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.

Chepkirui Over Sato Again to Win 2nd-Straight Nagoya Women's Marathon, Chen Breaks Malaysian NR (updated)

This year's Nagoya Women's Marathon felt like a changing of the guard, with some the bigger domestic names over the last few years fading early and a lot of newer faces stepping up with quality debuts or second marathons. The front group was set to be paced for 2:20 flat with the 2nd group at 2:23:30 to hit the auto-qualifying time for the 2027 MGC Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials race in Nagoya. Up front things went out OK, but after a 33:10 split at 10 km Ayuko Suzuki , 2:21:22 here 2 years ago, lost touch, ultimately finishing 23rd in 2:33:28. Windy conditions started to play with pacers' ability to keep things steady and the pace slowed majorly over the next 10 km, but even with a 34:05 second 10 km there were big-name casualties. 2024 Nagoya winner Yuka Ando was next to drop, ending up 17th in 2:30:32. NR holder Honami Maeda was next, followed quickly by Bahraini Kenyan Eunice Chumba and debuting Wakana Kabasawa . Maeda faded to 21st in 2:31:21, whil...

16 Women and 26 Men on the Current Olympic Trials Qualifier List

Last weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon and the Tokyo Marathon the weekend before brought the main part of the first year of qualification for the Marathon Grand Championship Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials to be held in Nagoya in October, 2027, to an end. There are still a few races like the Nagano Marathon and overseas World Athletics platinum label races this season where people might qualify, but for the most part we're not likely to see many new additions until August's Hokkaido Marathon, where the qualifying period opened last year. As of right now 16 women and 26 men have qualified, although the first woman to make the cut, Ai Hosoda , announced that she was retiring after Tokyo earlier this month. Out of the 16 women to have qualified so far, Mikuni Yada is the fastest with her 2:19:57 debut at Osaka Women's in January. Including Hosoda that makes 2 qualifiers for the Edion corporate team, but Daihatsu has the biggest share of the field so ...

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...

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