, going one-on-one with favorite Sonata Nagashima of Hyogo on the 7.0 km 1st leg, both going under the old stage CR with Nagashima 1st in 19:39 and Nagahara only 2 seconds back. Over the next two stages Nagano dropped to 4th 20 seconds off the lead, but a pair of new CR from 4th and 5th runners and Saku Chosei H.S. teammates Shunpei Yamaguchi and Hiroto Yoshioka put the team 37 seconds ahead. 6th runner Riku Kobayashi extended that to 49 seconds, giving Ueno a margin of error of just over 3 sec/km on the 13.0 km anchor stage. Ueno first ran the National Men's Ekiden 20 years ago, passing 17 people on...

Two weeks after running 14:44.83 at Kanagawa's Nittai University Time Trials , 22-year-old Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) continued her rise up the ranks to global relevance with another stellar run at Nittai on Sunday. Running in the fastest 3000 m heat with support from 19-year-old Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera), Akidor took nearly 20 seconds off her best with an 8:32.53 for the win. That was the fastest ever run in Japan by 3 seconds and enough to put her #8 in the world this year. Mwikali was solid too at 8:37.17, almost 10 seconds under her previous best and the next-best ever run in Japan apart from two dodgy early '90s marks by Soviet athletes. 3rd-placer Mizuki Michishita (Rikkyo Univ.) was in another league at 9:13.68. Kazuna Kanetomo (Kyocera) won the women's 5000 m A-heat in 15:56.42, the only woman under 15 minutes. In the men's 5000 m Kenyan Richard Etir won the A-heat in 13:16.20, a time beaten this weekend only by Benard Koech (Kyudenko) at Fukuoka's ...

On Nov. 13 Rikkyo University , which will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2024, announced its new "Rikkyo Hakone Ekiden 2024" project, naming DeNA corporate team runner Yuichiro Ueno , 33, as head coach of its ekiden program. A graduate of Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. and Hakone powerhouse Chuo University, Ueno has been well-known for his unique personality as well as his achievements both at those schools and at the SB and DeNA teams. He will leave DeNA at the end of November and take over at Rikkyo effective Dec. 1 to lead its ekiden team to qualify for the 100th Hakone Ekiden in 2024. He plans to remain active as an athlete, training directly alongside the athletes he will supervise. If successful it will be Rikkyo's first time qualifying for the Hakone Ekiden since 1968. For a school more than half a century removed from the Hakone frontlines Rikkyo's new development project is an ambitious one, and the appointment of the idiosyncratic Ueno as head coach...

http://www.sendaihalf.com/news/#id218 translated and edited by Brett Larner We regret to announce that special invited athlete Reia Iwade (Team Noritz) has withdrawn from the May 14 Sendai International Half Marathon due to pain in her right ankle. Other notable withdrawals are listed below: Men Daichi Kamino (Konica Minolta) - illness Chihiro Miyawaki (Toyota) - illness Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA) - illness Keita Baba (Honda) - illness Kazuki Yamashita (Komazawa Univ.) - injury Makoto Ozawa (Sekino Kosan) - injury Kazuki Muramatsu (Sumitomo Denko) - other Benjamin Ngandu (Fujitsu) - illness Hiroaki Sano (Honda) - illness Hiroki Miura (Sumitomo Denki) - other Alexander Mutiso (ND Software) - illness Shota Kawano (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) - other Hinata Abe (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) - other Women Reia Iwade (Noritz) - injury Haruna Maekawa (Juhachi Ginko) - injury Miharu Shimokado (Shimamura) - team transfer Kotomi Takayama (Sysmex) - injury

by Brett Larner 2017 Kenyan Prisons XC champion Bernard Muia (Team Toyota Boshoku) made a strong Japanese debut at Saturday's Setagaya Time Trials meet in western Tokyo, outrunning teammate Amos Kirui to win the 3000 m A-heat in a PB 7:50.68.  Kirui also set a PB, running 7:51.48.  Taking 3rd, former 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA RC) was a fraction of a section of his university-era PB dating back to 2006 as he ran 7:58.03. Kenyan teammates also went 1-2 in the women's 3000 m A-heat.   Rosemary Wanjiru (Team Starts) ran one of the better times of her career to win in 8:51.61.  Her teammate Grace Kimanzi was well back in 2nd in 9:12.45, with high schooler Shuri Ogasawara (Yamanashi Gakuin Prep H.S.) not far behind in 3rd in 9:18.37. The men's 5000 m A-heat turned out to be a Kenya-Ethiopia duel.  Up front, Alfred Ngeno (Team Nissin Shokuhin) took 1st in 13:35.29 less than half a second ahead of Abiyot Abinet (Team Yachiyo K...

