japan running news

Akinobu Murasawaage: 28
sponsor: Nissin Shokuhin
graduated from: Saku Chosei H.S., Tokai University

best time inside MGC window:
2:09:47, 14th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon

PB: 2:09:47, 14th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 13:34.85 (2011) 10000 m: 27:50.59 (2012) 20 km: 59:08 (2009)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
18th, 2018 Frankfurt Marathon, 2:15:41
14th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon, 2:09:47 – PB
1st, 2017 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:14:48

other major results:
25th, 2019 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 1:04:32
34th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Third Stage (13.6 km), 40:25
28th, 2017 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:17:51
5th, 2017 Karatsu 10-Miler, 46:46
8th, 2016 National Championships 10000 m, 28:29.10
5th, 2015 National Championships 10000 m, 28:39.39
9th, 2014 Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, 46:40 – PB
3rd, 2012 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.2 km), 1:08:14
1st, 2011 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.2 km), 1:06:52
2nd, 2010 Hakone Ekiden Second Stage (23.2 km), 1:08:08
1st, 2009 Hakone Ekiden Qualifier 20…

Two-time New Year Ekiden national champion Nissin Shokuhin Group announced on Jan. 10 that it is making major cuts to its men's ekiden team. With the exception of MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials qualifiers Akinobu Murasawa, 27, and Yuki Sato, 32, it will eliminate its other twelve athletes from the team. It has also canceled contracts with two graduating university fourth-years who were scheduled to join the team in April following their graduation.

The Nissin Shokuhin Group team has been one of the leaders of Japanese long distance, home to top class athletes including current marathon national record holder Suguru Osako, 27. The change in its policies comes suddenly. According to a person involved in the situation, of the team's fourteen members the twelve other than Murasawa and Sato have been asked to leave the team. Those who wish to continue their athletic careers will receive support in transferring to another team, while those who wish to retire will have the op…

Five Japanese men took on two of Europe's main marathons Sunday.

At the Huawei Venice Marathon runners battled strong headwinds the entire way, winds that combined with high tide to seriously flood the last three kilometers of the course through Venice proper. After breaking away from a Kenyan trio coming onto the long bridge into Venice winner Gebre Mekuant Ayenew (Ethiopia) paused, slowing to a walk and almost stopping at the end of the first of the fourteen bridges that punctuate the Venice course when he found waves breaking across the course ahead of him. Gebre lost over a minute on his projected time slogging through the water to win in 2:13:23.

Women's winner Angela Jemesunde Tanui (Kenya) lost even more time as the water continued to rise, dropping off a steady sub-2:27 pace to finish in 2:31:30. Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), expected to challenge Gebre for the win, fell off the pace after only 5 km and, looking heavy and tight, slowe…

Three main races make up the lion's share of this road racing action, two abroad and one on home ground.

Bouncing back from a bad run three weeks ago at the Chicago Marathon, 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) will make his Italian debut at the Huawei Venice Marathon with support from JRN.

Since Chicago Kawauchi has raced twice, a 1:05:18 the weekend after Chicago at the Namerikawa Half Marathon and a 1:00:48 for 2nd at last weekend's Takashimadaira 20 km.The Takashimadaira time equates to a 1:04:08 half marathon, and given that rate rate of improvement over Namerikawa and his 14:47 closing split he is optimistic about Venice.

"If the pack gets into a good rhythm early on then I think I can run in 2:10 to 2:12 range," he said. Most years that would put him in contention for the win in Venice, and with his 2018 best standing at 2:11:46 and the fastest time ever by a Japanese man on Italian soil at 2:12:51 he's got good secondary a…

Japan's selection process for marathon national teams, with a committee picking runners based on results at three, sometimes four official selection races plus previous international championships, has always been opaque and open to controversy, confusion and other words starting with the letters c and o. The selection for the 2015 Beijing World Championships women's team set off an uproar that led the JAAF to tread more carefully for Rio and London, and with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics looming they're going for a full-on one-shot trials race along the lines of the U.S. Olympic Trials that worked so successfully in Rio.

