japan running news

After a day off for New Year's Eve, the peak of championship ekiden season rolls on first thing on Jan. 1 with the 70th edition of the New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championship race. The top 40 teams in the country race 100.0 km in 7 legs in Gunma, starting at 9:15 a.m. sharp on New Year's Day. Unedited raw camera feeds from the live broadcast will be streamed live on Youtube above starting at 9:10 a.m., with the official TBS broadcast starting at 8:30 a.m. and streaming of the broadcast on TVer . During the race live results will be posted here . Every team has to requalify for the New Year Ekiden by running one of the 6 regional corporate ekidens in early November. Usually they're pretty similar in length and elevation change at around 80 km, making a rough comparison of where teams stand fairly straightforward. This time the East Japan race was only 74.6 km and the Kyushu race 89.3 km, meaning that going by average pace the East Japan teams had an advant...

It's been a busy year, and a record-breaking one that kicked off with a Hakone Ekiden CR by Aoyama Gakuin University and ended with a new men's marathon NR from Suguru Osako . JRN's 10-most read stories of 2025: Tokyo World Championships to Leave Final Decision on Going Ahead in Heat to World Athletics - Aug. 25 After fears of hot conditions were used as a justification to move the Tokyo Olympics marathons to Sapporo, concern was high about the conditions at September's Tokyo World Championships. Ultimately, though, it wasn't much of an issue, with longer distance events being moved slightly earlier in the mornings on which they were scheduled. Australian Male Arrested on Drug Smuggling Charges After Entering Japan for Osaka Marathon - Apr. 10 Australian business owner Matthew Inglis Fox who had come to Japan to run the Osaka Marathon was arrested on suspicion of illegally importing cannabis products. After several months of confinement Fox returned to his home...

https://worldathletics.org/news/news/emmanuel-kiprop-kipruto-suspension A very interesting and groundbreaking case involving  Emmanuel Kiprop Kipruto , who was a member of Asahi Kasei 's 2025 New Year Ekiden national champion team. Sure to be the first of many such cases. The timing of this decision 13 days out from the 2026 New Year Ekiden is probably not a coincidence.

  On June 12 the Kyudenko corporate team announced that it is terminating its contract with longtime team member Benard Koech of Kenya as of June 30. On June 11 the Athletics Integrity Unit had issued a provisional suspension against Koech on charges of violation of doping regulations. The charges were based on abnormal values in his biological passport data, which suggested use of a banned substance or method rather than actual detection of one. After receiving notification from the AIU, Kyudenko questioned Koech, who responded that he had "not done anything that would break doping rules." Kyudenko said that while it believed Koech's statement, the provisional suspension would interfere with a period in which he was expected to compete, and as a result, "with deep regret we have decided to terminate his contract with us on June 30, 2025." Japanese Olympic silver race walker Koki Ikeda was in the same way provisionally suspended by the AIU last November due ...

After 54 years at the Asahi Kasei corporate team, first as athlete and then as coach, Takeshi Soh will retire at the end of this month. Together with his twin brother Shigeru Soh they formed a duo who were icons of the Japanese marathoning world and went all the way to the Olympics. After retiring from competition Takeshi devoted himself to coaching young athletes and came to play a primary role in the leadership of Japanese long distance. His list of achievements is long, and so is the list of those he influenced and inspired. His twin Shigeru was chosen for three Olympic teams in the marathon, Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. Takeshi was named to the Moscow and Los Angeles teams, placing 4th in L.A. to confirm his position as one of the greatest names in the sport in that era. After becoming a coach the twins helped lead Hiromi Taniguchi to gold at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Koichi Morishita to silver a year later at the Barcelona Olympics, and o...

ABC Television president Toshiaki Imamura , 62, held a press conference in Osaka on Jan. 24. There he talked about the new Expo Ekiden 2025 to be held in Osaka on Mar. 16, saying it was, "The first-ever showdown between the top corporate league and university teams." 9 teams from among the top placers at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships including winner Asahi Kasei and last year's national champ Toyota are scheduled to race, along with the top 8 from November's National University Ekiden and one Kansai Region Collegiate Select Team. The field of 18 teams will start at Expo Memorial Park in Suita, Osaka, site of the 1970 World Expo, and cover roughly 55 km in 7 legs to the finish at Yumeshima, Osaka. At the same time, Susumu Hara , head coach of this year's Hakone Ekiden winning team Aoyama Gakuin University , voiced public criticism, saying, "This is a serious race between the two leagues, and some of the top corpora...

