japan running news

On Dec. 15 the management of the Juhachi Shinwa Ginko women's corporate team announced that 2018 Asian Games marathon silver medalist Keiko Nogami , 35, will retire next month. Her final race will be the Jan. 24 Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden . After retiring she plans to return to her family home in Hyogo. Her plans beyond that have not yet been settled. Nogami struggled with injuries ever since her time at Hyogo's Suma Gakuen H.S. Suma Gakuen won the National High School Ekiden her senior year, but she was only an alternate and did not run. After graduating she joined the Sanix corporate team, which disbanded a short time later. She ran her debut marathon at age 29, set her PBs of 15:24.70 for 5000 m, 32:07.70 for 10000 m and 2:26:33 for the marathon in 2018 at age 32, and her half marathon PB of 1:09:27 in 2019 at age 33. Nogami had an injury to her left shin about three months before the MGC Race Olympic marathon trials in September, 2019. Although she fell be...

Don't set limits on yourself. 2018 Jakarta Asian Games marathon gold medalist and all-time Japanese #5 man at 2:06:54, Hiroto Inoue (26, MHPS) returned to Japan on Jan. 31 after three weeks of training in New Zealand for the Apr. 15 Boston Marathon. Even though New Zealand was hit by a severe heat wave with temperatures going over 30˚C, he completed a 50 km run and two 40 km runs. Inoue was positive about the training camp, saying, "I built up a good base and ran according to purpose. The sunshine was brutally strong and there were days when it was really windy, but by training hard in the midst of tough conditions I've put in the groundwork to be able to handle the distance." His coach Jun Kuroki , 47, was also positive, saying, "He had no injury issues, trained well, and had a good time." The ability to win is what he is honing now. In preparation for September's MGC Race 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon trials, Inoue will give March's Tokyo Marath...

2018 Jakarta Asian Games men's marathon gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (26, MHPS) announced Jan. 10 that he this season he will tackle one of the world's highest-level races, April's Boston Marathon. "Not having pacers in a race adds its own kind of stress," he said. "I want to race it seriously as a step toward what's coming up." The Boston Marathon is famous for its uphills late in the race. September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials event also features an uphill at 37 km, and the opportunity to get the same kind of experience was enough to convince him to run. Originally Inoue had been looking at running March's Tokyo Marathon where he ran 2:06:54 last year, but, he said, "I want to run for time when the time comes to run for it. This year is about finding out how competitively I can race." Inoue made his announcement just before departing for a training camp in New Zealand along with his MHPS teammate Ryo Kiname , 28. ...

Hayato Katsuki kicked off the final day of  Jakarta Asian Games  athletics competition with Japan's last individual medal of the Games, a gold in the men's 50 km racewalk. Katsuki finished in 4:03:30 more than three minutes up on silver medalist Qin Wang of China and almost seven minutes ahead of bronze medalist Hyun Myeong Joo of South Korean despite sustaining a five-minute time penalty 34 km into the race. Japan's Satoshi Maruo was another three minutes back in 4th. Indoor mile national record holder Ryoji Tatezawa was in range of a top six finish at best in the men's 1500 m, but in a race that went out slowly enough for announcers to be comparing it to a Japanese high school qualifying round race Tatezawa lacked the gears to stay relevant over the final lap, finishing 9th of 11 finishers in 3:49.40. The relays went about as expected. The women's 4x100 m and 4x400 m each finished 5th, while the men's teams brought home medals over both distances....

Japan's Yuki Koike and Seito Yamamoto took home gold to lead the country's best daily medal total so far in athletics competition at the Jakarta Asian Games . Head-to-head with Taiwanese national record holder Chun-Han Yang the entire way through the men's 200 m, Yang leading off the curve, Koike overtaking him in the straight, Yang fighting back, both men falling across the line, Koike won in the performance of the day in a PB of 20.23 (+0.7 m/s). Yang broke his own national record by 0.10 for silver, also clocking at 20.23 but on review coming through 0.002 behind Koike. Bahraini Yaqoob Yaqoob was a distant afterthought in 20.55 for bronze, with Japanese national champ Shota Iizuka off form at 6th in 20.68. Just 23, Koike joins the A-list of Japanese sprinting just two years out from the Tokyo Olympics, while Yang's continued progression confirms his potential as an international competitor. 6th in the men's pole vault at last year's London World Cha...

