japan running news

by Brett Larner Former Sera H.S. standout Charles Ndirangu  (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) continued his second pro season with a win in the Nobeoka Time Trials 10000 m A-heat May 3 in Nobeoka, leading Athens Olympian Ryuji Ono  (Team Asahi Kasei) across the line in 28:56.04.  Asahi Kasei runners made up the major part of the field, taking 7 of the top 10 positions.  Other notables in the race included 2008 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon winner Tomoya Adachi  (Team Asahi Kasei) and 2012 Ohtawara Marathon winner Ryoichi Matsuo  (Team Asahi Kasei). Nobeoka Time Trials Nobeoka, May 3 click here for complete results Men's 10000 m Heat 2 1. Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) - 28:56.04 2. Ryuji Ono (Team Asahi Kasei) - 28:56.04 3. Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei) - 29:10.14 4. Yoshikazu Kawazoe (Team Asahi Kasei) - 29:21.53 5. Taiki Yoshimura (Ryutzu Keizai Univ.) - 28:28.99 6. Atsushi Ikawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) - 29:30.17 7. Takahiro Mori (Team Asahi...

by Brett Larner photo by Dr. Helmut Winter 2010 Tokyo Marathon winner and collegiate/debut marathon national record holder Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) had a minor breakthrough at the 2012 Berlin Marathon, breaking 2:12 for the first time since his 2:08:12 marathon debut in 2003 to take 9th place, the first non-Kenyan finisher. Setting out at mid-2:08 pace, Fujiwara and 2:11 men Suehiro Ishikawa (Team Honda) and Atsushi Ikawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) ran together, fading off that seemingly reasonable pace as a group with each passing 5 km split even as the lead pack spearheaded by eventual winner Geoffrey Mutai (Kenya) accelerated. Ishikawa, who debuted in 2:11:14 at March's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, briefly ran into trouble just before 30 km but quickly recovered. After 32 km it was Ikawa, coached by 2:06 man Takayuki Inubushi , who faded, 24 seconds behind Fujiwara and Ishikawa by 35 km. Just as Mutai was non-battling debuting 25 km world record holder Dennis Kim...

http://running.competitor.com/2012/09/news/stars-coming-out-for-rock-n-roll-portugal_59480 Marathon national record holder Mizuki Noguchi  (Team Sysmex) will line up for tomorrow's Rock 'n' Roll Portugal half marathon in Lisbon.  The year-leading half marathon time by a Japanese woman is 1:09:47 by Tomomi Tanaka  (Team Daiichi Seimei), set in winning March's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships.  No Japanese woman has broken 1:09 since Yukiko Akaba 's 1:08:50 win at the 2009 Sendai International Half Marathon. Noguchi's 2:19:12 course record at the Berlin Marathon will be under attack as well tomorrow by a group of top Ethiopians.   Yuri Kano  (Team Shiseido) will also be in the women's race, with a group of Japanese men including 2010 Tokyo Marathon winner Masakazu Fujiwara  (Team Honda) and 2:11 men Atsushi Ikawa  (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) and Suehiro Ishikawa  (Team Honda) in the men's race.  More information: http://iaaf....

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....

by Brett Larner American Jason Lehmkuhle in a sprint finish against Toyoyuki Abe meters before winning the 2011 Ome 30 km. Jason Lehmkuhle won a tight sprint finish over Team NTT Nishi Nihon's Toyoyuki Abe at the 2011 Ome 30 km Road Race to become the first American to win the prestigious race since Greg Meyer 's 1983 victory. Lehmkuhle was aggressive throughout the race, leading the field of over 15000 through the early kilometers and remaining at the head of the pack over the difficult ups and downs through the middle 20 km. The pack, initially nine-strong, whittled down to a core of five by halfway. With roughly 5 km to go Lehmkuhle surged, first dropping eventual 4th-placer Atsushi Ikawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), then frequent leader Ryotaro Nitta (Team Konica Minolta). Local boy Daisuke Shimizu (Team Kanebo) was the next to fall, leaving only Abe at Lehmkuhle's side. The pair rounded the final righthand corner together with Lehmkuhle on the inside, and in the last sp...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20110126-OHT1T00300.htm http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/event/sports/news/20110126-OHT1T00302.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner 2009 Ome 30 km winner Hirokatsu Kurosaki (Team Konica Minolta) and 2007 Rotterdam Marathon winner Hiromi Ominami (Utic AC) will return to this year's 45th anniversary Ome 30 km , with a field of 15000 the world's largest 30 km race, scheduled for Feb. 20 in Tokyo's mountainous western suburbs. Kurosaki seeks to become the fourth man in Ome history to win twice. He will face the top Japanese man from last year's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, Atsushi Ikawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) and the 2000 winner of Ome's H.S. 10 km division, Daisuke Shimizu (Team Kanebo). With such strong competition his win is anything but assured. Ominami will run Ome for the second straight year, having finished as runner-up last year. She will run Ome as a tune-up for March's Nagoya International Women's Marathon...

