japan running news

Last year's top 3 Sheila Chepkirui , Sayaka Sato and Eunice Chebichii Chumba are back for this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon on Mar. 8, but things are being set up more for it to be a race between Chepkirui, 2:17:49 in Berlin 2023, Aynalem Desta , 2:17:37 in Amsterdam last fall, and Japanese NR holder Honami Maeda , 2:18:59 at the Osaka International Women's Marathon in 2024. Aynalem has the freshest sub-2:20 of the 3, with neither Chepkirui nor Maeda having done it in 2 years. Maeda's only recent result is a 1:10:07 from Houston last month, but when she ran her NR she didn't have any kind of tuneup race to indicate her fitness so it's probably best not to read too much into that. If it goes out as a 2:18 race those are the only 3 who can probably hang with it. If it turns out to be more of a 2:20 race like when Chepkirui won in 2:20:40 last year then there's a group of 7 at the 2:20-2:22 level who will be in the picture, including Chumba, Selly Chep...

Josai University followed up its women's domination of the college ekiden circuit this season and its men's 7th-place finish at the Hakone Ekiden with a start-to-finish win at the National University Mixed-Gender Ekiden , short and sweet with 6 stages of 2.0 to 5.0 km and 3 women and men from universities across the country. Only 9th last year, Josai was out front on the 1st leg and never looked back, winning all 6 individual stages. A 6:01 CR by Yuna Onishi on the women's 2.0 km 2nd leg and a 5:20 CR tie on the men's 2.0 k 5th leg by Manato Ozawa put Josai close to Nittai University 's 58:27 overall last year, but ultimately they came up just short in 58:30. But even that was enough to put Josai well over a minute ahead of Daito Bunka University , whose runner-up curse saw them finish 2nd yet again in 59:43, 2nd runner Mana Aiba tying Onishi's CR and helping keep DBU ahead of Juntendo University , 3rd in 59:46. Last year's 5th-placer Tsukuba University ...

Alongside the weekend's 2 big 30 km races and college ekiden action, 4 of Japan's big mass-participation races with quality sub-elite fields happened across the country. The Kitakyushu Marathon just north of Fukuoka saw the fastest men's race up front, with Toyo University 's Mashu Nishimura scoring the win in his debut in 2:16:14, outrunning Rio Olympian Hisanori Kitajima by 2 minutes. The Daihatsu corporate team's Yuki Shibata had a decent debut to win the women's race in 2:40:36. The only one of the 4 marathons to be on the World Athletics calendar and visible to the rest of the world, the Kumamoto Castle men's race was almost as fast as in Kitakyushu, with amateur Hiroaki Furukawa taking a 5th win in 2:16:56 and 3 others under 2:20 like in Kitakyushu. Another amateur, women's winner Michiru Kato took her 5th win too, running a CR and PB 2:42:00. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. , the Kyoto Marathon had the fastest Japan...

30 km is an under-appreciated distance, and both of Japan's big races at that distance happened Sunday. At the Ome Road Race in western Tokyo's mountains, Sydney Marathon 6th-placer Masato Arao (ND Software) became the first man since the great Kunimitsu Ito in 1985-1986 to win back-to-back years. Arao, who finished 39th of 40 on his leg at the New Year Ekiden last month, stayed in the pack through 20 km before going on the attack, putting over a minute on New Year Ekiden Sixth Stage CR breaker Yudai Shimazu (GMO). Sub-1:31 winning times are rare on the tough and hilly Ome course, but Arao's 1:30:54 almost equaled his 1:30:50 from last year, making him the first Japanese man ever to do it twice and second only to CR holder Ezekiel Cheboitibin . Next up Arao races the Tokyo Marathon, where he is targeting sub-2:06. Shimazu was 2nd in 1:31:58 and Yuta Nakayama (JR Higashi Nihon) 3rd in 1:32:07. Cheboitibin was only 9th, running almost 8 minutes off his CR in 1:36:42. Shi...

Paris Olympics marathon team alternate Ai Hosoda and Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura both announced their retirements recently, but with the fiscal year ending in March there have been a raft of other retirements hitting the Japanese news in the last couple of weeks. Some of them: Former women-only marathon NR holder Mao Ichiyama , 28, announced that she is retiring and leaving the Shiseido corporate team after a couple of dull seasons following her making the Paris Olympics team. Ichiyama's husband Kengo Suzuki , the former men's marathon NR holder, left the Fujitsu corporate team last fall to go it solo. Kento Otsu , 34, announced he is quitting the Chuo Hatsujo team to retire and take a position on the Rikkyo University coaching staff after next month's Tokyo Marathon. Otsu helped Toyo University take the overall win at the 2012 and 2014 Hakone Ekidens, winning his stages in both races and named MVP of the 2014 Hakone for his role in helping...

At a press conference on Feb. 9 the JAAF announced that the Marathon Grand Championship (MGC) race, Japan's marathon trials event for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, will be held Oct. 3, 2027 in Nagoya. Details on the course will be announced at a later date. The MGC race was first held before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and again before the 2024 Paris Olympics, both times in Tokyo. 16 men including Paris Olympics 6th-placer Akira Akasaki (Kraftia), national record holder Suguru Osako (Li-Ning), 2022 Oregon World Championships marathon team member Yusuke Nishiyama (Toyota) and 2025 Tokyo World Championships team member Yuya Yoshida (GMO) have already qualified for the 2027 race, along with 9 women led by Mikuni Yada (Edion), who set a debut marathon record 2:19:57 at last month's Osaka International Women's Marathon. Paris Olympics alternate Ai Hosoda (Edion) has qualified but has announced that she plans to retire after next month's Tokyo Marathon. source article: ht...

The 66th Karatsu Road Race took place Feb. 8 in Karatsu, Saga. In his first time running the men's 10 mile, Taisei Kiyono (Chugoku Denryoku) ran 47:12 to win. The race came down to a 4-way sprint finish, with Kiyono pulling away on the track to beat 2nd place by just 1 second. 2nd on the 12.3 km opening leg at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden , Kiyono already had proven ability. "I was pretty confident of my chances if it came down to a kick," he said. "I didn't think there was any way I was going to lose on the track." Kiyono was making his debut over 10 miles in windy conditions. "I couldn't tell what the pace was, so it se long," he said. "Winning it was a great experience." After this Kiyono will shift focus to outdoor track season. "I want to make the 5000 m and 10000 m at the National Championships," he said. In the women's 10 km, Miu Saito (Panasonic), who represented Japan in the 3000 mSC at last fall's Tokyo Wo...