Not the man Japanese announcers expected to see on the podium, Shunya Takayama delivered Japan's only medal on day four of the Jakarta Asian Games , outrunning national record holder Taio Kanai for bronze in the men's 110 m hurdles. The entire focus of the Japanese coverage was on Kanai, but from the start he was out of form, ultimately finishing only 7th in 13.74. Takayama fought his way up from 4th, leaning so far at the line to overtake Saudi Arabia's Ahmed Khader Almuwallad for the medal that he fell. Wenjun Xie of China took the gold in 13.34 with Kueiru Chen of Taiwan running a PB of 13.39 for silver. National record holder Sho Kawamoto was also out of form in the men's 800 m, 7th in a disappointing 1:50.87. Yume Kitamura and Ayano Shiomi came closer in the women's 800 m but were still out of the medals at 4th and 5th. Likewise in the women's 5000 m, where Rina Nabeshima and Minami Yamanouchi took 4th and 6th, and the women's javelin thro...

Bronze was the color of Japan's luck on the third day of athletics competition at the Jakarta Asian Games , with three Japanese athletes medaling in jumps and hurdles. Takatoshi Abe was a favorite to medal in the men's 400 m hurdles, no match for championships record-breaking Qatari Abderrahman Samba but running a strong 2nd throughout the race. Coming into the home straight Abe had a sizable lead over Taiwan's Chen Chieh and Indian Dharun Ayyasamy , but as he came off the bend he began to tie up. Ayyasamy saw his chance and kicked hard, catching Abe just before the line to take silver and knock Abe back to bronze. One of Japan's strongest medal contenders, Naoto Tobe had something of an off day in the men's high jump, struggling to clear 2.24 m and tying for bronze with Syrian Majd Eddin Ghzal while winner Yu Wang of China went on to clear 2.30 m. Takashi Eto cleared 2.24 m on his final attempt to move into 6th but passed on the subsequent heights with a...

Japan tripled its medal count on the second day of athletics competition at the Jakarta Asian Games , adding another gold, its first silver and two more bronze medals to its tally. The silver came in the morning session with Keiko Nogami 's 2nd place finish in the women's marathon, previously covered here . The gold and one bronze came in an exciting decathlon that saw defending champ  Keisuke Ushiro  and teammate Akihiko Nakamura in 2nd and tied for 3rd going into the 1500 m. Ushiro needed a 2-second margin over leader Suttisak Singkhon of Thailand to move into the gold medal position, which he did with ease. Tied with China's Kewei Gong , Nakamura needed as much of a margin as he could get over Gong to finish in the medals and 42 seconds over Singkhon to take silver. Nakamura went out hard, but although he had no trouble putting Gong away the margin he needed to make up to Singkhon was just too big. The other bronze came via one of Japan's biggest hopes. With...

2017 World Championships women's marathon gold medalist Rose Chelimo , a Kenyan-born Bahraini, duly took gold in Sunday's Jakarta Asian Games marathon, biding her time in a slow race mostly led by 2017 Asian Championships silver medalist Keiko Nogami before taking off at 25 km to win unchallenged in a 2:34:51 Indonesian all comers record. Behind her the main pack featured duos from Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Mongolia, China and Kyrgyzstan, shedding members along the way before shaking down to a core chase group of four made up of Nogami, South Korean national record holder Do Yeon Kim and teammate Kyung Sun Choi , and North Korean rival Hye Song Kim . The fastest of the four, the South Korean Kim was the first to crack, leaving the other three to fight it out over the last 10 km for silver and bronze. Choi, the only one in the chase trio not to have broken 2:30, launched a brief attack but was quickly reeled in by Nogami and Kim. Nogami returned fire with 5 km to...

Following Hiroto Inoue 's morning gold medal in the men's marathon, the first evening session of athletics at the Jakarta Asian Games was capped by a surprise bronze in the women's hammer throw by Hitomi Katsuyama . Katsuyama's throw of 62.95 m was 8 meters or more off the Chinese top two Na Luo and Zheng Wang and was nearly overtaken by teammate Akane Watanabe 's 62.45 m but was enough for her to go home with hardware in an an event that's usually something of a weakness. The day's only other final to feature a Japanese athlete, the women's 10000 m was out of the league of lone Japanese entrant Yuka Hori . After a series of delays involving missing numbers, an extra athlete and removal of a rear bib, Hori did much of the leading, dropped by surges twice and taking her time overtaking those ahead both times to end up 7th in  32:42.73. In an exciting race up front Darla Maslova of Kyrgyzstan outkicked Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Chumba and Desh...

