japan running news

by Brett Larner This year's 29th edition of the Hokkaido Marathon features an all-Japanese invited elite field led by sub-2:11 men Hideaki Tamura (Team JR Higashi Nihon) and Ryosuke Fukuyama (Team Honda) and 2011 World Championships marathoner and defending women's champion Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease).  The race will take place simultaneously with the Beijing World Championships women's marathon. Hokkaido Marathon Sapporo, Hokkaido, 8/30/15 click here for detailed field listing Men Hideaki Tamura (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:10:54 (Biwako 2013) Ryosuke Fukuyama (Honda) - 2:10:59 (Biwako 2013) Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta) - 2:11:39 (Nagano 2015) Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) - 2:12:11 (Nobeoka 2014) Tatsunari Hirayama (Yasukawa Denki) - 2:12:38 (Nobeoka 2013) Yu Chiba (Honda) - 2:13:19 (Beppu-Oita 2013) Women Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease) - 2:24:57 (Osaka Women's 2012) Chieko Kido (Canon AC Kyushu) - 2:29:08 (Osaka Women's 2015) Aki Odagiri ...

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/olomouc-half-marathon-2015-keitany-kiptis Y uka Takemoto (Canon AC Kyushu), formerly Yuka Yano, was 9th in the women's race in 1:13:34, while Kenta Matsumoto (Team Toyota) finished 12th in 1:04:42 in the men's race.  Click here for complete results . Elsewhere, Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) finished 5th in the BAA 10K women's race in 32:56, with Takehiro Deki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) 8th in the men's race in 29:22.

by Brett Larner An alternate for Aoyama Gakuin University 's course record-setting team at last week's Hakone Ekiden , 18-year-old Yuta Shimoda led the field with a 1:03:16 course record at the 42nd running of the Takanezawa Genki Up Half Marathon on Jan. 11 in Takanezawa, Tochigi.  Shimoda's time was a PB by over 3 minutes and was enough to beat fellow AGU first-year alternate Yuki Nakamura by more than 45 seconds.  AGU runners took the top four spots, with Hakone 6th-placer Tokai University alternate Ryunosuke Hayashi 5th in 1:04:28, also under the old course record.  Nami Iwahara (Gazelle AC) won the women's division in 1:23:22. Course records also fell at the Oita City Half Marathon in Kyushu.  2014 Kita-Kyushu Marathon winner Yuka Yano led a Canon AC Kyushu sweep of the top four spots in the women's race with a course record 1:13:41.  Ethiopian Melaku Aberu , a runner for the locally-based Kurosaki Harima team, outran Oita native and sub-2:1...

by Brett Larner Races in Australia, the U.S.A. and the Netherlands on Sunday featured Japanese corporate league athletes.  At the Sydney Marathon, both the men's and women's races saw the top two broke the existing records for a challenging course full of hills and turns.  In the men's race, Ethiopia's Gebo Gameda shook free of compatriot Seboka Dibaba Tola to break Yuki Kawauchi 's 2:11:52 course record, Gameda getting the new record in 2:11:18 with Tola just squeezing under Kawauchi's time in 2:11:48.  Kenyan Benjamin Koloum Kiptoo likewise shook off track and half marathon star Tsuyoshi Ugachi of two-time New Year Ekiden national champion team Konica Minolta for 3rd in 2:12:08.  Ugachi ran a PB of around a minute for 4th in 2:12:18, a decent time given the course and one that puts him 22nd among Japanese men for the year.  It is widely thought in Japan that Ugachi's dynamic and aggressive form will make it hard for him to find the marathon succes...

by Brett Larner Taking on increased importance as the Japanese Federation focuses on hot weather racing in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics men's and women's marathons, the Hokkaido Marathon featured one of its deepest men's fields in memory.  The women's field was smaller but featured at least three good up-and-coming talents.  Getting the better of them all in the mid-20s temperatures was former pro-XC skier and mountain running champion Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease), a 2:24:57 marathoner while at the Sachiko Yamashita -coached Daiichi Seimei corporate team but mostly unsuccessful since leaving to follow an Arata Fujiwara -inspired route of independent sponsorship.  In Hokkaido Nojiri easily dropped the rest of the field to win in 2:30:26, a quality mark in a typically hot race that rarely sees sub-2:30 winning times.  Debuting runner-up Shoko Mori (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) was nearly five minutes back in 2:35:10, just beating pre-race favorite Yuka Yano (C...

