National Corporate Track and Field Championships Preview and Streaming

The National Corporate Track and Field Championships happen in Gifu over the next three days, a late-season meetup for non-distance runners in Japan’s corporate leagues and a chance for distance runners to see where they’re at after summer base training just before ekiden season kicks off. The entry lists always promise a lot that the start lists can’t deliver, and especially with the Asian Games starting next week it’s inevitable that a lot of the big names won’t really be there. Complete meet schedule here.

As of this writing only the distance event start lists have been released. The junior women’s 3000 m at 17:00 Friday is pretty much a head-to-head between Janet Nyiva (Panasonic), 8:49.32, and Esther Wangui (Starts), 8:53.21, the main question being whether they can hit Tokyo Marathon winner Rosemary Wanjiru’s 8:48.44 meet record from 2014.

The women’s 10000 m starts at 18:45 Friday and features Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) as its top seed at 30:20.97. All sub-31:30, Rina Goshima (Shiseido), Hellen Ekarare (Toyota Jidoshokki) and Eva Cherono (Toto) are her main competition, with sub-32 women Dolphine Omare (U.S.E.), Hina Yanagitani (Wacoal), Wakana Itsuki (Kyudenko), Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) and Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) also on the list.

In the women’s 3000 mSC, 16:15 Saturday, Olympian Yuno Yamanaka (Ehime Ginko) makes a return to her specialty event after focusing on other distances this season. Her 9:38.19 puts her in direct competition with Manami Nishiyama (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo), 9:39.28, to go for NR holder Minori Hayakari’s meet record of 9:48.55 from way back in 2010.

The men’s 3000 mSC 20 minutes later has Philemon Kiplagat (Aisan Kogyo) as its top seed at 8:22.79, his top competition coming from Taisei Ogino (Asahi Kasei), 8:31.02, and Yutaro Niinae (Aisan Kogyo), 8:34.92. Kiplagat would need a PB to hit the 8:21.36 MR set by Nahom Mesfin in 2010.

The men’s 10000 m happens at 19:00 Saturday. Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) leads the field at 27:07.59, followed closely by Benson Kiplangat (Subaru), 27:09.83, Evans Keitany (Toyota Boshoku), 27:11.88, Jonathan Ndiku (Logisteed), 27:12.84, Sitonik Kiprono (Kurosaki Harima), 27:14.76, Stanley Waithaka (Yakult), 27:19.86, and another five men under 27:30. Ayumu Kobayashi (NTT Nishi Nihon) is the top Japanese seed at 27:57.99.

Sunday the women’s 5000 m fast heat goes off at 16:20. Judy Jepngetich (Shiseido) and Rebecca Mwangi (Denso) are the only ones under 15 minutes at 14:50.20 and 14:57.79, but Nyiva, Ekarare, Esther Muthoni (Nitori) and Joan Kipkemoi (Kyudenko) all have recent times under 15:10. Wakana Kabasawa (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) is the top Japanese entrant at 15:19.98.

The men’s 5000 m fast heat happens at 17:40 Sunday. Kiplangat is the favorite at 13:02.74 if he can handle the double from the 10000 m the day before, the only runner in the field under 13:10. Justus Soget (Honda), Joseph Karanja (Aichi Seiko) and Cosmas Mwangi (Chugoku Denryoku) all have recent times under 13:20, with the fastest Japanese man being Nagiya Mori (Honda) at 13:28.35.

Heisei Mountaineering Stops Takigahara SDF Base From Scoring 10-Year Streak at Mount Fuji Ekiden

by Koichi Iwasa of DogsorCaravan On Aug. 2 the 51st Mount Fuji Ekiden took place, starting and finishing in Gotemba, Shizuoka and covering 11 stages up to the peak of Mount Fuji and back down. Teams of 6 runners tackle the tough course, each running handling one uphill and one downhill leg with the 6th runner reaching the peak before turning around to head back to the exchange zone where they started. The Heisei Mountaineering Club team took the overall win in 3:50:39, beating 9-time winner Takigahara SDF Base by 2:07 and stopping them from achieving a 10-year victory streak. The independent team division and SDF team division were separated in 2005, and this was the first time that the winning independent team outran the fastest SDF team to take the overall title. The roster that Heisei Mountaineering put together for this year's race raised eyebrows among everyone familiar with the Japanese trail running scene. Handling the 5th and 7th legs was Ruy Ueda , winner of the Fuji M...

How it Happened

Ancient History I went to Wesleyan University, where the legend of four-time Boston Marathon champ and Wes alum Bill Rodgers hung heavy over the cross-country team. Inspired by Koichi Morishita and Young-Cho Hwang’s duel at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics I ran my first marathon in 1993, qualifying for Boston ’94 where Bill was kind enough to sign a star-struck 20-year-old me’s bib number at the expo. Three years later I moved to Japan for grad school, and through a long string of coincidences I came across a teenaged kid named Yuki Kawauchi down at my neighborhood track. I never imagined he’d become what he is, but right from the start there was just something different about him. After his 2:08:37 breakthrough at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon he called me up and asked me to help him get into races abroad. He’d finished 3rd on the brutal downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, and given how he’d run the hills in the last 6 km at Tokyo ’11 I thought he’d do well at Boston or New York. “I...

Fujisan GX Breaks CR to Win 79th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden

The 79th edition of the Towada Hachimantai Ekiden took place Aug. 1 in Akita. Covering a 5-leg 71.4 km course, the race hosted 14 teams. Yamanashi's Fujisan GX took the overall win in a 3:42:17 course record. The best-placing team from within the prefecture, the Akita T&F Association team made the podium at 6th overall. The women's race was canceled again this year due to lack of participation. 79th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden Akita, 1 Aug. 2026 5 stages, 71.4 km, 14 teams complete results Top Team Results 1. Fujisan GX - 3:42:17 - CR 2. Corporate Select Team - 3:46:24 3. Tokyo Police A - 3:48:00 4. Comodi Iida - 3:48:41 5. Tokyo Police B - 3:50:14 6. Akita T&F Assoc. - 3:57:58 7. Fukushima T&F Assoc. - 4:08:20 Top Individual Stage Results First Stage (13.0 km) 1. Ryota Seki (Tokyo Police A) - 39:47 2. Takuma Nakayama (Fujisan GX) - 40:01 3. Ryota Sato (Tokyo Police B) - 40:02 Second Stage (13.0 km) 1. Yuki Seto (Fujisan GX) - 37:03 2. Shunsuke Watanabe (Comodi ...

japan running news

Search This Blog