japan running news

It's another massive weekend of racing in Japan before championship ekiden season really hits. Proving that it's always time for track time trials, Saturday's Edion Distance Challenge meet in Osaka has high-level women's 3000 m, 5000 m and 10000 m races on the menu. 5000 m NR holder Nozomi Tanaka will take her annual stab at the 10000 m against Dolphine Omare , Tabitha Njeri Kamau , Pauline Kamulu and more, with domestic competition including Queens Ekiden First Stage winner Kana Mizumoto . Anchor stage winner Rina Sasaki leads the 5000 m A-heat with support from Lucy Nduta . Streaming starts at 12:05 p.m. local time. Complete meet schedule and entry lists here . Sunday is the 50th running of the world's #1 10-miler, the Kumamoto Kosa Road Race . This is really the last big tuneup for the New Year Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden, and every year it's fast up front with the kind of depth of quality you see in the bigger half marathon and marathons. There are too many...

Following the track 5000 m held last weekend to pick the lineup for the U20 teams at January's Tallahassee World Cross Country Championships, the JAAF has announced its complete team lineup . The senior men's team features sub-28 runners Ryuto Igawa and Daiki Ozawa , with 31-minute women Momoka Kawaguchi and Wakana Itsuki lead the senior women's squad. The U20 men's team features 6 sub-14 high schoolers led by Haruki Niizuma with a 13:35.33 best, while at 15:27.28 Mei Hosomi leads a U20 women's team made up of a mix of high school runners, collegiate athletes and corporate leaguers. The complete team lineup with track 5000 m / 10000 m bests: Senior Men's 10 km Ryuto Igawa (Asahi Kasei) - 27:39.05 Daiki Ozawa (Fujitsu) - 27:55.74 Hiroto Yoshioka (Juntendo Univ.) - 28:08.02 Yuma Shimoo (NTN) - 28:27.52 Senior Women's 10 km Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) - 31:57.81 Wakana Itsuki (Kraftia) - 31:58.59 Sora Shinozakura (Yokohama T&F Assoc.) - 32:24.50 Mitsu ...

After the great men's 10000 m and women's 5000 m results on day 1 of the last full Nittai University Time Trials meet of 2025, day 2 brought a lot of great 5000 m times from high schoolers, both at Nittai and at another meet in Kyoto. At Nittai, Bilith Boi (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) downed 3000 mSC NR holder Ryuji Miura (Subaru) in the last of the 35 heats of 5000 m, running 13:27.52 to Miura's 13:28.61. Ryo Goda (Yasukawa Denki) also got under 13:30, running 13:29.41 for 3rd, with 40-year-old Yuichiro Ueno (Hiramatsu Byoin) rocking on with a 13:32.12 for 4th. James Karuri (Aomori Yamada H.S.) was 8th in 13:35.46, with 17-year-old Naoya Doma (Sera H.S.) running an excellent 13:39.13 for 10th. Samuel Gayu and Yua Hayashi also got under 14 minutes in the same heat to make it 3 sub-14 for Sapporo Yamanote H.S. In Heat 34, Chien Tzu-Chieh (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) ran a Taiwanese NR 13:48.99 for 4th, with Yui Kudo and Yugo Yamamoto running sub-14 to bring the Aomori Yamada...

After last weekend's massive total of 53 people sub-28 for 10000 m at the Hachioji Long Distance and MARCH Taikosen meets , another 17 did it Saturday in the A-heat at the last full Nittai University Time Trials meet of the year. After multiple heats saw winning times under 28:10, Amos Bett (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) led the 16th heat with a  27:44.02 PB, just beating Emmanuel Yegon (Subaru) who was 2nd in 27:44.23. The next 3 were all in 27:45, the top Japanese finisher being Tatsuya Iyoda (Fujitsu) in 27:45.72 for 5th. A total of 9 Japanese men broke 28 minutes, with former Tokai University runner Shotaro Ishihara (SGH) making a corporate league breakthrough in 27:53.19 for 11th. Nittai's Ryuto Hirashima ran a school record 27:56.84 for 13th to add to the school records at Aoyama Gakuin University , Chuo University , Koku Gakuin University and Rikkyo University last weekend. Out of the 20 university teams set to run January's Hakone Ekiden, 13 now have at least one cu...

The Ohtawara Marathon and 10 km took place Nov. 23 at DI Stadium in Ohtawara, Tochigi. 2803 people started the marathon at 10:00 a.m., with 2354 people finishing for a finisher rate of 84.0%. The race has a cutoff time of 4 hours, and all participants are able to use special drink tables. Most years there is a headwind blowing from the mountains of Nasu in the 2nd half of the race, but this year there was almost no wind and cloudy skies. Itto Otawa , a 23-year-old Tochigi local, won the men's marathon in a 2:13:04 course record. Otawa ran this year's Hakone Ekiden for Senshu University , placing 15th on the Ninth Stage. After graduating in March he was hired by the Shimotsuke Newspaper in Tochigi, where he works as a reporter. In August he ran a PB of 2:16:29 at the Hokkaido Marathon. "At work I'm mainly in charge of the Nikko beat," Otawa said. "My goal in Ohtawara this time was to break the course record. I've run a PB every time so far in the marathon...

