japan running news

The Yasukawa Denki men's corporate team has announced that four of its members including 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics marathoner Hisanori Kitajima , 38, are retiring. Kitajima won the Hakone Ekiden's Eighth Stage his fourth year at Toyo University . He finished 2nd as the top Japanese man at the 2016 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon to qualify for the Rio Olympics, where he placed 94th. In comments Kitajima said, "The last few years I've felt my body deteriorating day by day, and it was frustrating not to be able to do the kind of training and aggressive racing I used to. But that made me change the way I approached racing, and to approach it with more thought and craft. I learned new things and changed my way of thinking, and as I got older I found a new kind of enjoyment and satisfaction in racing. Part of that was being called a veteran, which felt like some kind of persona. It made me want to compete with the 'veterans' from other teams, and that came to be a m...

"I hate running. There's only pain. But, it's work and I'm getting paid to do it, so I can't say that I hate it. I have to do my job." Still, she's come right out and said it without hiding her words. Hitomi Niiya (32, Sekisui Kagaku) isn't your average athlete. She's the leader of Japanese women's long distance, having set a new national record of 1:06:38 for the half marathon in January this year. She's a pro who cares about her results and lives by the words, "running fast is all that matters."  Despite scintillating 9th place and 5th place finishes in the 10000 m at the 2012 London Olympics and 2013 Moscow World Championships, she retired in 2014 at the age of just 25. Returning to racing in June, 2018, within two years she was breaking PB after PB and had the Tokyo Olympics in range. Having said that she would "absolutely never" do another marathon, she now says, "there's a possibility." She's a n...

an editorial by Serika Ito As the figure on the screen grew larger, I could feel myself unintentionally getting energy from it. Just past 31 km, the oldest man in the race, 36-year-old Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki) took the lead in the chase pack behind breakaway frontrunner Yuta Shitara (Honda). It was one of the memorable scenes in last September's Marathon Grand Championship (MGC) Tokyo Olympics marathon trial race. At one point Nakamoto was more than 20 seconds behind the chase group, but he had already proven himself in heat and excelled at race tactics and catching up. "Maybe there's going to be a Tokyo Olympics for him," I thought. I couldn't help starting to get excited. Nakamoto was 6th in the 2012 London Olympics marathon and made three World Championships teams in the marathon, finishing as high as 5th and always in the top 10. I interviewed him many times over the years as he quietly build a track record of anonymous quality. Although he ...

Kayoko Fukushi age: 37 sponsor: Wacoal graduated from: Goshogawara Kogyo H.S. best time inside MGC window: 2:24:09, 8th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon PB: 2:22:17, 1st, 2016 Osaka International Women’s Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 14:53.22 (NR, 2005) 10000 m: 30:51.81 (2002) half marathon: 1:07:26 (NR, 2006) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 8th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:24:09 DNF, 2019 Osaka International Women’s Marathon other major results: 5th, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Third Stage (10.0 km), 35:15 1st, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Qualifier Sixth Stage (6.695 km), 21:22 – CR 14th, 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics Marathon, 2:29:53 1st, 2016 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:22:17 – PB 4th, 2015 Chicago Marathon, 2:24:25 3rd, 2013 Moscow World Championships Marathon, 2:27:45 1st, 2013 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:24:21 What’s there to say about Fukushi? She’s got more national records than...

5th in the women's 10000 m at the 2013 Moscow World Championships, Hitomi Niiya (30, Nike Tokyo TC) returned to Japan on Dec. 15 from Melbourne, Australia. In her first track 10000 m since Moscow over five years ago Niiya won the Zatopek:10 in 31:32.50 to clear the 2019 Doha World Championships entry standard of 31:50.00. "I just barely cleared my minimum goal," she said of her performance. In the Zatopek:10 race Niiya showed that her aggressive style lives on. Taking off from the lead group after only 2000 m she ran the entire rest of the way to the win alone. "The last 3000 m were hard," she said. "I understood that I'm not doing enough distance in training." Asked to compare her performance to her golden years in Moscow, where she ran an all-time Japanese #3 mark of 30:56.70 she rated Zatopek "50-60%." In just her fifth race since starting to make a comeback in the spring from five years of retirement Niiya cleared the World Ch...