by Brett Larner The fall elite marathon season gets underway this Sunday with Sapporo's Hokkaido Marathon .  Two years organizers did away with their elite fields, leaving top amateurs Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Yuri Yoshizumi (Osaka Nagai AC) to win in two of the slowest winning times in event history.  Last year the elite fields returned with a small international contingent that proved mostly superfluous as Japanese runners swept the podium in both the men's and women's race.  Organizers have trimmed the fat this year to focus on a good domestic field that on paper any other country outside Africa would have a tough time matching. Leading the men's field is the 4th-fastest Japanese man of the year, Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), who ran 2:09:10 in Tokyo in February.  Named to the federation's new marathon National Team program on the strength of that performance, with Hokkaido's always-hot conditions Sakai will be the first guinea pi...

by Brett Larner For years the worldwide fall elite marathon season has gotten underway with Sapporo's Hokkaido Marathon on the last Sunday of August.  Two years organizers did away with their elite fields, leaving top amateurs Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Yuri Yoshizumi (Osaka Nagai AC) to win in two of the slowest winning times in event history.  Last year the elite fields returned with a small international contingent that proved mostly superfluous.  With the release of this year's elite fields today it's clear that organizers have trimmed the fat to focus on a good domestic field that on paper any other country outside Africa would have a tough time matching. Leading the men's field is the 4th-fastest Japanese man of the year, Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), who ran 2:09:10 in Tokyo in February.  Named to the federation's new marathon National Team program on the strength of that performance, with Hokkaido's always-hot conditions Sakai...

by Brett Larner photo courtesy marumaruko1201 Record-breaking snowfall in eastern Japan all day Saturday meant the cancellation of virtually every Sunday race in the area, including the elite-level Chiba International Cross-Country Meet , and kept many Tokyo-region runners bound for races in the west at home. Of the races that did go off, in his marathon debut 2008 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km winner Kazuki Tomaru  (Team Toyota) was the star of the day's most important race, the 52nd running of the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon . With impeccable pacing from former Waseda University standout Yuki Yagi  (Team Asahi Kasei), who split 15:27, 15:26 and 15:26 for the first three 5 km segments, a large pack ran at around 2:10:30 pace, 45 seconds ahead of the event's course record.  The pace slowed slightly from 15 km to Yagi's departure at 25 km, but Tomaru quickly got to work with another 15:26 to get rid of the field.  Only Ryo Ishita  (SDF Academy) went aft...

by Brett Larner With Japan's premier summer marathon bringing back its elite field this year, corporate league runners Koji Gokaya  (Team JR Higashi Nihon) and Yuko Watanabe  (Team Edion) scored their first marathon wins, taking the men's and women's Hokkaido Marathon titles in 2:14:26 and 2:29:13 on Aug. 25 in Sapporo. Following an early break by Shingo Igarashi  (Team Subaru) and by 2010 Nobeoka Marathon winner  Masaki Shimoju  (Team Konica Minolta), Gokaya, who finished 7th at the 2011 Chicago Marathon in 2:12:15, ran in a dense lead pack through 35 km before turning it on, grinding down Shigeki Tsuji  (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) to open a margin of 19 seconds before crossing the finish line.  Tsuji, the only runner to try to stay with Gokaya, was a comfortable 2nd in 2:14:45, 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack led by Shimoju, who held off past Gold Coast Marathon winner Dickson Marwa (Tanzania) in the last sprint for 3rd in 2:15:1...

