japan running news

Japanese marathoners who haven't qualified for the Sept. 15 MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials have until Apr. 30 to try to squeeze out one more fast time to make the grade, sub-2:08:30 or two races inside the window averaging under 2:11:00, and sub-2:24:00 or a sub-2:28:00 average for women. Most of the people trying one last time will be headed overseas, but for a few the Nagano Marathon is their last chance to make it. Asuka Tanaka (Hiramatsu Byoin) is the fastest man in the field with a 2:10:13 in Tokyo last year as an amateur runner. A stress fracture later in the year left him struggling in his few races since then, but after a tentative step back at Tokyo this year he is shooting for the 2:11:47 he needs in Nagano to make the cut. Shoya Osaki (Chudenko) ran a strong 2:10:48 in Beppu-Oita this favorite and will be trying to double back with a 2:11:12 in Nagano. They're the only two people male or female who might realistically make it, the rest of the field fo...

Returning to its regular starting point on the Promenade des Anglais this year for its tenth anniversary running, France's  Marathon des Alpes-Maritimes Nice-Cannes experienced wild winds and rain for much of the race. Running in France for the first time,  Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) hoped to become the first non-African winner in event history. Staying in the middle of a lead pack of five Kenyans and two Ethiopians, Kawauchi and the rest of the group were just off the planned sub-2:10 pace through halfway as pacer Cosmas Birech struggled to deal with winds that shifted in every direction. Daniel Yator was the first casualty of the tough conditions. At 22 km the course moved away from the open beachfront, blocking the wind enough for Birech to pick it up to the planned 3:04/km. But as he did Kawauchi found himself unable to respond, and within a kilometer he had dropped ten seconds off the lead sextet. From there it was a struggle for him to hold off Yator, ...

Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) makes his French racing debut this Sunday at the 10th Marathon des Alpes-Maritimes NIce-Cannes . Following wins at September's Oslo Marathon and October's Betsukai Pilot Marathon , Kawauchi hopes to achieve one goal that has eluded him so far in his career: joining the small group of just six Japanese men to have ever won a marathon outside Japan in a time under 2:10:00. The only other man in the field to have broken 2:10 in his career is Kenyan Alfred Kering , whose closest time to that mark in the last three years was a 2:10:27 win at the 2016 Lisbon Marathon. No others in the field have run under 2:11, but times aren't everything. The slowest man in the field on paper with a best of just 2:13:13, Daniel Yator beat Kawauchi at June's Stockholm Marathon en route to that time and will be looking to do it again. The women's field is small, with only three women who have broken 2:38 led by Ethiopian Tigist Shetu with...