japan running news

https://www.iaaf.org/news/preview/2017-gold-coast-marathon-preview Past Gold Coast Airport Marathon winners Risa Takenaka (Team Shiseido) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) return to Sunday's race to lead a sizable Japanese contingent in both the full and half marathons. 2015 women's winner Takenaka will be seeking to improve on her PB of 2:28:09 and to extend the Japanese women's winning streak on the Gold Coast to six years in a row. 2013 men's winner Kawauchi will be running Gold Coast for the sixth year in a row as his final tuneup for next month's London World Championships. His 70th career marathon, his goal at Gold Coast is a sub-2:10. If he clears 2:12 he will break Abebe Mekonnen 's world record of 22 career sub-2:12 marathons. Other top Japanese competition includes last year's 4th-placer Chiharu Takada (Team JR Higashi Nihon), Takenaka's husband Takuya Noguchi (Team Konica Minolta), and 2016 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon winner Ryo...

https://www.iaaf.org/news/feature/yuki-kawauchi-japan-marathon photo © 2017 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

London World Championships women's marathon team member Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) held an open training session for members of the media June 27 in Okayama. Of her second-straight World Championships appearance she said, "I want to produce good results. My goal is top eight." Since the end of May Shigetomo has done two training camps in Shobara, running on a cross country course as she focused on base mileage. With the trouble she experienced with her right heel last year having improved, the training went off without problems. "Before my marathons up to now I haven't been able to do the right mileage [due to injuries] but this time I've been getting in the tough training," she said. Shigetomo will now begin to focus on speed training. At the open training session she did three 1000 m repeats. "I want to sharpen up," she said. "Right now I'm tired and not moving well, but I'm excited to see where things go from here."...

The IAAF-certified  Lake Saroma 100 km Ultramarathon took place June 25 along the lake's interior shore in the Okhotsk coast towns of Yubetsu, Saroma and Kitami, the selection race for the Japanese national team for the 2018 IAU 100 km World Championships. Three weeks after winning the JAL Chitose Marathon in 2:17:19 , Tatsuya Itagaki (Sapporo Kokusai Univ.) won the men's race for the second year in a row. His time of 6:14:18 was the second-fastest ever run for 100 km on the roads, missing the 6:13:33 world record set at Lake Saroma in 1998 by Takahiro Sunada by just 45 seconds after going through halfway in 3:00:50. In the women's race 2009 Berlin World Championships marathon 7th-placer and 2010 Nagoya International Women's winner  Yuri Kano  (Will Forward RC) ran 7:37:21 to win her debut. 32nd Lake Saroma Ultramarathon Yubetsu, Hokkaido, 6/25/17 Men's 100 km 1. Tatsuya Itagaki (Sapporo Kokusai Univ.) - 6:14:18 2. Yasuyuki Nakamura (Suzuki Hamamatsu...

A day after the end of the 2017 Japanese National Track and Field Championships, the JAAF announced its preliminary team for August's London World Championships. No men made the team in long distance, while no women were named in any event except long distance. Top-placing athletes at the National Championships have until July 23 to chase standards in hope of being added to the team, but excluding the marathon and race walk, the team as announced on June 26: Women's Long Distance Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post) - 5000 m Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) - 5000 m / 10000 m Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) - 10000 m Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei) - 10000 m Men's Sprints Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) - 100 m / 200 m Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) - 100 m Aska Cambridge (Nike) - 100 m Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) - 200 m Takamasa Kitagawa (Juntendo Univ.) - 400 m Additional Relay Members Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) - 4x100 m Kenji Fujimitsu (Zenrin) - 4x100 m K...