5th in the 10000 m at the 2013 Moscow World Championships, Hitomi Niiya (30, Nike Tokyo TC) left Japan Dec. 7 for her first 10000 m since returning from five years away from the sport, the Dec. 13 Zatopek:10 in Melbourne, Australia. The Zatopek:10 will be her fifth race in a year that saw her run a 31:08 course record on the anchor stage of November's East Japan Women's Ekiden. Her condition is even better than at the time of her come-from-behind East Japan victory. "The result is important, but everything that I could do to be ready for it is done," she told reporters. "All that's left is to run hard for 30 minutes." Since starting her comeback Niiya has run mostly 5000 m, but now her focus has shifted to 10000 m. "If you consider when I was running before a 10, I'm at about 6 or 7 right now" she said. As a test of her fitness she is setting 31:30 as her target. That is more than 30 seconds off her best but would rank her #1 in Ja...

All-time Japanese #3 for 10000 m, Hitomi Niiya (Nike Tokyo TC) makes a return to the distance at Australia's Zatopek:10 next week with support from JRN after five years away from the sport. Niiya's history at the distance is short with only four track 10000 m races to her name, but good ones they were, one and all: 31:28.26, 2012 Hyogo Relay Carnival - 1st 30:59.19, 2012 London Olympics - 9th 31:06.67 MR, 2013 Japanese National Championships - 1st 30:56.70, 2013 Moscow World Championships - 5th Following her crushing defeat over the last lap in Moscow after leading the entire race Niiya quit running and everything to do with it. But in the spring this year, now 30, she decided to try to make a comeback in hope of making the 2020 Olympic team in the 10000 m, telling the media, "I still totally hate running, but unfortunately it seems like this is where I belong."  After three track races from 3000 m to 5000 m between June and October she made a definit...

Ladies and gentlemen, Hitomi Niiya is back. You might remember Hitomi Niiya from the 2013 Moscow World Championships 10000 m, where she led the entire way only to get destroyed over the last lap and finish 5th in 30:56.70. That made her the third-fastest Japanese woman ever over that distance, but not long after that race she quit the sport entirely, getting an office job as far away from athletics as she could and not running for almost five years. But the pull of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is strong, and, now 30, early this year she made the decision to try to make a comeback. Under the eye of former men's 800 m national record holder Masato Yokota she ran a 3000 m and two 5000 m time trials on the track between April and October before choosing the East Japan Women's Ekiden for her return to the roads and the longer distances. The East Japan Women's Ekiden celebrated its 34th running Sunday, 9 stages totaling 42.195 km through the Fukushima countryside with teams...

One of Japan's best long distance women is back on track. 5th in the women's 10000 m at the 2013 Moscow World Championships before declaring her retirement in January, 2014, Hitomi Niiya (30, Nike Tokyo TC) ran her first race in almost five years in the 3000 m at the June 9 Nittai University Time Trials  meet. Post-race she said, "Yeah, it's been a while. Feels like I'm on my way back." Describing herself as, "an athlete whose history is only in the past," Niiya ran 9:20.74 for 2nd in the 3000 m A-heat at Nittai. "That's a really half-assed time, huh," she said afterwards. Her bib number was 30, the same as her age now. "That pissed me off," she laughed. "I'm not happy about it." Sounding just like her old self there was no doubt that her sharp tongue, at least, hasn't lost its edge. After running in the 2012 London Olympics, in November that year at the age of 25 Niiya was diagnosed with plantar fasci...

