japan running news

by Brett Larner

Yoshikawa anchors Kanagawa in for the record and the win.  Click photo for video highlights courtesy of broadcaster NHK.

2012 national 10000 m champion and London Olympian Mika Yoshikawa anchored the Kanagawa team home to a 2:14:55 course record at the Jan. 13 National Women's Ekiden in Kyoto, Kanagawa's first win in the last 26 years of the event's 31-year history in a solid team performance that saw six of its women make the top three on their stage.  A 9-stage, 42.195 km event with 47 prefectural teams made up of runners ranging from junior high school students to corporate league pros, perfect conditions meant the fastest overall National Women's Ekiden to date.  Alongside Kanagawa's course record, runner-up Hyogo ran the all-time third-best time in event history, 3rd-place defending champion Osaka set the all-time fifth-best mark with one new stage record to its credit, pre-race favorite Chiba made all-time #7, and the top eight teams all ran th…

by Brett Larner

Fujiwara and Rothlin after their mutual DNF at the 2010 New York City Marathon.

London Olympics marathoner Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) went head-to-head against longtime rival and friend Viktor Rothlin (Switzerland) on Rothlin's home ground at the Swiss Ageriseelauf 14.138 km on July 21.  Rothlin, who set the still-standing Tokyo Marathon course record of 2:07:23 to win the 2008 Tokyo Marathon ahead of Fujiwara's breakthrough 2:08:40 2nd-place, came out ahead again after losing to Fujiwara at this year's Tokyo Marathon.  Rothlin clocked 41:41 to Fujiwara's 41:42, suggesting the pair may be close again in the main event just three weeks away.  Eritrean Abraham Tadesse was well back in 3rd in 42:42.

A day later and a lifetime further north, 2011 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships runner-up Team Panasonic members Akiko Matsuyama and Yukari Abe made their European debuts at the Great North 10k in Gateshead, U.K.  Running on course-record pac…

by Brett Larner

click here for complete results

The 2012 edition of the early-summer staple of the Japanese track circuit, the Hokuren Distance Challenge, wrapped up July 7 with a big night in Abashiri, Hokkaido.  Having missed out on the London Olympics team, women's 1500 m national record holder Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) made her formal 10000 m debut in 32:21.03, finishing 2nd in the A-heat behind one of the year's leading Japanese women, Ai Igarashi (Team Sysmex), who took the win in 32:17.58.  Eight women altogether broke 32:30, most for the first time.  6th place finisher Akiko Matsuyama (Team Panasonic) recorded an enormous PB of 32:27.23 ahead of her international road debut at the Great North 10 km.  Marathoners Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) and Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) were far down the field, 20th and 24th in 33:08.59 and 33:27.03 respectively.

The men's 10000 m A-heat was a showdown between newly Japan-based African talent, with firs…

by Brett Larner

After a slow start which saw two-time defending champion Ritsumeikan University in 7th at the end of the first stage of the 38.6 km, six-stage National University Women's Ekiden Championships, also known as the Morinomiyako Ekiden, the school moved up through the field through the following three stages to take first the lead and then its third consecutive national title and fifth national win in six years. Buoyed by a stellar stage-record performance by third-year star Kazue Kojima on the third leg, Ritsumeikan runners clocked stage records on the fourth and fifth legs as well and won in 2:06:53, just off the course record which Ritsumeikan set last year. Rivals Bukkyo University once again had to settle for 2nd, finishing 1:15 behind the winner in 2:08:08. 2005 winner Meijo University rounded out the podium positions with a 2:08:47 finish in 3rd.

Ritsumeikan's win essentially amounted to a simple display of power. Despite five of the six members of last year…