japan running news

The 2020 Queens Ekiden , the season-ending national championships race for Japan's corporate women, was about as good an example as you could ask for of why it takes an entire team to win a top-level ekiden, not just a couple of star runners. Princess Ekiden qualifying race winner Sekisui Kagaku hoped that the addition of middle distance national champion Ran Urabe and half marathon national record holder Hitomi Niiya to its roster would be enough to knock out defending champ Japan Post and take its first-ever national title. Over the first half of the six-stage, 42.195 km race things went according to plan, leading runner Sayaka Sato putting Sekisui Kagaku in 3rd, Urabe moving them up to 2nd, and Niiya delivering a 33:20 course record for the 10.9 km Third Stage, splitting 30:31 for 10 km en route, taking 1:10 off the CR and putting Sekisui 55 seconds out front. Japan Post stayed steady after losing the leading position that its first runner Ririka Hironaka had given it, st

In what looked to have been his official 10000 m debut, Justus Soget (Honda) survived constant turnover to take the top spot in the fastest heat at this year's Hachioji Long Distance meet, winning it in 27:35.57. With everyone focused on getting ready for January's New Year Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden, 15 other men followed him under 28 minutes in the same heat. Among them, Shinobu Kubota (Toyota) following up his comeback run at last week's Chubu Region Corporate Ekiden with a 27:55.07 for 14th, his first time under 28 in six years..  Justus Soget being interviewed by JRN's Mika Tokairin post-race. Two other men went sub-28 in the previous heat, Silas Kingori (Hiramatsu Byoin) leading the way in 27:49.38. Kubota was the only Japanese man to go under 28, but nine others were under 28:15 including collegians Shunya Kikuchi (Josai Univ.), 5th behind Kingori in 28:08.25, and Shoya Kawase (Kogakkan Univ.), 21st in the fast heat in 28:10.41. Along with the 18 men to brea

On Nov. 20 the organizers of the Dec. 6 Fukuoka International Marathon announced that invited athlete Ryu Takaku (Yakult), the fastest man in the field with a PB of 2:06:45 from this year's Tokyo Marathon, has withdrawn. The statement said Takaku is suffering fasciitis of the adductor longus muscle in his right thigh. source articles: https://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20201120/ath20112018470001-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner

It's another big weekend on the track and roads. Two weeks out from the National Track and Field Championships long distance segment, the top tier of men not racing there will be at the Hachioji Long Distance Meet in Tokyo's western suburbs for nine heats of men's 10000 m. The whole meet is being livestreamed for the first time starting at 11:30 a.m. Saturday Japan time, with JRN's Mika Tokairin MCing a commentary crew that includes track and ekiden great Tsuyoshi Ugachi . The B-heat is the main event, with 22 of the top Japan-based Kenyans on the list including Richard Kimunyan Yator (Hitachi Butsuryu) and Andrew Lorot (Subaru). With only one stage at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national championships open to non-citizens, many of the Kenyans will be squaring off against their corporate sponsor teammates so coaches can make an informed decision about who gets to run come Jan. 1. Interesting Japanese entrants include #1 collegiate half marathoner Shoya Kawase (Koga

"I hate running. There's only pain. But, it's work and I'm getting paid to do it, so I can't say that I hate it. I have to do my job." Still, she's come right out and said it without hiding her words. Hitomi Niiya (32, Sekisui Kagaku) isn't your average athlete. She's the leader of Japanese women's long distance, having set a new national record of 1:06:38 for the half marathon in January this year. She's a pro who cares about her results and lives by the words, "running fast is all that matters."  Despite scintillating 9th place and 5th place finishes in the 10000 m at the 2012 London Olympics and 2013 Moscow World Championships, she retired in 2014 at the age of just 25. Returning to racing in June, 2018, within two years she was breaking PB after PB and had the Tokyo Olympics in range. Having said that she would "absolutely never" do another marathon, she now says, "there's a possibility." She's a n

https://bnr.bg/en/post/101375545/winners-of-this-years-sofia-marathon-suspended-from-all-racing-for-doping In the women's race , Japan's Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) finished 4th behind provisionally suspended winner Viktoriia Khapilina of Ukraine. Pending Khapilina's conviction Yamaguchi stands to be moved up to 3rd. photos © 2020 Mika Tokairin, all rights reserved

 https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1100867/bach-no-rules-broken-tokyo-bid-payment