Moderately-sized events in Nagano and Sapporo over the weekend marked a step back toward regular racing. Trail and mountain running have been going strong for a couple of months now, with all the main events featured staggered starts with runners starting one at a time in 30-second intervals. Saturday's Nozawa Trail Fes in Nagano featured groups of 30 runners starting every 3 minutes, socially distanced while in the starting corral. Between the 33 km long course, 19.5 km short course and Sunday's kids' run, about 850 people took part. Top-ranked Japanese mountain runner Ruy Ueda won the men's long course , which had 1850 m elevation difference, in 3:02:18, putting more than 16 minutes on runner-up Masato Kamishohara . National team member Yuri Yoshizumi had almost the same margin of victory in the women's long course race, running 3:28:25 to 2nd-placer Takako Takamura 's 3:44:13. Jinnosuke Omi took the men's short course in 2:01:30 by just 20 secon...
the world's window into elite japanese distance running, since 2007