5th last year, Edion led almost start to finish to win its first-ever national title at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championship race Sunday in Sendai. Its lead-off runner Kana Mizumoto opened up a 16-second lead that it held until the 4th leg, when the talented Caroline Kariba from 2024 winner Japan Post ran down Edion's Saya Nakajima . It's hard to fault Nakajima, who was still the fastest Japanese woman on that leg, and in any case Edion's 5th runner Ai Hosoda , 6th at August's Sydney Marathon, caught Japan Post's Kotoka Ota late in the 10.0 km leg to put Edion out front again by 7 seconds. Both Edion anchor Miho Hiraoka and Japan Post's Mao Kogure ran identical times for the 6.795 km 6th leg, 21:24, Hiraoka bringing Edion in to its first-ever win in 2:13:50. It had to have been frustrating for Kogure, who just couldn't close the gap and had to accept 2nd in 2:13:57. 2023 winner Sekisui Kagaku was almost a minute back in 3rd...

Japan got one step closer to its first sub-27 minute 10000 m Saturday at the Hachioji Long Distance meet. Conditions were as perfect as they could have been, and as the heats went by it was clear that something big was coming. The E and D-heats both had winning times under 28:10. In the C-heat Hiromichi Nonaka held off alum and former collegiate marathon record holder Kiyoto Hirabayashi to set a Koku Gakuin University school record 27:36.64, Hirabayashi right behind in a 27:37.13 PB and the top 7 all under 28. The B-heat went even faster, Yuto Imae kicking to win in 27:33.84, 4th-placer Kaisei Okada setting a Chuo University school record 27:37.06, and the top 17 all under 28 minutes. Close by another meet was happening at the same time, the MARCH Taikosen time trial meet made up of the Meiji University , Aoyama Gakuin University , Rikkyo University , Chuo, and Hosei University teams. The A-heat there was massive too, with collegiate marathon record holder Asahi Kuroda runnin...

The Hachioji Long Distance time trial meet always produces fast 10000 m, with last year's A-heat winner Gulveer Singh running a 27:14.88 that was an Indian national record at that point. Set to kick off at 18:40, the A-heat this year is targeting 27:10, with Japanese men Mebuki Suzuki , Yamato Yoshii , Kotaro Shinohara , Ren Tazawa , Shunsuke Yoshii , Tomoya Ogiko and Ryuto Igawa hoping to hit the Japanese NR of 27:09.80. Streaming starts just before the first race at 14:40. Complete time table and entry lists here . Results will be posted here . © 2025 Brett Larner , all rights reserved  

Championship ekiden season kicks off Sunday with the Queens Ekiden , the corporate women's national championship race in Sendai, 42.195 km in 6 legs with 24 teams competing to make the 8-deep podium. TBS has the live broadcast starting at 11:50 a.m. local time, with streaming starting on Youtube at 12:10 p.m. Japan Post won its 4th national title last year, running down 2023 winner Sekisui Kagaku and CR holder Shiseido over the 2nd half of the race to take the win. Its entire lineup from last year returns, with a new addition to its 10-runner entry roster in former Meijo University captain Nanase Tanimoto . Sekisui Kagaku is missing one of its strongest people from last year, First Stage winner Erika Tanoura , but has picked up 2023 World University Games 5000 m bronze medalist Risa Yamazaki from Nittai University . A surprise 3rd last year, Shimamura also returns its entire lineup led by Anna Suzuki and Yuna Takahashi . Shiseido ended up 8th last year, the last place earnin...

This season's Izumo Ekiden winner Koku Gakuin University and National University Ekiden champ Komazawa University brought solid squads to Sunday's Ageo City Half Marathon , pushing the always super-deep race into uncharted territory with almost 50 people under 63 minutes, over 100 under 64, and up front, a new race record courtesy of the favorite for the win. Making his half marathon debut, Komazawa 2nd-year Shunsuke Kuwata did all the work almost the entire way, leading the front pack almost from the gun steadily on low-61 pace, 14:35 through 5 km, 28:55 at 10 km, and 43:27 at 15 km. Just past 15 km the fastest guy in the race, KGU's Rui Aoki with a 1:00:47 PB that exactly matched the Ageo record, took over, and only Kuwata could follow. The lead changed multiple times over the last few km as the projected finish time got closer and closer to the record, and after a 57:44 split at 20 km, inside the last km Aoki kicked. Track resurfacing meant a slightly different cou...

