japan running news

by Brett Larner Two of Japan's elite women-only ekidens founded after the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics celebrated their 30th anniversaries Sunday.  At the Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden , last year's top collegiate team Osaka Gakuin University staged a classic come-from-behind race to take its first Fukui title, covering the six-stage, 30.0 km course in 1:38:23.  Down by more than a minute behind leader Panasonic and in 15th place after the 6.55 km First Stage, each of Osaka Gakuin's next five runners moved up in both stage ranking and overall standing until Sakie Arai took the lead by four seconds over 2014 National University Women's Ekiden champion Ritsumeikan University and by six over Panasonic with a 16:10 stage best on the Fifth Stage.  Anchor Saori Noda then put both Ritsumeikan and Panasonic away with a 24:25 stage best for the 7.45 km Sixth Stage to win by nearly a minute.  Panasonic's anchor, 2014 Gold Coast Airport Marathon winner Asami Kato , overtook Ri...

by Brett Larner Two important women-only ekidens celebrate their 30th anniversaries this weekend.  In eastern Japan, Fukushima's East Japan Women's Ekiden features a scaled-down version of January's National Women's Ekiden, with teams made up of pro, collegiate, high school and junior high school athletes representing each of the 18 prefectures in the region.  Defending champion Chiba fields a very different lineup from last year's winning team led by one of Japan's current best track runners Riko Matsuzaki (Team Sekisui Kagaku).  Gunma , featuring last weekend's East Japan Corporate Women's Ekiden anchor stage course record setter Yuika Mori and Yamada Denki corporate teammate Shiho Takechi , Saitama and Shizuoka look to be Chiba's main competition.  The East Japan Women's Ekiden will be broadcast live starting at noon on Nov. 9. Further west in Fukui, the Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden delivers an interesting format pitting top corporate ...

http://www.lequipe.fr/Athl-sme/Infos/Le-mysterieux-m-kawauchi/512309

http://www.sankei.com/sports/news/141103/spo1411030028-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At the Nov. 3 East Japan Corporate Ekiden from Saitama to Kumagaya Sports Park Field, Konica Minolta won its third-straight and eighth overall title in the 7-stage, 77.5 km men's race in 3:49:34.  Universal Entertainment likewise won a third-straight title in 6-stage, 42.195 km women's race in 2:18:36. Konica Minolta took the lead on the Second Stage thanks to rookie Keita Shitara , with Fifth Stage winner Hiroyuki Yamamoto opening a major lead.  Nissin Shokuhin was 2nd, with Honda 3rd.  Nanyo City Hall beat the classic Kanebo team for 13th, the last qualifying position for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships. In the women's race, Universal Entertainment anchor Mizuho Nasukawa shook off Daiichi Seimei' s Sakiko Matsumi for the win after the pair started almost even.  Daiichi Seimei took 2nd, with Panasonic 3rd.  The to...

by Brett Larner In a windy and weird race Japan's Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), rare top-level Japanese men at the TCS New York City Marathon, almost perfectly replicated their results from their U.S. debuts in New York last year, both of them among the countless people in the front pack to take the lead before slipping out of contention to finish 7th and 11th. Like everyone else the cold headwind throughout most of the race meant time goals went out the window as soon as the gun fired.  The pace see-sawing between 3:20 and 2:50/km as course record holder Geoffrey Mutai (Kenya), 2014 Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi (U.S.A.), American Nick Arciniaga and two unknown Europeans all took their turns leading, Kawauchi made a move to go out front near 17 km to try to get things moving faster and was promptly nearly run down by an oblivious police motorcycle escort.  Two km later the pack reeled him in, and near 23 km at a...

by Brett Larner Komazawa University delivered on expectations, winning a fourth-straight National University Men's Ekiden championship, its twelfth Nationals title under head coach Hiroaki Oyagi , by nearly a kilometer Sunday in Nagoya. With the first of the season's Big Three University Ekidens, the mid-October Izumo Ekiden, cancelled due to a typhoon ekiden fans were hungry for action at Nationals and were rewarded with one of the best pieces of collegiate racing in memory on the 14.6 km First Stage.  Identical twins Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.), 13:34.53, 27:49.94 and 1:00:50 (half marathon) this year, and Kota Murayama (Josai Univ.), 3:39.56, 13:34.57 and 58:26 (20 km) this fall, led things off with future Asahi Kasei corporate teammate and fellow identical twin Takashi Ichida (Daito Bunka Univ.), dropping the rest of the field early and running most of the stage as a trio pursued by intriguing indy Kentaro Hirai (Kyoto Univ.) and Kenyan John Kariuki (Daiichi...

http://fittish.deadspin.com/how-this-working-man-became-japans-most-controversial-m-1653676890?rev=1414881432046

by Brett Larner The TCS New York City Marathon is a major draw for amateur Japanese marathon tourists, but due to conflicts with the fall regional qualifiers for the year-ending national corporate ekiden championships it rarely sees top-level Japanese elites in its field.  Last year was an exception , with London Olympian Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), former Hakone Ekiden star Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) and rebel government clerk Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) all lining up.  Shigetomo and Kawauchi ran only decently, each finishing 11th, but Imai, famous in Japan as a hill specialist, finished 6th in 2:10:45, a solid time on the NYC course and the best-ever there by a Japanese man.  This year both Imai and Kawauchi are back for more and better. Since last year both Imai and Kawauchi were named to the JAAF's new National Team development program .  After hovering at the 2:10 level for the last three years Imai, coached by Barcelona Olympics silver...