According to measurements by Video Research Ltd. , NHK's Saturday evening broadcast of the Japanese National Track and Field Championships generated average viewership ratings of 13.1%. With excitement surrounding the possibility of seeing Japan's first-ever sub-10 clocking in the men's 100 m final, Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) tied the meet record of 10.05 to win his first national title Saturday evening . Source article:  https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20170626-00000039-jij-spo translated by Brett Larner

Mid-day rain meant a track too wet for fast times in most of the finals on the last day of the 101st Japanese National Track and Field Championships Sunday at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai, but first-time 100 m national champions Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) and Kana Ichikawa (Mizuno) didn't let that stop them from scoring the sprint double with 200 m national titles to wrap the day. Having already downed 100 m and 200 m national record holder Chisato Fukushima (Sapporo T&F Assoc.) in the 100 m, Ichikawa was out in front throughout the 200 m, shy of the London standard in 23.63 (-0.2) but still winning by more than 0.10. Not her usual self, Fukushima was only 5th in 24.01. In the men's race the general assumption seemed to be that Sani Brown would drop Japan's first sub-20, but at 20.32 (+0.3) he wasn't close, even if under the London standard. Kenji Fujimitsu (Zenrin) was next in 20.47, with Rio Olympics 4x100 m silver medalist Shota ...

Over 20,000 fans packed Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai Saturday to try to catch a piece of history on the second day of the 101st Japanese National Track and Field Championships . After a red-hot round of men's 100 m heats and sufficiently fiery semi finals led by 18-year old Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) and backed by Rio Olympics 4x100 m relay silver medal trio Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.), Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) and Aska Cambridge (Nike) plus 20-year-old newcomer Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) there was an expectation in the air for Japan's first sub-10 clocking almost as heavy as the approaching storm front. With conditions improving throughout the late afternoon and into the early evening ahead of the 8:38 p.m. start time for the 100 m final all signals looked go.  Then, in the last km of the women's 3000 m SC two events before the 100 m, a few drops of rain. A light drizzle during the men's 400 m final. Then, in the ten minutes be...

2015 World Youth Championships 100 m and 200 m gold medalist Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Tokyo T&F Assoc.) brought the heat to the first day of the 101st Japanese National Track and Field Championships  in Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai, running a PB 10.06 (+0.4) in the opening round of heats and 10.06 (+0.5) in the semifinals to lead the field into the final. There's a major air of excitement around the men's 100 m in Japan, its 4x100 m silver medal in the Rio Olympics fueling hopes of seeing the country's first-ever sub-10 clocking. At the time they won that silver medal only two members of the team, Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) and Ryota Yamagata (Seiko) had ever broken 10.10 with a legal wind, along with alternate Kei Takase (Fujitsu). Earlier this month another of the four, 200 m specialist Shota Iizuka (Mizuno), ran 10.08 (+1.9). Shortly after that a newcomer, 20-year-old  Shuhei Tada (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.) jumped into the picture with a 10.08 (+1.9). The ...

The 101st edition of Japan's National Track and Field Championships takes place Friday through Sunday at Osaka's Yanmar Stadium Nagai. It's a strange time in some ways. Despite the overall upward trend spurred on by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the count of athletes who might make the London World Championships off their performances at Nationals is low. The marathon, walks, combined events and relays aside, based on current qualifying times only the men's 100 m, women's 5000 m and women's 10000 m could field full three-member squads, and not many events look set to join that list. The progress over the last few years in men's distance on the track seems to have stalled, with nobody qualified for London in the 5000 m and the only man qualified in the 10000 m already a scratch. Is it a just a hiccup or a sign of problems in the buildup to 2020? Visit the JAAF's  National Track and Field Championships  website for entry and start lists, live results, phot...

http://www.redmandarin.com/2017/06/20/tokyo-2020-the-challenges-facing-partners

The New Balance Nationals Outdoor  was the weekend's big high school meet in the U.S.A., but from Thursday through Monday regions across Japan also held their qualifying meets for the July 29 - Aug. 2 National High School Track and Field Championships in Yamagata. Performances were at a high level across the board, with at least eight meet records nationwide in distance events. Five girls broke 4:20 in the 1500 m, with Helen Ekarare (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) leading the way with a 4:09.67 meet record to win the Tohoku Region. Nozomi Tanaka (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) was the fastest Japanese girl, winning the Kinki Region title in 4:18.32. On the boys' side, four broke 3:50 in the 1500 m, three of them in the Kinki Region meet. Yusuke Takahashi (Hyogo H.S.) took the Kinki title in 3:46.86. In the girls' 3000 m, five girls including both Ekarare and Tanaka were under 9:05 nationwide. Ekarare and Tanaka both doubled with 3000 m wins, but the fastest time came from Tabitha Kam...