by Brett Larner All three pro Japanese runners at the 117th Boston Marathon ran well, both Yuka Yano (Canon AC Kyushu) and Manami Kanitanida  (Team Hitachi) recording PBs after leading through the lazy early pace in the women's race and Tomohiro Tanigawa  (Team Konica Minolta) finishing 13th in his debut.  More importantly, all three and their supporters were confirmed safe following the finish line bombings . I had already finished long before the explosions but had just left the Copley Square area a few minutes beforehand and was on the 34th floor of a nearby hotel and could hear them even from there.  My condolences to the victims and their families. 117th Boston Marathon Boston, 4/15/13 click here for complete results Men 1. Lelisa Desisa (Ethiopia) - 2:10:22 2. Micah Kogo (Kenya) - 2:10:27 3. Gebregziabher Gebremariam (Ethiopia) - 2:10:28 ----- 13. Tomohiro Tanigawa (Team Konica Minolta) - 2:16:57 - debut Women 1. Rita Jeptoo (Kenya) - 2:26:25 ...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/event/sports/news/20130409-OHT1T00201.htm translated by Brett Larner The organizers of the Ome 30 km Road Race announced on Apr. 9 that they are sending Tomohiro Tanigawa  (24, Team Konica Minolta) and Yuka Yano  (26, Canon AC Kyushu) to run its sister race, the 117th Boston Marathon in Massachusetts on April 15.  Tanigawa finished 2nd in the Ome men's 30 km division in February, with Yano taking 2nd in the women's race.  For both men and women Boston is included as a selection race for August's Moscow World Championships marathon team. Translator's note: Manami Kamitanida  (Team Hitachi) is also scheduled to run Boston through a similar arrangement after winning January's Katsuta Marathon.

by Brett Larner Three half marathons over the long weekend marked the start of the transition from ekiden season to the winter and early spring road season.  The first elite-level Japanese half marathon of the year, Sunday's 41st Unzen Obama Half Marathon , saw a great battle almost to the line between pro Taku Miyahara  (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) and Keisuke Sago  (Takushoku Univ.).  Miyahara took the title in 1:04:21, just 2 seconds off the course record which dates back to 1996, with Sago 4 seconds back in 1:04:25.  Miyahara's teammate Hayato Mera  (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) was over a minute behind in 3rd in 1:05:40. The same day in Tokyo, Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref.) started off his season as usual at the 14th Mari Tanigawa Half Marathon .  Starting off at world record pace with a 2:42 opening km he soon settled down to take 1st in 1:05:31, his second win and fastest time at the Tanigawa Half. Kaori Yoshida (Puma RC) won he...

http://www.e-obs.com/obs-news/genko/DD01110011914.html http://www.oita-press.co.jp/localNews/2010_126318885586.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Nearly 600 runners took part in the 50th anniversary Oita Godo Road Race on Jan. 11 in downtown Oita. Intended to help raise the level of distance running within Oita prefecture, the race takes place each year on the Coming of Age Day national holiday and is the frequent site of breakthrough performances by new stars. This year's 50th edition saw course records in the men's half marathon and high school men's 10 km as well as the first women's 10 km race in 22 years. With extended checkpoint cutoff times helping to swell the numbers, this year saw 406 finishers in the men's half marathon, 137 in the high school men's 10 km, and 36 in the women's 10 km. In the men's half marathon, Oita Tomei H.S. graduate Fumihiro Maruyama (19, Team Asahi Kasei) dropped his rivals with an attack over the last km, winning...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/item/82664 translated by Brett Larner Major Tokyo-based electronics manufacturer Canon announced that its subsidiary Oita Canon Materials Inc. will begin sponsoring a new women's running team in April. The team will be based in Oita and will be coached by former Oita Nishi High School head coach Michio Ito. Oita Canon has already hired four professional and high school athletes from Oita, Nagasaki and Kagoshima Prefectures who will be employed at the company's Oita facility. It is searching for two more runners to bring the team's starting lineup to six. Among the runners already chosen for the team are Oita Nishi graduate Rina Abe (19), who runs for Team Oki but will lose that position when the team disbands at the end of March, and Yuka Yano (22), another Oita Nishi graduate who currently runs for Team Sysmex. Under Coach Ito, Oita Nishi was a regular at the National High School Ekiden Championships. In his days at Tsurusaki Kogyo High Sc...