The U.S. Olympic Trials approach to team selection is clear enough: run an achievable time to get into the Trials, where the first three across the finish line make up the team. That's the same basic concept for Japan's new Marathon Grand Championship trials race, the MGC Race for short, but nothing in Japan is ever so simple, straightforward and clear…

an editorial by Tetsuhiko Kin

Kin is a television commentator, coach, and former Waseda University ekiden runner.

The battle to determine the Japanese national representatives in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics three years from now has begun. The Marathon Grand Challenge (MGC) selection race features an unprecedented two-tier arrangement and will automatically select the Olympic team members when it is held in or after September, 2019. Athletes must first qualify in order to the run MGC race.

The first race in the MGC Series of races in which athletes can earn their spots in the MGC race took place Aug. 27 at the Hokkaido Marathon, with high school and university ekiden star Akinobu Murasawa (Nissin Shokuhin) taking the men's race and the young Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) the women's to pick up their places in the Olympic qualifier.

Both races were hesitant and passive. The men's race in particular went out slowly from the start, and with the winner needing to break 2:15 to q…

Akinobu Murasawa (Nissin Shokuhin) and Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) became the first athletes to qualify for the new MGC Race 2020 Olympic trials event, clearing the JAAF's hoops with PB runs in heat to win the 2017 Hokkaido Marathon.

One of the most popular runners to come out of the current boom in university men's ekiden running, Murasawa had an unsuccessful marathon debut at Lake Biwa in March, up front until late but fading to 28th in 2:17:51. This time he stayed in the front pack through the slow opening going, ignoring a move by Shingo Igarahi (Josai Univ. Coaching Staff) and Kenichi Jiromaru (Raffine Coaching Staff) around the halfway point that put them over 30 seconds ahead.

Part of a group of five who set off in pursuit at 30 km, Murasawa moved into the top spot just before 40 km and held it all the way to the finish to win in 2:14:48. As the first race at which Japanese men could qualify for the JAAF's new single-trial 2020 Olympic selection event Hokkaido's winn…

by Brett Larner

This time of year there are multiple high-level races in Japan every weekend, this one being no exception.  Sunday's Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon is one of the main developmental races for Japanese men, the place where future Olympic marathoners including Hisanori Kitajima, Kentaro Nakamoto, Shinji Kawajima and Shigeru Soh made their marathon debuts. Last year's winner Ryoichi Matsuo (Team Asahi Kasei) returns to face debuting 1:01:25 half marathoner Shota Hattori (Team Honda) and teammates Kenta Matsumoto and Kenta Matsubara (Team Toyota), training partners of Minato Oishi whose successful debut at last Sunday's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon saw him land 4th in 2:10:39.

In parallel to Nobeoka, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) will run his first marathon of 2017 at the Ehime Marathon.  Kawauchi's goal is to run 2:13, three minutes under the current Ehime course record.  His main competition is Waseda University fourth-year Yohei Suzuki, a 1:02:1…

by Brett Larner

Coached by Koichi Morishita, the Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist who turned Samuel Wanjiru into a world-beater, Jeremiah Thuku Karemi (Kenya/Team Toyota Kyushu) had a solid debut over ten miles as he won the 39th Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler in 45:51, one of the fastest times in the world this year.  Karemi beat a massive chase pack containing many of Japan's best current track runners and marathoners by more than 40 seconds, setting both himself and Morishita's Toyota Kyushu corporate team up for a big day at next month's New Year Ekiden national championships.

In the chase pack, rookie pro Natsuki Terada (Team JR Higashi Nihon), famous for taking a wrong turn in the last 200 m of the Hakone Ekiden anchor stage as a first-year at Koku Gakuin University, showed the strength of the kick that got him back into position at Hakone by winning an at least nine-way sprint finish for 2nd in 46:33.  Yuya Konishi led three other Toyota Kyushu runners into the t…

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20140212-00000203-jij-spo
http://mainichi.jp/sports/news/20140213k0000m050001000c.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

On Feb. 12 Rikuren announced the lineup for the Japanese team for the Feb. 22 Asian Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka's Uminonakamichi Kaihin Park.  Held in conjunction with the Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet, the Asian Championships will consist of the senior men's 10 km, senior women's 6 km, junior men's 8 km and junior women's 6 km events.

