japan running news

by Brett Larner Mizuho Nasukawa wins the 2009 Tokyo Marathon in 2:25:38. 2009 Tokyo Marathon winner Mizuho Nasukawa (Team Aruze) makes her overseas marathon debut this weekend at the Chicago Marathon. Nasukawa is the top marathon protege of Yoshio Koide, the coach who led Naoko Takahashi to Olympic gold and the world's first sub-2:20 women's marathon. A career track runner with two Asian Games bronze medals from 2002 to her name, Nasukawa made a tentative move to the marathon in 2004 and 2005, her best result of that time being a 2:29:49 fourth place finish at the 2004 Osaka International Women's Marathon. Following this move Nasukawa returned to the track, recording her 5000 m PB of 15:23.00 in 2006 and experimenting with steeplechase, but her resume remained largely a blank until March's Tokyo Marathon. In Tokyo she ran a race which should have put her on the list for the Berlin World Championships, recording a sizeable PB of 2:25:38 in extremely windy conditions to ...

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0002409811.shtml translated by Brett Larner A new hope has taken wing from deep in the heart of the distance running kingdom of Hyogo Prefecture. He is Kobe native Ryo Yamamoto, at age 25 a third-year member of Team Sagawa Express. In his debut marathon at August's Hokkaido Marathon Yamamoto was the top Japanese finisher, showing great promise of being able to take on the world as he came close to running down winner Daniel Njenga (Team Yakult). We talked to him about race, his background, and his plans and dreams for the future. Your time was 2:12:10. It was a brilliant performance. Right when I finished I was pretty crushed that the win got away from me, but now that some time has passed I think it's great that I was able to run with some power in my first marathon. They say a marathon starts at 35 km so I tried to hold off [on speeding up] and that's why I was able to run the last part way harder than I expected. You beat Athens ...

http://www.chunichi.co.jp/article/gifu/20091005/CK2009100502000014.html translated by Brett Larner The town of Ibigawa, Gifu Prefecture sent six athletes to the United States to compete in the Oct. 3 St. George Marathon in the state of Utah. Ibigawa Marathon winner Satoru Shimomura, 35, a native of Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture, was 5th overall, breaking the course record in the 30+ age division. Shimomura won last November's Ibigawa Marathon and picked up an invitation to run in St. George, a race which has grown to 8500 runners in the full marathon division since its inaugural run in 1989. Six of the top finishers at the 2008 Ibigawa Marathon were selected to run in St. George. In the American race, Kimura was only 20 seconds behind the 3rd place finisher, reaching the goal line in 2:26:10. "I'm really happy that I met my target of going sub-2:30. I'm proud to say that I broke the record by attacking in the second half," Shimomura commented afterwards. The othe...

http://www.iaaf.org/WHM09/news/kind=100/newsid=54552.html

The UK blog Bristol Running Resource interviewed me last month and posted the interview today. If you're a regular JRN reader you won't find much that's new, but feel free to check it out here .

by Brett Larner 1984 Olympic marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson (U.S.A.) took time out from her preparations for next month's New York City Marathon to appear on Japanese broadcaster TBS' All-Star Kanshasai variety game show on Oct. 3. On the biannual five-hour show, a panel of 200 celebrities compete for cash prizes by trying to predict the winners in a series of contests starring other celebrities. Samuelson appeared on the Akasaka Go-Chome Super Ekiden segment running a relay with two-time World Championships medalist Masako Chiba and marathon great Mari Tanigawa before running in the show's climax, the Akasaka Go-Chome Mini-Marathon. A handicap race on a hilly 3-loop course around and through TBS' Akasaka studio, the Mini-Marathon saw Benoit Samuelson square off against Chiba, Tanigawa, defending champion and two-time Olympic marathon medalist Erick Wainaina (Kenya), Wainaina's 'Zeitoku Marathon' TV spot co-star Hiroshi Neko, 'Running Man...

by Brett Larner If there is one thing even more central to the heart of Japanese distance running than the marathon it is the ekiden. Steeped in tradition, these long-distance road relays enjoy mass popularity and for better or worse are the center of a Japanese distance runner's year and even career. Better in that the level of competition, drama, live television coverage and popularity are unmatched anywhere else in the world, worse in that the races are all but unknown outside Japan. Now, thanks to Keyhole TV , Japan's ekiden circuit is available to follow live worldwide. JRN plans to add a Twitter feed to offer live commentary on race broadcasts in English. Below is a quick guide to the upcoming season, which gets underway with the university men's Izumo Ekiden next weekend. All races except those in italics will be broadcast, most live and nationwide. Check back for further details and race previews. University Men Oct. 12: Izumo Ekiden , Izumo Oct. 17: Hakone Ekiden...