Golden Games in Nobeoka Preview and Streaming

Eugene, Oregon is the United States' Nobeoka, a small, isolated city with a local powerhouse of running, but in the case of Athlete Town Nobeoka it's not a university but old school corporate team Asahi Kasei that makes the town's name. Thursday's Golden Games in Nobeoka is its big home meet, and it always produces some of the fastest domestic times of the year. The atmosphere at the GGN is like nothing else, with local fans lining the track pounding on metal sponsor boards with batons and local marathon legend Shigeru Soh on the infield calling out support to each athlete by name over a mic like an MC.

Streaming starts at 14:15 local time Thursday, with the main event races starting at 19:05. Meet schedule, start lists and live results are here. JRN will be on-site in Nobeoka. The program is pretty simple: kids' 800 m, 1000 m and 3000 m races in the afternoon, then 10 heats of men's 5000 m, 3 heats of women's 5000 m, and one heat each of 10000 m for women and men.

The men's 5000 m C-heat at 19:05 is the first big race, all Japan-based Kenyan including Emmanuel Kipchirchir (SGH), Benard Langat (Komori Corp.), Dan Kiplangat (JFE Steel) and Cleophas Kandie (Mitsubishi Juko).

The B-heat at 19:25 is more of the same, but along with people like 10000 m all-comers record holder Richard Kimunyan (Logisteed), collegiate 10000 m record holder Richard Etir (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) and Hakone Ekiden 2nd through 4th leg record holder Vincent Yegon (Honda) are a handful of the most ambitious Japanese runners, including Komazawa University's Mebuki Suzuki and Kotaro Shinohara, indoor 5000 m NR holder Hyuga Endo (Sumitomo Denko), Olympian Tatsuhiko Ito (Honda) and Hakone Ekiden 1st leg record holder Yamato Yoshii (Chuo Univ.).

The women's 5000 m A-heat is at 19:45, led by Kenyans Dolphine Omare (U.S.E.), Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) and Agnes Mwikali (Kyudenko) and featuring Japanese athletes like Meijo University's Nanaka Yonezawa and Nanase Tanimoto, Sairi Maeda (Daihatsu),Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko) and Minami Yamanouchi (Shimamura).

The level drops down a bit for the men's 5000 m A-heat at 20:10, with Gideon Ronoh (Logisteed) pacing the top tier of Japanese men who weren't up for something really ambitious in the B-heat. Sonata Nagashima (Asahi Kasei), Hazuma Hattori (NTT Nishi Nihon), Shunsuke Yoshii (Chuo Univ.) Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu), Shoya Kawase (Honda), Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and Taishi Ito (Waseda Univ.) are some of the most notable names here.

The women's 10000 m at 20:35 is small, with only 9 athletes entered. But a lot of Japan's current best on the track are in it, including 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post), women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima (Shiseido) and teammates Yuka Takashima and Tomoka Kimura, and Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu).

Starting at 21:15, the men's 10000 m is the last event of the night. Sub-27 man Rodgers Kwemoi (Aisan Kogyo) is set to pace a field full of Olympic marathon trials-qualified athletes like Tetsuya Yoroizuka (Asahi Kasei), Yohei Ikeda (Kao), Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima), Daiji Kawai (Toenec) and Tatsuya Maruyama (Toyota), sub-61 half marathoners Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) and Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei), track specialists Tomoki Ota (Toyota) and Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu) and many more. But the one most people will be watching is 2023 Komazawa grad Ren Tazawa, the fastest-ever Japanese-born collegian over 10000 m, in his debut with the Toyota corporate team.

World Marathon Majors Japanese Entries

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

Nakajima Breaks 100 mH NR Twice, Kitaguchi Returns - August Track Roundup

Catching up on what's been happening in track and field this month during our summer break: Men's 3000 m NR holder Nagiya Mori was just off his 5000 m PB at the IFAM Oordegem meet in Belgium on Aug. 1, taking 16th in 13:15.01. Shota Nakano was 26th of 28 in 13:35.02. This year's national champion Ryoma Aoki ran the 3000 mSC but didn't finish. Naoto Hasegawa was the only Japanese athlete at Mutaz Essa Barshim 's What Gravity Tour stop at the Monaco Athletics Festival meet on Aug. 5. Having cleared 2.30 m for the first time earlier this year Hasegawa only managed 2.18 m in Monaco, taking 7th of 10. There were a lot of good performances at the Fuji Hokuriku World Trial meet in Fujiyoshida on Aug. 9, but the one that got the headlines was a 12.62 (-0.2) NR in the women's 100 mH by Hitomi Nakajima . Nakajima actually did it twice, running 12.62 (+2.0) in the heats before repeating in the final. Masumi Aoki also ran big in the heats, with a 12.68 (+2.0) for al...

Federation Tells World Championships Marathoner Horibata To Go On Diet

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110307-OHT1T00258.htm translated by Brett Larner Having made the 2011 World Championships marathon team by running a PB of 2:09:25 to come in 3rd overall and as the top Japanese finisher at the Mar. 6 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Hiroyuki Horibata (24, Team Asahi Kasei), talked to the media at Osaka Airport on Mar. 7. Following Sunday's race Rikuren director Keisuke Sawaki , 67, told Horibata, "Let's cut things down a bit until the World Championships," directing him to go on a diet. The 189 cm Horibata weighs 72 kg [~6'3", 160 lbs]. When he joined Team Asahi Kasei in 2005 at age 18 he weighed 65 kg, and this weight is still generally listed on his profile at races and in the media. "For some reason it never changes," he said with a grin. His coach Takeshi Soh , 58, commented, "If he was hungrier for glory his world would change completely," slapping the 'heavyweight division runner...

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