2013 National Championships 5000 m champion Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu) and runner-up Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei) lead the men's team in the 10 km, with National Championships 10000 m 3rd-place Ayumi Hagiwara (Team Uniqlo) and marathon national collegiate record holder Sairi Maeda (Bukkyo Univ.) topping the women's team for the 6 km division.  Thirteen countries are scheduled to compete, some of them fielding leading African athletes with tran…

by Brett Larner

The men's and women's East Japan Corporate Ekiden Championships, toughest of the regional corporate qualifying ekidens for the upcoming national championships, take place this Saturday, and the eight-day Grand Tour Kyushu 2012 ekiden wraps up Sunday, but there's no question that the biggest domestic Japanese race of the weekend is Sunday's National University Men's Ekiden Championships.  The second of the Big Three university ekidens following last month's Izumo Ekiden, the eight-stage, 106.8 km National University Championships in Nagoya are the next stop in a season culminating in the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden.  TV Asahi's 5 1/2 hour live broadcast will cover the action in all its glory and should be viewable overseas via Keyhole TV starting at 8:00 a.m. Japan time.  JRN will be doing live English commentary as usual via Twitter @JRNLive.

With Izumo's average stage length of 7.4 km favoring schools with solid 5000 m credentials, Nationals…

Sollentuna, Sweden, 7/5/12
click here for complete results

Men's 5000 m
1. Josephat Menjo (Kenya) - 13:16.87
2. Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 13:28.79
3. Monder Rizki (Belgium) - 13:41.62
4. Akinobu Murasawa (Tokai Univ.) - 13:47.98
5. Mumin Gala (Somalia) - 13:51.01
6. Yoshihiro Wakamatsu (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 13:52.27
7. Olle Wallerang (Sweden) - 13:56.09
8. Abdi Hakin Ulad (Denmark) - 14:07.43 - PB
9. Scott Fraser (GBR) - 14:09.75 - PB
10. Tuomas Jokinen (Finland) - 14:11.15 - PB

by Brett Larner

This weekend is the first of two successive weekends featuring regional track championships and an elite half marathon.  The Kansai Regional University T&F Championships, the most competitive university women's region in the country, starts things off May 10 and runs through the 13th, the first major meet following the graduation of Bukkyo University's collegiate 10000 m record holder Hikari Yoshimoto (Team Yamada Denki).  Entry list standouts include Chinami Mori (Bukkyo Univ.), Sayuri Oka (Osaka Taiku Univ.) and Eriko Kushima (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.).
The Kanto Region University T&F Championships, the center of university men's running and typically a higher-level meet than the National University Championships, is split between this weekend and next.  Women's competition is thinner than in Kansai, but the meet will see talented twins Haruka and Moe Kyuma making their Regionals debut for Tsukuba University in the 10000 m.  The men's 10000 m, s…

Stanford University, California, 4/29/12
click here for complete results

Men's 10000 m Kim McDonald
1. Cam Levins (Southern Utah) - 27:27.96
2. Sam Chelanga (OTC) - 27:29.82
3. Chris Derrick (Stanford) - 27:31.38
-----
10. Akinobu Murasawa (Tokai Univ.) - 27:50.59
13. Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Konica Minolta) - 27:52.79
16. Yuki Sato (Nissin Shokuhin) - 27:57.07
24. Kensuke Takezawa (S&B) - 28:15.79
28. Yuki Matsuoka (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 28:55.90
29. Yusuke Takabayashi (Toyota) - 29:12.69
30. Ikuto Yufu (Komazawa Univ.) - 29:21.29
31. Tomoyuki Morita (Kanebo) - 29:25.55

Men's 10000 m Heat 2
1. Josphat Boit (Mammoth TC) - 28:11.75
2. Liam Adams (Unatt.) - 28:11.76
3. James Strang (Unatt.) - 28:12.03
-----
31. Atsushi Ikawa (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 29:05.32