by Brett Larner 熊日３０k　男子　優勝　上野裕一郎選手（DeNA） pic.twitter.com/Oa0TgDRcMp — M.Kawaguchi (@rikujolove) February 19, 2017 Both of the world's two main 30 km races took place in Japan today.  In the morning, to the south in Kumamoto the Kumanichi Road Race held its 61st edition, the first since last year's powerful earthquakes caused heavy damage in the area.  2009 double 1500 m and 5000 m champion Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA RC) went out fast, close to 30 km national record pace at 10 km in 29:27 and still on track for a 1:28 time at 20 km in 59:11.  Over the last 10 km Ueno slowed dramatically, taking 31:06 to reach the finish line in 1:30:17, but even so his margin of victory over runner-up Ryu Takaku (Team Yakult) was more than a minute. The women's race was closer, with last year's 4th-placer Sakie Arai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) outrunning corporate leaguers  Rie Uchida (Otsuka Seiyaku) and Yoko Miyauchi (Team Hokuren) by just 8 seconds to win in a PB of 1:46:29 just ...

by Brett Larner This weekend is a lull in the middle of Japan's seven-week elite marathon season, but there's still plenty going on.  Both of its main 30 km road races, Kumamoto's Kumanichi 30 km and Tokyo's Ome 30 km, t he world's two greatest races at the distance , happen Sunday. Run in conjunction with the mass participation Kumamoto-jo Marathon, the Kumanichi 30 km is an elite-only event with small men's and women's fields and the home of Takayuki Matsumiya 's 1:28:00 national record.  Toyo University graduate Ryu Takaku (Team Yakult) leads the field with a 1:30:32 in Kumanichi three years ago.  Current Toyo runner Shun Sakuraoka and past 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA RC) are his main competition.   Mami Onuki (Team Sysmex) has the best 30 km time in the women's field, 1:46:37 for 2nd in last year's race, but the favorite may be the debuting Ayumi Kubo (Team Kagoshima Ginko), a 1:11:29 half marathoner. Th...

https://twitter.com/miyatoshi5/status/820025369075949568 translated and edited by Brett Larner On Jan. 13 the organizers of the Feb. 19 Kumamoto-jo Marathon announced the 19-strong elite field for the 61st running of the  Kumanichi 30 km Road Race , the world's premier 30 km held alongside the marathon.  Heading the men's field are last year's 5th-placer Shun Sakuraoka (Toyo Univ.) who finished 4th on the Hakone Ekiden's Fourth Stage on Jan. 2, and New Year Ekiden Third Stage runner-up Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA). Representing the corporate leagues alongside Ueno are his DeNA teammate Toshio Takaki who ran the competitive Fourth Stage at the New Year Ekiden, Ryu Takaku (Yakult), Shoya Okuno (Toyota Kyushu), Shuhei Yamaguchi (Asahi Kasei) and more.  Kumamoto natives include Kyushu Gakuin H.S. and Aoyama Gakuin University graduate Shun Yamamura and Keisuke Tanaka (Fujitsu).  Along with Sakuraoka, university runners include Tomofumi Uda (Takushoku Univ.) who fi...

by Brett Larner photos by @rikujolove 2015 national corporate men's champion Toyota held off all comers to take a second-straight New Year Ekiden national title thanks in part to its second-to-last runner Hideyuki Tanaka and some bad luck for its strongest competition. An expected challenge from the all-Japanese Asahi Kasei superteam never materialized as its 10000 m national record-breaking pair Tetsuya Yoroizaka and Kota Murayama finished 16th and 24th out of 43 on the first two of the 100.0 km New Year Ekiden's seven stages.  In their absence Yoshihiro Wakamatsu of East Japan region runner-up Nissin Shokuhin took the First Stage, 4 seconds ahead of Konica Minolta 's Kazuto Nishiike and another 5 seconds ahead of Toyota's Tsubasa Hayakawa , winner of last year's anchor stage. 【動画】これはひどい。 沿道の観客の犬が飛び出しコニカミノルタのポールクイラ選手転倒 ちゃんとリード持っとけよアホ #ニューイヤー駅伝 #tbs pic.twitter.com/tLoyDfBRXe — アナログちゃん (@anlgc) January 1, 2016 2013 World Cross-Country Cha...

