japan running news

Reia Iwadeage: 24
sponsor: Under Armour
graduated from: Toyokawa H.S.

best time inside MGC window:
2:23:52, 5th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon

PB: 2:23:52, 5th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 15:42.50 (2015) 10000 m: 32:13.21 (2015) half marathon: 1:09:45 (U20 NR, 2013)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
5th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:23:52 – PB
4th, 2018 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:26:28
5th, 2017 Sendai International Marathon, 2:31:11

other major results:
1st, 2019 Osaka Half Marathon, 1:09:46
6th, 2018 Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:13:11
9th, 2017 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:10:35
4th, 2016 Berlin Marathon, 2:28:16
5th, 2016 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:24:38
5th, 2016 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, 1:10:53
7th, 2015 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:29:16
3rd, 2015 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, 1:10:13
3rd, 2014 Yokohama Women’s Marathon, 2:27:21
4th, 2013 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:45 – PB, U20 NR

Iwa…

Held in the stadium where Japan saw its first-ever sub-10 clocking for 100 m, Saturday's new Athlete Night Games in Fukui meet produced four national records highlighted by an incredible men's long jump competition. Yuki Hashioka (Nihon Univ.) opened with a jump of 8.32 m +1.6 m/s that shattered the national record dating way back in 1992 by 7 cm. Hibika Tsuha (Toyo Univ.) followed him with a jump of 8.21 m + 2.0 m/s that put him into the all-time Japanese top three, then bettered that with an 8.23 m +0.6 m/s.



Out of nowhere, Shotaro Shiroyama (Zenrin) knocked them both back in the record books on his third jump with a new national record of 8.40 m +1.5 m/s, the #2 mark in the world so far this year and only his second time clearing 8 m with a legal wind. Japanese fans were quick to compare the trio's results to this season's Diamond League meets.

DL Shanghai
🥇8m24🥈8m16🥉8m14
DL Lausanne
🥇8m32🥈8m19🥉8m13
DL London
🥇8m37🥈8m32🥉8m11
DL Fukui
🥇8m40🥈8m32🥉8m23 htt…

At the Kinki Region High School Track and Field Championships Saturday in Osaka’s Nagai Stadium, 17-year-old Ryuji Miura of Rakunan H.S. took down one of the oldest records in Japanese athletics, breaking the 30-year-old 3000 m steeplechase high school record by 5 seconds to win in 8:39.49.

Running in heavy rain after clocking the fastest time in the qualifying rounds, Miura went straight to the front in the final and was on his own within 200 m. From the start the record was in reach as he went through 1000 m in 2:49 and 2000 m in 5:43, building up a lead of about 200 m over the rest of the field.

Miura’s final time of 8:39.49 was the fastest in the world this year by an U18 athlete and 6th-best among U20 men, a new Japanese U18 record and all-time #2 for the U20 category. He came short of the outright Japanese high school record of 8:19.21 held by future marathon great Daniel Njenga, but took 5 seconds off the Japanese citizen high school record of 8:44.77 set back in 1989 by futu…

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190608/p2a/00m/0sp/010000c

COLLEGIATE LEADER ✅
WORLD LEADER ✅#ncaaTF Champion ✅

9️⃣.8️⃣6️⃣ pic.twitter.com/nXDx3vWDiQ — NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) June 8, 2019

Running at the same meet where 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University's Ryoji Tatezawa broke the indoor mile national record last year, Tokai graduate Nanami Arai (Honda) ran an Asian area record 3:56.60 for the win at Sunday's Boston University Last Chance Invitational. A teammate of half marathon national record holder Yuta Shtiara, Arai outkicked Olympic medalist Nick Willis to record the fastest-ever mile indoor or outdoor by a Japanese athlete and take 0.45 off the Asian indoor record set way back in 1993 by Qatar's Mohamed Suleiman. Yasunari Kusu (Ami AC) was 11th in 4:07.21.

Returning to the B.U. track two weeks after breaking the 5000 m indoor national record at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) came up well short of Suguru Osako's 3000 m indoor NR of 7:45.62, running 8:02.43 for 3rd.
Boston University Last Chance InvitationalBoston, U.S.A., 2/24/19
complete results

Men's Mile
1. Nanami Arai (Honda) - 3:56.60 - AR
2. …

Indoor track is pretty much non-existant in Japan, but in the last few years more Japanese athletes have been heading to the States after ekiden season to give it a go and coming back with national records. Two more records fell at Friday's David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston.

First up, in his indoor debut 20-year-old Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko) ran 13:27.81 to break the indoor 5000 m national record set five years ago in New York by Suguru Osako by 0.19. Endo was one of Japan's all-time best high schoolers. Now in his second year in the corporate leagues after opting to skip university he is coached by Yasuyuki Watanabe, Osako's former coach at Waseda University. Also in the same race, Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) was 6th in 13:47.64.