Women's 5000 m Heat 1
1. Sally Kipyego (OTC) - 14:43.11
2. Julia Lucas (OTC) - 15:08.52
3. Julie Culley (Asics) - 15:13.87
-----
12. Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) - 15:33.11
17. Risa Takenaka (Shiseido) - 15:44.94

Women's 5000 m Heat 2
1. Me…

by Brett Larner



2007 World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist  Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) make the biggest news of the first day of the 2012 Hyogo Relay Carnival, running a world-leading 27:35.16 to win the Grand Prix 10000 m.  Mathathi ran together with Patrick Mwaka (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) through much of the race after dropping a pack of Japanese athletes in search of Olympic A-standard times before turning it on late in the race to seal the win.  Mwaka was nearly run down by Daisuke Shimizu (Team Kanebo), who fell short of getting the A-standard as he finished 3rd as the top Japanese in 27:50.50, his first time under 28.  The top three Japanese half-marathoners of the year so far took the next three spots but were unable to break 28 in their season openers.  Shinobu Kubota (Komazawa Univ.) was the top collegiate in the Grand Prix race, 7th in a one-second PB of 28:22.29 just ahead of 2011 World University Games 10000 m gold medalist Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.)…

by Brett Larner

Along with Saturday's Kanaguri Memorial Meet where four men cleared 13:30 in the 5000 m, the weekend saw a number of small meets between Kanto-region university teams with the odd pro popping up in a few races.  Among the highlights:



2012 Hakone Ekiden champion Toyo University's twin juniors Keita Shitara and Yuta Shitara dominated the Five-University Meet at Daito Bunka University on Sunday.  Both brothers surged away from the field mid-race to take their events in new meet records, Keita with a 14:04.40 in the 5000 m to win by 8.62 seconds and Yuta with an 8:04.87 in the 3000 m to win by 8.00 seconds.



With a strong international debut in New York three weeks ago and a 10-mile win over marathoner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) last weekend, next weekend Yuta will run on the Japanese national team at the World University XC Championships in Poland.



Nihon University's Kenyan senior Benjamin Gandu made easy work of the rest of the 5000 m field at Saturday'…

2012 Fukuoka International Cross-Country Meet Results
Fukuoka, 2/25/12
click here for complete results

Senior Men's 10 km
1. Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.) - 30:27
2. Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 30:27
3. Akinobu Murasawa (Tokai Univ.) - 30:32
4. Daichi Motomura (Tokai Univ.) - 30:40
5. Yuya Konishi (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 30:47
6. Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 30:50
7. Hiroyoshi Umegae (Team NTN) - 30:56
8. Shinobu Kubota (Komazawa Univ.) - 30:58
9. Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) - 31:00
10. Hideyuki Anzai (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 31:02

Note: The top three men, Osako, Sato and Murasawa, are all graduates of Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S., along with 9th-place finisher Ueno.  Saku Chosei is one of the only schools to incorporate XC training as a staple of its methodology.

Senior Women's 6 km
1. Hitomi Niiya (Sakura AC) - 20:18
2. Grace Kimanzi (Kenya/Team Starts) - 20:38
3. Megumi Kinukawa (Mizuno) - 20:49
4. Ayuko Suzuki (Nagoya Univ.) - 20:56
5. Sachi Tanaka (Sports Yamagata 2…

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/other/athletic/headlines/20120214-00000014-kyodo_sp-spo.html

translated by Brett Larner

On Feb. 14 the Japanese federation released the elite fields for the Feb. 25 Fukuoka International Cross-Country Meet.  At the top of the senior men's 10 km are 10000 m national champion Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and past 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B).  Also in the men's race are top-ranked university men Suguru Osako (Waseda Univ.) and Akinobu Murasawa (Tokai Univ.).  Topping the senior women's 6 km are last year's winner Hitomi Niiya (Sakura AC) and 5000 m national champion Megumi Kinukawa (Mizuno).  The Fukuoka International Cross-Country Meet is the second selection race for March's Asian Cross-Country Championships in China and April's World University Cross-Country Championshiops in Poland.

Translator's note: Sato, Ueno, Osako and Murasawa all graduated from Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S., one of …