Ranked #1 thanks to his 2:06:54 breakthrough at February's Tokyo Marathon, Hiroto Inoue became the first Japanese man to win an Asian Games marathon since 1986 as he took the first gold medal in athletics at the Jakarta Asian Games in a sprint finish in 2:18:22. Despite the hot and humid conditions, 26˚C and 79% humidity at the start and climbing from there, it was a pretty frustrating race to watch, to be honest, with a 4:00 first km and a low-2:20s projected finishing time until well into the second half. On paper the only real competition for Inoue and teammate Hayato Sonoda were the African-born Bahraini pair Abdi Abdo and El Hassan El Abbassi , but despite that the two Japanese runners stayed tucked into the pack as Japan-based Mongolian national record holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir made a few attempts to get it in gear. Bat-Ochir did succeed in shaking it down to a pack of 8, but it took a surprise visit from Thailand's Tony Payne , who surged up from far back to over...

Marathon season kicks off this weekend with three races featuring elite-level Japanese marathoners. Saturday morning the athletics segment of the Jakarta Asian Games gets rolling with the men's marathon. With a 2:06:54 best from February's Tokyo Marathon Japan's Hiroto Inoue is the heavy favorite if he can handle the heat. His nearest competition, Ethiopian Bahraini Abdi Abdo , ran 2:08:32 in Rome this year, and Inoue's teammate Hayato Sonoda is the only other man in the field to have broken 2:10. With Bahrain's second man, the Moroccan El Hassan El Abbassi , ranked 4th at 2:10:57 it's pretty much a Japan-Bahrain dual on the men's side. Should Inoue succeed he'll be the first Japanese man to win Asian Games gold since Takeyuki Nakayama set the still-standing championships record of 2:08:21 at the 1986 Seoul Games. It's unusual to see an A-lister like Inoue run the Asian Games, but considering the weather conditions he'll face if he makes ...

The  2018 Jakarta Asian Games  are underway, with athletics competition set to kick off Saturday morning with the men's marathon. 23 women and 35 men will represent Japan in what may be the best approximation in the next two years of the conditions they're likely to face at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It's a national team with strong contenders in certain events and gaping holes elsewhere. The women's racewalk squad is very thin at only one entrant and no women are competing in any jumps, while no Japanese men are entered in the 5000 m or 10000 m. All the development in men's distance seems to be channelled into the marathon, where Japan may have one of its best gold medal chances in 2:06:54 man Hiroto Inoue . No Japanese man has won gold in the marathon at the Asian Games since Takayuki Nakayama set the still-standing Games record of 2:08:21 at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games. Given the heat and humidity of Jakarta Inoue is unlikely to touch that kind of time, but his...

Its skyline punctuated by skyscrapers demonstrating Indonesia's economic ascension. A lush plaza holding a famed tower, the symbol of the metropolis. When Jakarta hosts the Asian Games next week its marathon course will loop around the city's main streets, starting and finishing from the Games' main venue, Gelola Bungarno Stadium. In light of the heat and humidity of the races' summertime dates, Aug. 25 for men and 26 for women, the marathons will get off to early starts at 6:00 a.m. local time, 8:00 a.m. Japan time. Leaving the stadium for the main streets, the Jakarta course turns to the north before turning back. Each of the two loops is about 20 km, both mostly flat and straight with the only hills coming in the gentle climbs onto and off the waterway bridges that dot the route. At a rotary about 5 km from the start, runners are greeted by a statue of a man and woman built in 1962 the last time Jakarta hosted the Asian Games. Running on amid the highrises, arou...

All-time fourth-fastest Japanese marathoner Hiroto Inoue (25, MHPS) returned to Tokyo's Narita Airport on July 29 from altitude training in Boulder, U.S.A. ahead of next month's Jakarta Asian Games. In Boulder he did three 40 km training runs at 1600 m altitude. "I trained with a lot of focus. If things go well I'm mentally prepared to run the race solo." To help cope with the expected heat at the Asian Games Inoue is considering wearing a cap while racing for the first time. "When I tried it in training it seemed a lot cooler," he said favorably of the cap. "It felt good." Ever since his days at Yamanashi Gakuin University Inoue has raced without a cap because he has disliked the feeling of it making his head hotter. Team members were not allowed to run with sunglasses either. In last summer's London World Championships marathon he didn't wear a cap, but after completing this altitude training camp, he said, "The visor of the...