No big surprises at the New Year Ekiden , where 2025 kicked off with a battle between favorites Toyota , Honda and Asahi Kasei that came down to a sprint finish in the last 800 m of the 7-leg, 100 km race. 2017-2020 New Year Ekiden winner Asahi Kasei took the lead from the start with an opening leg win by Sonata Nagashima . On the longest leg, the 21.9 km Second Stage, Yuto Imae from the team most expected to challenge the big three, GMO , made it to the front, but with a great run from Tomoki Ota the defending champs Toyota took the lead on the Third Stage. Samuel Kibathi held on over the short Fourth Leg, but on the Fifth Leg Yusuke Nishiyama showed fatigue from his 2:06:54 at Fukuoka a month ago and was run down by Olympic steepler Ryoma Aoki from 2022-2023 New Year winner Honda and Asahi Kasei's Shuho Dairokuno . Looking very strong over a longer distance than he'd usually run, Aoki opened a 10-second lead on Dairokuno that Honda's 6th runner Toru Kubota turned...

The New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championship kicks off 2025 early, with streaming starting at 9:00 a.m. local time January 1st and the race going off at 9:15. At 7 legs totaling 100 km it's the peak of the year for the corporate leagues, the reason they have teams and bring in Kenyans. Last year Toyota led from the Second Stage to the finish, outrunning 2022-2023 winner Honda and 2017-2020 winner Asahi Kasei to take the national title for the first time since 2016. How is Toyota looking this year? On the one hand they've picked up fresh incoming talent like last year's Komazawa University captain Mebuki Suzuki . On the other, some of its key players like Tomoki Ota and Ren Tazawa have been dealing with injury, and at November's Chubu Region qualifying race Toyota lost by a minute to Toyota Boshoku , who broke the Chubu CR. A lot of Honda's A-list was missing from its lineup at the East Japan Region qualifying race , where it was only 7th out...

We're deep into championship ekiden season. Over the last two weekends the six regions making up the corporate leagues held their qualifying races for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships. The New Year Ekiden is one of the only national-level championship ekidens that doesn't give its podium finishers auto-qualifying spots for the next year, meaning every team has to run the regional races every November. It's not hard to see how that eats into the fall marathon season and how doing it the same way they do for all the other big ekidens, including the corporate women's national championships later this month, and having the top teams auto-qualify, would open up the fall schedule and improve Japan's performances in men's marathoning. But it is what it is right now. In place of an auto-qualifying spot for podium finishers, the national corporate federation redistributes the wealth of qualifying slots available in each region based ...

On Nov. 2 the Asahi Kasei corporate team issued a statement denying the allegations of doping regulation violations issued a day earlier by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) in its announcement of the provisional suspension of team member Koki Ikeda , 26, the silver medalist in the men's 20 km race walk at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Oregon World Championships. Team management filed a petition with the AIU asking for the provisional suspension to be reversed and stated that it would "assert and prove to the AIU that no rules whatsoever had been violated." The AIU claims that Ikeda's biological passport, which collects detailed blood data over time and allows for monitoring of changes, contained suspicious readings that suggested use of a prohibited method. Asahi Kasei management said that after holding a hearing with Ikeda and consulting with experts in the field, they "believe no rules have been violated" and said they would "work diligently to...

With the calendar ticking over into October, companies across the country are holding employment offer ceremonies for college students who will join their ranks after graduating next March. 4th-year runners from top universities are also deciding their roads ahead. Having run the fastest-ever time on the Hakone Ekiden's Third Stage and playing a key role in Aoyama Gakuin University 's overall win at the 100th Hakone this past January, Aoi Ota , 22, is set to join the GMO corporate team. His teammates Akimu Nomura , 21, and Kosei Shiraishi , 22, plan to join Sumitomo Denko . Former 5000 m high school record holder Kosuke Ishida , 22, who missed all three big college ekidens last year but has made a stellar recovery this season, will join Subaru after graduating from Toyo University . With the fates of their teams in their hands, they and other 4th-years will give it all in their final seasons before moving on to the next stage of their lives. At the 100th Hakone Ekiden Ota del...

In the first major race of 2024, Toyota took the lead on the 2nd leg to hold off two-time winner Honda for its first New Year Ekiden national title since 2016. The 12.3 First Stage had a 7-way sprint finish, with Naoki Ota (Yakult) taking the top spot over Hazuma Hattori (NTT Nishi Nihon) in 34:42 and 35-year-old Minato Oishi (Toyota) 4 seconds back in his final New Year Ekiden before retiring. On the new 21.9 km Second Stage, Ota's older brother Tomoki Ota (Toyota) immediately went to the front, initially with company from 2:06 marathoner Yohei Ikeda (Kao) and Ken Nakayama (Honda) but soon on his own. Ota, 2nd at last month's NR-breaking 10000 m National Championships, took advantage of a tailwind to win the stage in 1:01:40, a 59:25 half marathon equivalent, and hand off to new teammate Ren Tazawa . Tazawa, 4th at the 10000 m National Championships, split 27:35 en route on the 15.4 km Third Stage, and after Felix Korir held the lead on the new 7.8 km Fourth Leg it w...