http://www.kahoku.co.jp/tohokunews/201505/20150511_14015.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Breaking the event's old record by 349 people, a record-setting 13,932 participants took part in the 25th running of the Sendai International Half Marathon on May 10 in central Sendai, Miyagi. In the day's main event, the JAAF-certified half marathon division starting and ending at the municipal track and field grounds on the city's south side, defending champion Johana Maina (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) ran 1:02:33 to win the men's race again, his second-straight and third overall Sendai title.  His teammate and 2014 World Half Marathon Championships Japanese national team member Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu) was 3rd in 1:03:11, while 2015 World Championships marathoner Masakazu Fujiwara took 6th in 1:03:51.  2014 Asian Games marathon bronze medalist Yuki Kawauchi was 30th. In the women's race, 2015 World Championships marathoner Sairi Maeda (Team Daihatsu) opened ...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20140119-1246211.html translated by Brett Larner After his stage-winning run at the Jan. 19 National Men's Ekiden , 2009 World Championships 5000 m runner Yuichiro Ueno  (DeNA RC) announced plans for his marathon debut.  "I'm not ready to do it right away, but I plan on doing Tokyo or Lake Biwa next year," he said.  Already beginning his transition to the marathon, Ueno will serve as a pacer at the Feb. 2 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon.

by Brett Larner click photo for video highlights courtesy of NHK Five-time national champion Nagano  made history at the 19th edition of the National Men's Ekiden Jan. 19 in Hiroshima, anchor Keigo Yano  (Nittai Univ.) breaking away to make his team the first in event history to win a sixth national title as he broke the tape in 2:19:20, the third-fastest ever in National Championships history. Never a clear leader in a pack race throughout the day, Nagano made its first move to the front on the 8.5 km Third Stage when past 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno  (DeNA RC) dropped a pack of Hakone Ekiden stars to take the lead.  With the mixed team of junior high, high school, university and pro athletes that makes the National Ekiden format one of the most interesting in national championship ekiden season, Nagano lost ground after Ueno and remained roughly even with a pack of four rivals. Not until halfway through the 13.0 km anchor stage did it ...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20130404/ath13040405010000-n1.html http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/sports/other/headlines/article/20130403-00000012-spnavi http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/p-sp-tp0-20130404-1107367.html translated and edited by Brett Larner click here  and here for photos of the flamboyant DeNA uniform Inheriting the remnants of the historic S&B corporate team following its disbanding at the end of March, the new DeNA Running Club  introduced its uniform at a Tokyo-area press conference on April 3. With regard to the uniform's colorful design, supervising head coach Toshihiko Seko said, "They're going to have to be just as flashy in their running to pull off a uniform like this." This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late  Kiyoshi Nakamura , the mentor who led Seko to marathon greatness.  DeNA ace Yuichiro Ueno  plans to run his marathon debut this year.  "We're combining the old and the ...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2013/02/24/kiji/K20130224005268200.html http://dena.jp/press/2013/02/post-125.php translated and edited by Brett Larner With Team S&B 's longstanding sponsorship set to be eliminated at the end of next month due to a streamlining of operations,  Kensuke Takezawa , 26, announced that he will not join the rest of the team in moving to new sponsor DeNA .  His plans remain undecided. A 2008 Beijing Olympics track team member, Takezawa commented, "My path forward is something that I ultimately want to find by myself, under my own strength, and for this reason I've decided not to move with the team.  I need to re-examine myself and carefully consider the best course of action." The new DeNA team will become an official entity on April 1.  Previous announcements had said that all athletes and staff from the S&B team would transfer together. Kensuke Takezawa : Born Oct. 11, 1986 in Hyogo. 3000 m: 7:49.26    ...