A day after the conclusion of the 2018 Japanese National Championships, the JAAF announced its team roster for August's Jakarta Asian Games . 23 women and 35 men are set to compete in what may be the best approximation in the next two years of the Tokyo 2020 conditions. No women are set to compete in any jumps, while despite having men in the 800 m, 1500 m, 3000 m steeplechase and marathon, no Japanese men are entered in the 5000 m or 10000 m. All the development in men's distance seems to be channelled into the marathon, where one of the stars of this year's Tokyo Marathon, 2:06:54 man Hiroto Inoue (MHPS), will see what he can do in heat and humidity. The complete list of athletes, events and qualifying marks is as below. Women Sprints Chisato Fukushima (Seiko) - 100 m: 11.42     200 m: 23.35 Kana Ichikawa (Mizuno) - 100 m: 11.43 Nodoka Seko (Crane) - 100 m: 11.50 (relay) Midori Mikase (Eniwa Kita H.S.) - 100 m: 11.63 (relay) Ayaka Kawata (Higashi Osaka Univ.) ...

Back in 2010 JRN spotted 17-year-old high school student Minami Yamanouchi at a local 14 km road race in northern Ibaraki, where she beat the high school boys' course record by more than four minutes. At the time we wrote , "If Yamanouchi keeps running post-high school and lands at the right team, university or pro, we may have been lucky to see the first appearance of a future great." Now 25 and coached by former half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato at the Kyocera corporate team, in the last few weeks Yamanouchi has really come into her own. Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) took the top Japanese spot at 4th overall in the 5000 m at the April 28 Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima, one of the top-level track meets in Japan. A former amateur runner, she only joined the corporate leagues last August. Seeing her progress in less than a year of serious training, her coach Atsushi Sato , the 6th placer in the 2009 World Championships marathon, called her "exce...

Japan's outdoor season rolled on April 28 with the 52nd Oda Memorial Meet , one of the events used in selection for Japan's national team for this summer's Jakarta Asian Games. Rosemary Monica Wanjiru (Starts) topped the day's results with a 15:08.61 meet record in the Women's Grand Prix 5000 m, easily leaving senior teammate Grace Kimanzi and veteran Ann Karindi (Toyota Jidoshokki) behind to take the top spot. #織田記念 グランプリ 女子5000m 山ノ内みなみさん(京セラ)15:21.31 pic.twitter.com/TW3Muk8tbB — Tさんrunner (@Runner_2653) April 29, 2018 Dropping a massive PB for 4th, Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) was the first Japanese women in 15:21.31. Longtime readers might remember Yamanouchi as a 17-year-old high schooler from Fukushima casually breaking high school boys' records and running sub-3 marathons for fun. Now 24, she has landed at the Kyocera corporate team under the tutelage of former men's half marathon national record holder and fellow Fukushima native Ats...

On Mar. 16 the JAAF announced the Japanese marathon team for this August's Jakarta Asian Games . Hiroto Inoue (MHPS) and Hayato Sonoda (Kurosaki Harima) make up the men's squad, with Keiko Nogami (Juhachi Ginko) and Hanae Tanaka (Shiseido) named to the women's team. A member of the Japanese national team for last summer's London World Championships, Inoue ran an all-time Japanese #4 time of 2:06:54 at February's Tokyo Marathon, the 2nd-placing Japnaese man behind national record setter Yuta Shitara (Honda). Sonoda ran a PB of 2:09:34 to finish in the top Japanese position at 2nd overall earlier in February at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. The silver medalist at November's Asian Championships marathon, Nogami was 5th earlier this month at the Nagoya Women's Marathon in a PB of 2:26:33. Tanaka was next behind her in Nagoya in 6th in 2:27:40, the only member of the Asian Games team not to have yet qualified for the MGC Race 2020 Olympic trials ra...

On Mar. 4 it was learned that Hiroto Inoue (25, MHPS), 4th place in last week's Tokyo Marathon in an all-time Japanese #4 time of 2:06:54, intends to run for Japan at August's Jakarta Asian Games. Following the final selection race for the Asian Games team, yesterday's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, MHPS  head coach Jun Kuroki revealed, "Inoue plans to take part." Suguru Osako (NOP), the top Japanese man in Fukuoka, and national record breaker Yuta Shitara (Honda) have both passed on the Asian Games national team. The weather conditions in sub-equatorial Jakarta are expected to be severe, but with just as tough conditions expected for the Tokyo Olympics and its MGC Race trials event the Asian Games represent an excellent test run opportunity. Coach Kuroki also commented, "The only question mark so far has been in our preparations for last August's London World Championships." Kuroki and Inoue plan to work on measures to deal with the heat prio...