Skip to main content

Corporate League Expected to Relax Regulations On Transferring Teams

On Feb. 7 it was learned that the Japan Industrial Track and Field Association (JITA), the governing body of the nation's corporate running league, plans to relax regulations concerning athletes transferring teams. Currently, if a team does not grant an athlete an amicable release, the athlete is barred indefinitely from signing with another team. The new regulations are expected to reduce that period to a maximum of one year. The JITA Board of Directors is expected to formally approve the change on Feb. 8.

The rule indefinitely barring athletes from signing with another team without the consent of their former team was put in place due to cases in the past where teams fell apart due to runners' transfer to other teams. However, after examining the issue, the national Fair Trade Commission ruled that the regulations were a likely violation of antitrust law and asked the JITA to make changes. The weakness of the athletes' position and their resulting liability to abuses of power from above were also identified as problems. Under the new regulations, athletes will be free to sign with other teams and to participate in JITA-sponsored events after a one-year waiting period regardless of whether their previous team has granted them a release.

In addition, JITA plans to extend the deadline for registration of athletes eligible to participate in the New Year Ekiden national championships from the end of September to the end of December. If approved, the change will keep the market for athlete transfers open until right before the Jan. 1 race. This would allow athletes to compete for who they want, but there are concerns that it will result in smaller teams losing their star athletes.

source article:
https://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/202002070000803.html
translated by Brett Larner

Buy Me A Coffee
Labels:

Comments

Metts said…
I think this can be both a positive and a negative. Its good that athletes can transfer, but like the last paragraph,sentence, mentions, it could hurt smaller teams. Especially if a start runner on a relatively small team jumps to a high-powered team. But has the smaller team even made to the New Year's Ekiden? If not, maybe its not a problem, but it is a problem, if the small team is counting on the star runner to help bring in more star runners the next year and so on. Either way the smaller team could lose out. But to be fair to the star runner, like in baseball, soccer etc. it gives them a chance to compete and run with more star runners if the opportunity was not there before.
February 8, 2020 at 12:32 PM
Unknown said…
This will be a win win to bigger teams especially in new year ekiden.advantages n disadvantage at the same times.
February 8, 2020 at 5:52 PM
Post a Comment

Most-Read This Week

19-Yr-Old Munakata Breaks Miura's U20 NR to Win Ageo City Half Marathon

The Ageo City Half Marathon is always big, the main race that the coaches of Hakone Ekiden-bound university men's teams use for firming up their entry rosters for the big show. That makes what's basically an idyllic small town race into one of the world's great road races, with depth unmatched anywhere. One of the top-tier people on the start list at 1:02:07, Kodai Miyaoka (Hosei Univ.) took the race out fast, but the entire pack was keying off the fastest man in the race, Reishi Yoshida (Chuo Gakuin Univ.), 1:00:31. Yoshida reeled Miyaoka in before 5 km and kept things steady in the low-1:01 range, wearing down the lead group to around 10 including his CGU teammate Taisei Ichikawa , a quartet from Izumo and National University Ekiden runner-up Komazawa University , 2 runners from local Daito Bunka University , 2:07:54 marathoner Atsumi Ashiwa (Honda), and Australian Ed Goddard . Right after 15 km Komazawa went into action, Yudai Kiyama , Hibiki Murakami and Haru Tanin
Post a Comment
Read more

Ageo City Half Marathon Preview and Streaming

This weekend's big race is the Ageo City Half Marathon , the next stop on the collegiate men's circuit. Most of the universities bound for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden use Ageo to thin down the list of contenders for their final Hakone rosters, and with JRN's development program that sends the first two Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo to the United Airlines NYC Half every year a lot of coaches put in some of their A-listers too. That gives Ageo legendary depth and fast front-end speed, with a 1:00:47 course record last year from Kenyan corporate leaguer Paul Kuira (JR Higashi Nihon) and the top 26 all clearing 63 minutes. Since a lot of programs just enter everybody on their rosters you never really know who on the entry list is actually going to show up, but if even a quarter of the people at the top end of this year's list run it'll be a great race, even if conditions are looking likely to be a bit warmer than ideal. Chuo Gakuin University 's Reishi Yoshi
Post a Comment
Read more

Shiojiri, Kasai and Tazawa Scratch from Hachioji Long Distance, 5000 m Dropped from Program (updated)

  On Nov. 15 the East Japan Corporate Federation announced that 10000 m national champion and Paris Olympian  Jun Kasai  (Asahi Kasei) and Budapest World Championships team member  Ren Tazawa  (Toyota) have both withdrawn from the 10000 m at the Nov. 23 Hachioji Long Distance meet. This year's Hachioji Long Distance features a special heat set up to target the 27:00.00 qualifying standard for next year's Tokyo World Championships. Along with Kasai and Tazawa, national record holder Kazuya Shiojiri  (Fujitsu) and other top-level Japanese talent are scheduled to compete. After last January's New Year Ekiden , Tazawa sustained an injury that forced him to miss May's National Championships 10000 m and other races including the Paris Olympics. At the end of September he ran 13:36.99 for 5th at the Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup meet, but, he said, "My balance felt off and the back of my left knee hurt." In Kasai's case, after winning the national title in M
Post a Comment
Read more