Three hours later, Riko Matsuzaki (Sekisui Kagaku) ran 9:00.86 in the women's 3000 m, taking 0.53 off the national record set way back in 1999 by Akiko Kawashima at the Maebashi World Indoor Championships. Matsuzaki is in the mid…

Sweden's David Nilsson has been nominated for European Athlete of November for his 1:02:09 national record at last month's Ageo City Half Marathon, where he raced Japanese national record holder Yuta Shitara through 20 km. Vote for Nilsson on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter by Saturday.

photo © 2018 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

On Oct. 24 it was learned that 1996 Atlanta Olympics marathoner and former 10000 m Japanese national record holder Izumi Maki died of breast cancer Oct. 18 at her home in Mino, Osaka. She was 49 years old.

Her coach during her days at the Globally and Wacoal corporate teams, Nobuyuki Fujita, 78, said that he last saw Maki in July at a reunion event for Wacoal alumni. "She didn't seem well at the time," he recalled. "I had heard that she was anti-cancer drug treatment, but it is still a shock."

Hisakazu Hirose, 53, assistant coach to Maki in those days and currently head coach of the Iwatani Sangyo team, visited to mourn her death on the day she passed away. Hirose last saw her in March, but at that time, he said, "She seemed totally normal. She wasn't the sort of person who would have just given up. When I saw her after she passed away it looked as though she was only sleeping, that if you called out to her she would answer. I couldn't believe it w…

National records fell for the third meet in a row in the four-part Hokuren Distance Challenge series Wednesday in Fukagawa, Hokkaido. Longtime Japan resident Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) had a shockingly good run in the women's 10000 m A-heat, following up her 1:06:56 bronze medal run at the Valencia World Half Marathon Championships by lopping over a minute off her 10000 m best and 9 seconds off the Japanese all-comers record with a 2018 world-leading time of 30:41.85.

Kamulu lapped the entire field, her nearest competitor Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) returning from a 2:23:46 marathon PB in Osaka in January to take 30 seconds off her own best in 32:13.87. Further back, Seul Ki Ahn broke the South Korean national record set 13 years ago in Fukagawa with a new mark of 32:33.61. Ahn's NR followed the 2:25:41 NR set by Do Yeon Kim at the Seoul International Marathon in March, a miniature renaissance in South Korea women's distance running.

The men's 10000 m A-heat was als…

On May 27th at the Fukui Prefectural Track and Field Stadium where last fall Yoshihide Kiryu became the first Japanese sprinter to break the 10 second barrier for 100 m, a ceremony was held to unveil the stadium's renaming as 9.98 Stadium. The prefecture hopes to convey the stadium's place in history to the rest of the country through the recognition of Kiryu's achievement.

Governor Kazumi Nishikawa, Prefectural Assembly Chairperson Fumio Yamamoto, Fukui Athletics Association Director Seiichiro Yagi and other officials took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony to reveal the stadium's giant new Sunrise Red name board 11.5 m tall and 6.7 m wide. The three numerals making up the number 9.98 each measure 1.75 m tall, the same height as Kiryu.

A commemorative ceremony was held on the track. Kiryu could not be present himself but addressed participants in a video message played over the stadium's giant screen, saying, "I am deeply honored. It is my hope that many ot…

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…

by Takashi Shitara

My twin sons Keita and Yuta started running in 5th grade when they joined a local track club together. Their personalities are completely different. In junior high school Keita, the firstborn of the two, said, "I want to make the high school National Championships." In high school he said, "I want to make the Hakone Ekiden." In university it was, "I want to run in the Olympics." Yuta never said anything like that.

Up through university Keita was always a little better as an athlete, always one step ahead, but now it's Yuta who's leading the way. As a parent you worry more about the child who is struggling more. Keita is running the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon this weekend, March 4. He's not back to his full strength yet but even so I really want him to run strong. I think that Yuta wants the best for Keita with all his heart too. They've always been together since the time they were born. In Tokyo Keita was there in the …

Another day, another national record. Two weeks after Ryoji Tatezawa broke the longstanding Japanese indoor mile national record with a 4:01.56 at the Husky Classic meet in the U.S., he and three other members of 2017 Izumo Ekiden winner Tokai University raced the indoor mile at the Boston University Last Chance Meet. Chopping four seconds off his Husky Classic time, Tatezawa became the fastest-ever Japanese miler indoor or outdoor as he took 5th in 3:57:43. Teammate Hayato Seki also cleared 4 minutes for the first time in 3:59.03 for 8th, with Ryohei Sakaguchi and Shota Onizuka running 4:05.51 and 4:06.93.

https://t.co/a8YynxHiEp — Ian Anderson (@IAndersonWrites) February 25, 2018
Tokai head coach Hayashi Morozumi was a pioneer of cross-country-based training in the Japanese ekiden circuit while coach at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S., athletes he cultivated there including 5000 m national record holder and 2:07:19 marathoner Suguru Osako (NOP) and current Nissin Shokuin teammates Yuk…