After a DNF in the final round knocked it out of contention last year, Kanagawa University led the qualifiers for November's National University Men's Ekiden from the most competitive region in Japan to win the Kanto Region Qualifier Sunday in Urawa, Saitama. With six schools from Kanto already seeded for Nationals after taking the top six spots last year twenty more lined up in Urawa for four heats of 10000 m on the track, two runners from each school per heat. The combined times of each school's eight runners would determine who would stay and who would go come November, the top nine teams on aggregate time making the cut. With the four heats graded by time the first heat established the early favorites, runners from Kanagawa, Tokai University and Daito Bunka University taking the top three spots. Heat 2 went out bafflingly slow, with one exception. Running alone, Juntendo University senior Kento Hanazawa fearlessly went it alone, opening up a 300 m lead at on...

For the second year in a row brothers Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Yoshiki Kawauchi (unattached) returned to their late father's home island of Okinoshima to dominate the Father's Day Okinoshima Ultramarathon 50 km and 100 km. Yoshiki, the younger of the two, ran the 100 km for the third time. In his 2015 debut he suffered mightily on the way in to an 11:21:52 finish. Returning with a year's more experience in 2016, he won in a course record 7:20:31. This time he was out fast in search of his first sub-7 clocking, averaging 4:00/km at 40 km through the hilliest part of the course before starting to slow. At 60 km he was still on track for a sub-7, splitting 4:07:10, but when he hit the series of three >100 m elevation gain climbs just after 60 km sub-7 slipped out of reach. Still well under course pace with a 7:12:27 projection at 80 km Yoshiki struggled on the last 100 m climb just over 5 km from the finish, coming in for the win in 7:29:06 . Yo...

At a June 15 meeting at the Kochi Prefectural Government offices, the Kochi Ryoma Marathon organizing committee confirmed that it will again be seeking to host a field of over 10000 participants at next February's race. In the event's fifth edition this February the number of starting runners broke 10000 for the first time. In addition, as the number of overseas participants has continued to grow the organizers aim to have the course certified by the IAAF, with the certification process set to take place July 9. The organizers' hope is that the international recognition will help to further increase overseas participation. Organizers will also aim to improve the event's aid and safety protocols. source article: http://www.news24.jp/nnn/news8777727.html translated by Brett Larner

It's 50 days to go to the 2017 London World Championships and just over a week out from the 101st Japanese National Track and Field Championships in Osaka where the country's best will be trying to earn places on the London team. Athletes will have the chance to chase standards in the weeks after Nationals, but excluding the marathon, walks and combined events, all of which are held separately from the National Championships, the following is a list of Japanese athletes already holding valid qualifying marks for London. Things are looking very thin right now, with only the men's 100 m, women's 5000 m and women's 10000 m currently capable of fielding complete contingents, although at least the men's 200 m, men's pole vault and conceivably the men's 10000 m could join that short list. With sixteen women currently holding the London standard the women's 10000 m looks to be the toughest to make even if marathon squad members Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hama...

Twenty university teams from around the Tokyo are will square off Sunday at Saitama's Komaba Sports Park Field for the chance to run the Nov. 5 National University Men's Ekiden . Last year the top six-placing teams at the National University Men's Ekiden, winner Aoyama Gakuin University , Waseda University , Yamanashi Gakuin University , Komazawa University , Chuo Gakuin University and Toyo University , were all from the Tokyo-centric Kanto Region, all six earning seeded places at this year's Nationals. The next twenty teams in Kanto with the fastest average time 10000 m among their top eight men based on certified times in 10000 m track races between Jan. 1, 2016 and June 3, 2017 all earned the right to run Sunday's Kanto Region Qualifier for Nationals. Featuring two strong graduate students eligible to run the National University Men's Ekiden, Tsukuba University is making its first appearance in the field in fourteen years, knocking out last year'...