japan running news

Good weather and a good field meant great racing at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon . Shuji Yamamoto (Asahi Kasei) did a stellar job of ushering the pacing crew and lead pack of around 30 through 25 km, clocking 15:05, 15:10, 15:15, 15:15 and 15:10 for each 5 km before he stepped off. The remaining two pacers Matthew Sang and Alex Kipkorir held steady with a 15:10 through 30 km to deliver up the lead group on 2:08:07 pace, just under the Beppu-Oita course record of 2:08:15. Mirroring last year's Beppu-Oita winner Hicahm Laqouahi and since-disgraced Fukuoka winner El Mahjoub Dazza , Moroccan Hamza Sahli was quick to make a move to the front right after the pacers stepped off. But where his countrymen made off with their races, Sahli's move served more to shake off some of the pack, leaving a group of about a dozen stretched out behind him that regrouped with a few minutes. The debuting Kento Kikutani (Toyota Boshoku) was the next to go to the front just in time for ...

The Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon and Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon both happen Feb. 1, and in the last couple of days each has announced its elite field for this year's race. Primarily a men's race, Beppu-Oita has a small international field of five at the 2:08 to 2:10 level, fronted by last year's runner-up Abdela Godana (Ethiopia), with Mongolian duo Byambajav Tseverrnravdan and Munkhbayar Narandulam and a trio of Japan-based Kenyans and Ethiopians, Alex Mwangi (YKK), Abayneh Degu (Yasukawa Denki) and Joel Mwaura (Kurosaki Harima) bumping up the international numbers. Three sub-2:10 Japanese men, all at the 2:10 to 2:11 level in 2019, lead the home crowd. Rio Olympian Satoru Sasaki (Asahi Kasei) leads the way off an excellent 3rd-place finish at September's Sydney Marathon, with teammate Takuya Fukatsu (Asahi Kasei) and Jo Fukuda (Nishitetsu) also on board. Former Hakone Ekiden Seventh Stage course record holder Keisuke Hayashi (GMO) wi...

The Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon is known for its winds, but at today's 68th running they held off until almost the end of the race, setting the stage for Beppu-Oita's deepest-ever field to go hard from the start. A lead pack of around 40 hit 5 km in 15:00, 2:06:36 pace, backing off a bit from there but staying on high-2:07 to low-2:08 pace until the final pacer stepped off at 30 km. As in Osaka last week and Marugame earlier today, one of the favorites fell early in the race and had to drop out, in this case 2018 Hokkaido Marathon winner Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku), already qualified for the 2020 Olympic trials but in great shape and going for a fast time. Okamoto broke his left elbow in the fall, which will reportedly take two months to completely heal. Qualification for the trials event, September's MGC Race, weighed heavily on the minds of the Japanese men, dozens of whom stayed with the pace as long as they could. A short way back 2:16-level American Andrew...

After an exciting head-to-head last year that saw them race each other to sub-2:10 PBs, Desmond Mokgobu (South Africa) and Hayato Sonoda (Kurosaki Harima) return to the Feb. 3 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon . The pair face not only each other but recent sub-2:10 men Hicham Laqouahi (Morocco), Abdela Godana (Ethiopia), Hiroyuki Yamamoto (Konica Minolta),  Daisuke Uekado (Japan/Otsuka Seiyaku), Justus Kiprotich (Kenya), Takuya Fukatsu (Asahi Kasei)  Kohei Ogino (Japan/Fujitsu) and Yihunilign Adane (Ethiopia) and sub-62 half marathoners Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei), Charles Ndirangu (JFE Steel) and Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei), setting up a better-than-average pack by Beppu-Oita standards. For the Japanese men Beppu-Oita counts toward qualification for the MGC Race , Japan's 2020 Olympic Trials. Sonoda and Uekado have already made it along with fellow entrants Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) and Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta), but for Ogino and others it wil...

Wind and rain hit the 20th anniversary Nagano Marathon hard enough to slow things down, Japan's Asami Furus e (Kyocera) and Ethiopian Abdela Godana taking the top spots in the women's and men's races. Coached by former men's half marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato , Furuse and teammate Saki Tokoro were part of a lead group of five women that set out on low 2:33 pace. Kenyan Beatrice Jepkemboi dropped off he group near 20 km and Yukiko Okuno (Shiseido) did the same a few minutes later, leaving the Kyocera duo to face remaining Kenyan Pauline Wangui over the second half. Tokoro cracked just before 30 km and Wangui around 32 km, leaving Furuse to push on alone to an evenly-paced 2:34:09. Wangui faded to 4th, run down first by Tokoro and then by Okuno. Tokoro made it a 1-2 finish for Kyocera, another success for Sato is his short coaching career to date. 4th last year, former Tenmaya runner Aki Otagiri moved up from the second pack to take the 5th spot...

20th Nagano Marathon Elite Field Highlights Nagano, 4/15/18 times listed are best within last three years except where noted click here for complete field listing Men Abdela Godana (Ethiopia) - 2:09:45 (Seoul 2017) Julius Keter (Kenya) - 2:09:55 (Santiago 2017) Shoya Osaki (Japan/Chudenko) - 2:11:03 (Gold Coast 2017) Kazuya Ishida (Japan/Nishitetsu) - 2:12:25 (Beppu-Oita 2016) Shinichi Yamashita (Japan/Takigahara SDF Base) - 2:12:32 (Hofu 2017) Jackson Kiprop (Uganda) - 2:12:45 (Amsterdam 2017) Kohei Futaoka (Japan/Chudenko) - 2:13:28 (Beppu-Oita 2018) Yuki Munakata (Japan/Kanebo) - 2:13:53 (Beppu-Oita 2016) Kazuya Deguchi (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 2:14:24 (Nobeoka 2018) Hiroshi Ichida (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - 2:15:15 (Biwako 2017) Women Tigist Girma (Ethiopia) - 2:29:05 (Beirut 2017) Beatrice Jepkemboi (Kenya) - 2:30:35 (Buenos Aires 2015) Asami Furuse (Japan/Kyocera) - 2:30:44 (Osaka Int'l 2017) Pauline Wangui (Kenya) - 2:30:49 (Sevilla 2017) Yukiko Okuno (Japan/...