Kenyans Elisha Rotich and Jackline Chelal made it a Kenyan double at the Kobe Marathon , Rotich outrunning American Ethan Shuley by 28 seconds for the win in 2:11:02 and Chelal with an almost 2-minute lead in 2:28:25. The men's race started off with a lead group of 11, going through 10 km in 30:10 and halfway in 1:03:38. Wearing a mass-participation bib and starting 6 seconds back from the elites, Shuley, whose previous best was a 2:18:13 in Nagano this past April and who has only 2 other races on his World Athletics profile in the last 10 years, both indoor 3000 m, improbably led through 25 km in 1:15:19, 2:07:07 pace, before losing touch. Ethiopian Abay Alemu surged into the lead, only to get run down by Rotich just after 30 km and ultimately dropping out. Rotich slowed after moving into the top spot but held his margin over Shuley to win 2:11:02 to 2:11:30. Hiromasa Kumahashi (Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) was 3rd in 2:11:45, closing on Shuley fast but running out of ground before ...

Ekiden season rolls on with Sunday's Ageo City Half Marathon . Most of the universities bound for the Hakone Ekiden, including this season's Izumo Ekiden winner Koku Gakuin University and National University Ekiden winner Komazawa University send big squads to Ageo every year so their coaches can thin down the list of contenders for their 16-name Hakone entry roster. Since 2012 there's been the extra motivation for top talent to run Ageo in JRN's partnership program between Ageo and March's United Airlines NYC Half to bring the top 2 Japanese collegiate finishers in Ageo and their coaches to run in NYC. That's had an impact, with people like this year's Berlin Marathon runner-up Akira Akasaki and former half marathon and marathon NR holder Yuta Shitara having gone through the program. You never really know from the entry lists who's actually going to show up to run in Ageo, but it's always an incredibly deep race with no parallel anywhere excep...

The Fukuoka International Marathon is back Dec. 7 with exactly the kind of boutique field it's had over the decades. Up front are two of the home soil stars from February's Osaka Marathon, Kyohei Hosoya , 2:05:58, and Shunya Kikuchi , 2:06:06. Their toughest competition comes from Djibouti NR holder and 2023 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon winner Ibrahim Hassan , 2:06:13, and Yusuke Nishiyama , who ran a 2:06:31 PB in Tokyo last year despite getting caught up in a fall in the early going. There's a layer of 5 2:07 men, 3 at 2:08 and a lone 2:09 runner below them, a total of 6 sub-2:10 Japanese men competing for 6 places at the L.A. Olympic marathon trials for anyone who goes under 2:09 here with support from 7 internationals from 5 countries. The Konica Minolta corporate team hasn't shown incredible aptitude for the marathon, but its 1:01:04 half marathoner Ren Yonemitsu is an interesting debut. Check back closer to race date for info on streaming and following from out...

Following a bear attack that critically injured an area man on Nov. 2, this week the Kansai Collegiate Athletics Association announced measures that will be taken if a bear appears on the course at Saturday's Tango University Ekiden , the 87th Kansai Region university men's ekiden championships. 22 collegiate teams from the Kansai region are scheduled to compete, along with 2025 Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University in a special guest appearance. If a bear sighting is confirmed near the 1st leg of the race before the start, the race will be delayed until it is determined safe to start. If a bear appears along any section of the course during the race, that leg of the ekiden will be stopped and the next stage's runners will all start at the same time. In that scenario the winner will be determined by adding up the performances on completed legs and disallowing the stopped sections. Translator's note: Assuming the race goes ahead as scheduled, streaming will s...

Yesterday the national corporate federation JITA announced major changes to the New Year Ekiden, the corporate men's national championship race around which the entire year is structured. Other top-tier ekidens like the Hakone Ekiden, the National University Men's and Women's Ekidens, and the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championships all have a seeded bracket, allowing top-placing teams to auto-qualify for the following year's race and exempting them from running in the yosenkai qualifying races the next season. This frees up the best of the best and lets them do other things, whether it's the Izumo Ekiden for university men, overseas fall marathons for women, or whatever. The JITA has stubbornly refused to put a seeded bracket into the New Year Ekiden over the years, meaning every corporate men's team has to run one of the regional corporate ekidens that took place the last two weekends in order to get back to the national race, even the prev...

Following last weekend's East Japan and Kyushu Region corporate ekidens , qualification for the New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championship wrapped up Sunday with 3 other qualifying races covering 4 corporate regions. As in East Japan and Kyushu, one extra slot per region was available in honor of the New Year Ekiden's 70th running to the top team finishing outside the designated number of qualifying spots in that region as long as the they finished within 10 minutes of the last team in the regular qualifying bracket. In the combined Chubu and Hokuriku Region race, Toyota Boshoku took over the lead on the 3rd leg and never looked back, leading the 6 qualifying teams by 57 seconds in 3:54:00 for the 7-leg, 80.5 km course. Just over 2 minutes back from 6th finisher NTN , the Toenec team scored the special qualification slot in 4:00:35 for 7th. Perennial top Hokuriku placer YKK had a relatively narrow win over Sekino Kosan 4:00:12 to 4:01:00, both teams going on t...