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

Murayama and Sasaki Making U.S. Debut at New York Mini 10 km

Every year since 2012 that there's been a United Airlines NYC Half , JRN has partnered with the NYRR and November's Ageo City Half Marathon to bring two top-tier collegiate Japanese men to the NYC Half for what's usually been their international debuts. For years we've wanted to extend that program to include top collegiate women, but that has always faced 2 problems. For one, while the half marathon distance is the main focus for Japanese collegiate men due to the stage lengths at the Hakone Ekiden, few collegiate women run it. Those that do run the National University Women's Half Marathon in Matsue, held the same day as the NYC Half. This year, though, we're finally making it happen in a slightly different way. Amisa Murayama and Nazuki Sasaki of 2025 Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national collegiate championship runner-up Tohoku Fukushi University are joining the field for the NYRR's Mastercard New York Mini 10 km on June 6. After running an 18:14 CR ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Australian YouTuber Handed Lifetime Ban by Ageo City Half Marathon After Running 1:06 with Another Runner's Bib (updated)

After discussion with their race's chief JAAF referee, on Nov. 27 the organizers of the Ageo City Half Marathon handed down a lifetime ban from their event against 36-year-old Australian Matt Inglis Fox  for running the Nov. 15 race wearing the bib number of another JAAF-registered runner. The incident came to light after Fox posted on his personal Instagram account that he had run a PB of 1:06:33 and finished 203rd in Ageo with a 10 km split of 31:03, along with photos and video of himself in the race wearing a bib number beginning with 11. Fox did not appear in the results by name or in that time or place, the closest match being a 1:06:54 gross, 1:06:50 net finish time with a 31:21 10 km split for 18th place in the JAAF-registered division and 209th overall by bib number 1129, registered to a non-Japanese Tokyo-resident club runner. The club runner, Harrisson Uk , readily confirmed that he had given his bib to Fox, saying, "I gave my number to Matt. It wasn't me."...
82 comments
Read more

Some Reflections on the Ekiden

by Brett Larner This ekiden season I've had a few thoughts kicking around, and watching this week's Hakone Ekiden a few of them became clearer.  These are still in progress, but at the moment this is what I'm thinking in terms of running as a spectator sport and about the quality of Japanese men's distance running right now. Quality: Japanese men's running is coming up very, very quickly.  I was in the lead car at November's Ageo City Half Marathon , where 18 men, 17 of them university runners, broke 63 minutes.  As it was going on we all thought it was a slow race because there were so many people running that pace all the way, no separation at all in the mass of the pack. See the JRN header photo above, taken just past halfway.  That's pretty unusual in Japan, especially at the university level; generally you'll get a handful of guys who run an aggressive pace and a mass running dead on a safe pace, 3:00/km in a half marathon, for example. Th...
18 comments
Read more