On Sept. 1 the Asahi Kasei  men's corporate team announced on its social media that Yuki Iwai , 40, has been named assistant coach. A native of Chiba, Iwai was the top Japanese finisher and 2nd overall in the 2000 National High School Championships 5000 m while at Narita H.S.  The same year he also took 2nd in the Junior 5000 m at the National Sports Festival. At Nihon University  Iwai became a regular on its starting ekiden team right from the season-opening Izumo Ekiden his first year, helping lead Nihon to win Izumo a year later. His fourth year he ran the Hakone Ekiden's highly competitive Second Stage, placing a strong 6th. At Asahi Kasei Iwai won the 10000 m at the 2009 National Championships. His time of 28:19.25 cleared the qualifying standard for that summer's Berlin World Championships, where he represented Japan. After that he suffered a series of injuries that led to his retirement after the 2014 National Corporate Half Marathon. He became a regular office wor...

On Aug. 29 the JAAF announced that Shuho Dairokuno (Asahi Kasei) has withdrawn from the Oct. 15 Marathon Grand Championship race, Japan's trials event for the 2024 Paris Olympics marathon team. Dairokuno is reported to be suffering from tibial periostitis in his left leg due to overuse. A native of Kagoshima, Dairokuno is 30 years old. While at Meiji University he won the 8th Stage at the 2014 National University Ekiden, and since joining the Asahi Kasei corporate team has been a member of three national champion lineups at the New Year Ekiden. His PBs include 13:28.61 for 5000 m, 27:46.55 for 10000 m, and 1:01:32 for the half marathon. At the 2021 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon he ran his 2:07:21 marathon best. source article: https://www.rikujyokyogi.co.jp/archives/113235 translated by Brett Larner

The town of Nobeoka in Miyazaki prefecture hung banners for the May 4 Golden Games in Nobeoka track meet throughout its downtown area to help promote the meet and generate local excitement. The Golden Games meet brings in the country's top middle and long distance athletes, and in preparation for it the local Asahi Kasei men's corporate team and city officials hung a total of 117 promotional banners. This year's meet will focus on qualifying times for August's World Championships, and the 10000 m in particular is expected to be high level. Asahi Kasei head coach Isao Nishimura commented, "The support of local fans really helps push the athletes on to faster times. I hope that a lot of people will come down to cheer them on." The Golden Games in Nobeoka meet starts at 1:00 p.m. on May 4 at Nishishina Field. source article: https://www.umk.co.jp/news/?date=20230411&id=18260 translated by Brett Larner

The first big race of the year worldwide every year is the New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships, 100 km in 7 stages through Gunma northwest of Tokyo. TBS broadcasts it live domestically starting at 8:30 a.m. local on Jan. 1, with the broadcast to be streamed live on TVer . TBS will also be streaming live, unedited feeds from three different camera trucks too starting at 9:00 a.m. You'll probably need a VPN to get around geoblocking for both TVer and the unedited feed above. Live results will be here , and JRN will be covering the race live on @JRNLive  and Instagram to help you make sense of what's going on, and on the ground from the course. Buy us a coffee to help make the first of three straight days of live ekiden coverage possible. Last year the Honda team won for the first time in the race's 66-year history. Anchor Hidekazu Hijikata promptly jumped ship for CR holder Asahi Kasei , a product of 2020 rule changes around restrictions on team ...

Thursday's public holiday is the traditional date for the East Japan Corporate Men's Ekiden , the first of the regional qualifiers for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championship. The New Year Ekiden is the only one of the major championship ekidens without a seeded bracket guaranteeing top-placing teams a spot at the next year's race, something that forces every corporate men's team to run the regional qualifier right in the middle of fall marathon season. Liberalizing that setup would have a measurable effect on men's marathoning, but like everything else in Japan vested financial interests and politics keep things the way they are. This year the East Japan race, which covers the greater Tokyo area and further north, returns to the roads of rural Saitama for 76.9 km in 7 stages after spending the pandemic on a loop course inside a park in the city of Kumagaya. 31 teams are entered, a massive increase due to the move to allow club teams to...

On Sept. 1, New Year Ekiden national champion Honda announced that Hidekazu Hijikata , the 5th-fastest Japanese marathoner ever with a best of 2:06:26, has left its team. Following his departure, Hijikata will transfer to the Asahi Kasei team, 3rd at the New Year Ekiden. Hijikata was a successful ekiden runner at Koku Gakuin University , running a 2:09:50 marathon debut at the 2020 Tokyo Marathon while still a student there. After joining Honda, he ran a massive 2:06:26 PB at the 2021 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon. At the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden this year he anchored Honda to its first-ever national title. Following up with a 2:08:02 at the Tokyo Marathon in March, he secured his place at the September, 2023 MGC Race Olympic marathon trials. In a statement Hijikata said, "Thanks to everyone who has shown me support the last two and a half years. I'll always be proud of having run for Honda, for having trained with their fantastic coaching staff, and for having gotten to run nex...