On June 3 it was revealed that 2013 Moscow World Championships women's 10000 m 5th-placer Hitomi Niiya , 30, will run the women's 3000 m at the June 9 Nittai University Time Trials as part of the Nike Tokyo Track Club. Her first race in over four years, the race represents her first step on the road to a comeback in time for the 2020 Tokyo Oympic Games. According to a club spokesperson, Niiya began running again last summer. Her goal at Nittai to clear the 9:50 qualifying time for July's Hokuren Distance Challenge series in Hokkaido, where she will run the 5000 m in order to secure the 15:40.00 standard for the 2019 National Championships. A native of Soja, Okayama, while at Kojokan H.S. Niiya won the 6.0 km First Stage at the National High School Ekiden three years in a row. Two of those runs broke the course record, with her time of 18:52 still standing as the course record. No other runner has ever broken 19 minutes. Together with her future London Olympics teamma...

Japanese national team captain Yuki Kawauchi (30, Saitama Pref. Gov't) left from Tokyo's Haneda Airport on July 30 for next week's London World Championships. Having declared that this will be his last time wearing the Rising Sun, the "Civil Servant Runner" Kawauchi told reporters, "It's almost time to do battle. I will give it all for Japan, and when it's all said and done I want to be able to return home with a smile on my face." Having run in Daegu in 2011 and Moscow in 2013 this will be Kawauchi's third time at the World Championships. In both of his previous appearances he was 18th. For the last four months he has trained seriously, doing over 600 km a month and going over 700 km in July. His final preparations have gone well. Kawauchi trained in Nikko up until the day before departure, running his best times ever there. "My racing, training and times are all better than for Moscow," he said. His sunburned and somewhat wea...

http://sports.yahoo.co.jp/column/detail/201701120005-spnavi translated by Brett Larner Part two in a three-part series of writings by Yuki Kawauchi on what it took to qualify for the London World Championships, his goals for August’s main event, his views on the future of Japanese marathoning and advice to the runners to come. The original was published by Sportsnavi in Japanese. Visit the link above for more photos.   Click here for the first article in the series , "The Miracle in Fukuoka." Click here for part three, " The Lessons of the Past Are Not 'Outdated .'" Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov’t) took 3rd overall as the top Japanese finisher at the Dec. 4 Fukuoka International Marathon . That result put him into position as one of the leading contenders for the privilege of running in this summer’s London World Championships. At both the 2011 Daegu World Championships and 2013 Moscow World Championships Kawauchi finished a disappointing 18th...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1614520.html http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/feature/hakone/20160309-OHT1T50065.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Historical Hakone Ekiden powerhouse Chuo University held a press conference on Mar. 9 to announce the retirement of three-time World Championships marathon team member and Chuo alumnus Masakazu Fujiwara , 35, from competition and his naming as new head coach of its ekiden team.  Chuo holds multiple Hakone records including 6-straight wins, 14 wins overall, 87-straight and 90 total Hakone appearances, but under former head coach Haruo Urata , 54 , for the last four years it failed to make the seeded top ten.  Fujiwara commented, "I want to get us back into the seeded bracket within two or three years," showing his enthusiasm for returning Chuo to its glory days. As a first-year at Chuo Fujiwara won the Hakone Ekiden's famed uphill Fifth Stage, placing 2nd and 3rd on the same stage as a second-year...

http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/9997814/ translated and edited by Brett Larner The civil servant runner plans to step down from the dream stage where the world's fastest men run.  On April 12 Yuki Kawauchi (28, Saitama Pref. Gov't) ran as a special guest at the local Honjo Waseda no Mori Cross Country Race and Half Marathon in Saitama, winning the half marathon in 1:07:47.  Afterward he told reporters that following the 2017 London World Championships he will "retire" from competing to be on the Japanese national team.  "My plan is to win a medal at the London World Championships and then to really say sayonara to the national team," he said. At the time of the 2013 Moscow World Championships Kawauchi also suggested he would remove himself from consideration for future world level national teams, but he continues to work hard in anticipation of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.  To Kawauchi, who has struggled in hot weather races in the past,...

http://www.jiji.com/jc/zc?k=201501/2015012600546&g=spo translated by Brett Larner On Jan. 26 the organizers of the Feb. 1 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon announced that elite athlete Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) has withdrawn from the race with pain and nerve problems in the gluteus and quadraceps of his left leg.  Nakamoto was 6th in the men's marathon at the 2012 London Olympics and 5th in the 2013 Moscow World Championships marathon.  In December he ran the Fukuoka International Marathon to make the 2015 Beijing World Championships marathon team but finished only 12th in 2:11:58.

http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20141214k0000m050169000c.html translated by Brett Larner 2013 Moscow World Championships women's marathon bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi will not be a starting member at for the Wacoal team at tomorrow's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships.  According to head coach Tadayuki Nagayama , Fukushi is not at full fitness after suffering a stress fracture in one of the toes on her right foot in early October.  Nagayama also announced that Fukushi will not run in either of the remaining two selection races for the 2015 Beijing World Championships teams, January's Osaka International Women's Marathon and March's Nagoya Women's Marathon.  With an eye toward the Japanese Federation's sub-2:22:30 qualifying time for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic team Nagayama commented, "In the short term the goal is not to focus on competing but to improve her time and running ability." 

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20141126-1401292.html translated by Brett Larner Rosters for the 26 teams entered in the Dec. 14 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships were announced Nov. 26.  Both 2014 Yokohama International Women's Marathon winner Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) and 2013 Moscow World Championships women's marathon bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) feature on the entry list. Also entered are 2012 London Olympics marathoners Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) and Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), along with 19-year-old Reia Iwade (Team Noritz), who finished 3rd in Yokohama on Nov. 16 in her marathon debut.  2004 Athens Olympics marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi was not entered on the Sysmex team roster. The National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships will be held on a six-stage, 42.195 km course from the Matsushima Culture and Tourism Exchange Center to Sendai Municipal Field.

http://www.47news.jp/CN/201409/CN2014092501001746.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At the Sept. 25 press conference ahead of the Sept. 28 Berlin Marathon, 2013 Moscow World Championships women's marathon bronze medalist and half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) was confident as she said, "I got all my training in and I'm feeling good.  I'm going for the time and the win." Berlin will be Fukushi's first marathon in over a year, her last being her medal-winning run in Moscow.  The site of a new men's world record last year and all three sub-2:20 Japanese women's marks to date including Mizuki Noguchi 's national and course record 2:19:12, Fukushi's absolute minimum goal on Berlin's speed course is to significantly better her 2:24:21 PB.  "The other athletes here say they're going to try to break 2:20.  If I go out with them I think the time I'm looking for will be in the cards."  ...

http://runnet.jp/mrnews/detail/1989671_1786.html translated by Brett Larner Until now marathon teams at the World Championships have consisted of a maximum of five athletes per country, but on Apr. 27 it was announced that this will be reduced to three per country beginning with the August, 2015 Beijing World Championships.  The decision came at a mid-April meeting of the IAAF executive committee in Dakar, Senegal. Other events in the World Championships already have a limit of three three athletes per country.  Through the 2011 Daegu World Championships the World Championships marathon also served as the Marathon World Cup team competition, requiring five athletes.  Following the World Cup's discontinuation, countries were still able to enter five athletes for last year's Moscow World Championships marathon.

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20140215-OHT1T00233.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner Due to heavy snowfall on Feb. 14, the organizers of the 48th Ome Road Race were unable to complete their preparations for the race and were forced to cancel it on Feb. 15.  Ome had previously been cancelled in 1996 and 2008, but this was the first time it was cancelled the day before the race.  With no substitute date on the schedule, the 49th running will take place next year on Feb. 15.  Invited elite athlete Daniel Tapia , 27, a member of the U.S.A. national team in the 2013 Moscow World Championships marathon, couldn't hide his surprise at how much snow fell. Tapia was scheduled to run the 30 km at Ome.  In response to hearing that the news of the race's cancellation at around 9 a.m., he said, "And I came all the way to Japan to run...," his shoulders dropping in disappointment.  Tapia arrived in Japan on Feb. 13 and did a test run on the Ome cour...