by Brett Larner If it's the first Sunday in December then at last it's time for the last first-rate marathon of the year on the worldwide calendar, the Fukuoka International Marathon. Overseas viewers should be able to watch the live Japanese television broadcast on TV Asahi 12:00-2:30 p.m. Japan time on Dec. 5 via Keyhole TV by clicking here . Scroll down to the bottom of this article for a field listing with bib numbers and links to course maps. Long Japan's most respected elite men's marathon, Fukuoka has stayed relevant in recent years by investing significant capital in bringing in one or two marquee athletes to deliver the goods with a supporting cast of top Japanese runners and second-tier internationals. Culminating in Ethiopian great Tsegay Kebede 's 2:05:18 course record last year, the last four years have seen world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) and all three Beijing Olympics medalists, Samuel Wanjiru (Kenya), Jaouad Gharib (Morocco) and ...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/flash/KFullFlash20101118070.html http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/news/20101119k0000m050060000c.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Nov. 18 Rikuren announced the elite field for this year's Fukuoka International Marathon scheduled for Dec. 5, the first of the domestic selection races for the 2011 World Championships marathon in Daegu, Korea. Beijing Olympics silver medalist and two-time World Championships gold medalist Jaouad Gharib (Morocco) leads the overseas invited field while a large group of Japanese elites will vie for a World Championships berth. The domestic field includes 2005 World Championships marathon bronze medalist Tsuyoshi Ogata (Team Chugoku Denryoku), 2009 World Championships marathon team member Satoshi Irifune (Team Kanebo), 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta), and in his marathon debut 3000 mSC national record holder Yoshitaka Iwamizu (Team Fujitsu). Gharib will be run...

by Brett Larner This weekend saw eight major meets across Japan, two university regionals and six corporate team regionals. With too many results to list in detail JRN gives you a quick review of the major performances starting with the university meets. Click each meet or event for complete results. Kanto Regional University Championships , Tokyo: Detailed in a separate article with video links , Kenyans Benjamin Gando (Nihon Univ.) and Duncan Mozay (Takushoku Univ.) took both windy men's 10000 m heats, Gando in 28:27.18 and Mozay in 29:15.43. The top seven in the A-heat broke 29 minutes, including two Waseda University frosh, Suguru Osako and Fuminori Shikata . Both 18 year-olds now have PBs in the 28:30's, boding well for Waseda's chances this year. Osako lost out in a three-way sprint finish against Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.) and Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.) who finished 2-3 with Yoroizaka taking 21 seconds off his PB to clock 28:34.12. The women's 1000...

by Brett Larner click here for JRNLive's detailed race commentary Click photo for a gallery of images from the 2010 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. In a tactical race of few surprises, Jonathan Kipkorir (Kenya), the strongest man of '09 in the field, took the 2010 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon on Feb. 7 in a sprint finish over the final 500 m against aging 2:06:16 runner Daniel Njenga (Kenya/Team Yakult), holder of the fastest PB in the field. Japanese debutant Atsushi Ikawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) had a good race, 4th overall in 2:11:04 after repeatedly attacking the lead pack of eight over the final 10 km. Track darling Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu) performed below expectations in his own marathon debut, 9th in 2:12:59. However, the biggest news of the race was Australian Jeffrey Hunt . Debuting at the marathon, Hunt spent the early parts of the race far back in the third pack while the leaders ran on track for 2:08. Despite a fast new course and good conditions, the pacema...

by Brett Larner There's a lot of negativity in Japanese men's marathoning these days. After the dismal Beijing Olympics, 2009 was one of the worst years in the country's history. Sure, Japanese men still took the team bronze at the Berlin World Championships and over the course of the year outperformed every non-African country in the world, but in absolute terms it was their worst since 1996 and relative to world standards their poorest showing ever. The venerable circuit of elite men's marathons has struggled to remain relevant in an era when richer overseas majors draw the best talent, and the rise of the Tokyo Marathon has only worsened their predicament. In this atmosphere comes the 59th running of the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon this Sunday, Feb. 7. Beppu-Oita, or Betsudai as it is usually abbreviated in Japanese, is one of the oldest Japanese marathons but has long occupied a difficult position as the most minor of the four main elite men's races. It has be...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/flash/KFullFlash20100118119.html http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2010011800601 http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/news/20100119k0000m050076000c.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Jan. 18 the organizing committee for the 59th Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon announced the elite field of 15 for this year's Feb. 7 running. At the top of the list of ten Japan-based athletes is Kenyan Daniel Njenga (Team Yakult), who won last summer's Hokkaido Marathon and holds a PB of 2:06:16. Lining up against Njenga in his marathon debut is 2007 World Championships track runner Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu). Athens Olympics marathon 6th place finisher Toshinari Suwa (Team Nissin Shokuhin) is also in the field, and 2:08 man Tadayuki Ojima (Team Asahi Kasei) will be running as his final race before retirement. The 5 overseas invited athletes are led by Kenyan Jonathan Kipkorir , who set his PB of 2:07:31 last year at the Paris Marathon. Jo...

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20090516k0000m050136000c.html http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/090515/spg0905152044002-n1.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner On the first day of the 53rd Kansai Jitsugyodan Track and Field Meet at the Amagasaki Memorial Track and Field Grounds in Hyogo Prefecture, Beijing Olympian Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) ran 33:13.83 to win her fourth 10000 m title at the meet after a two-year absence. Atsushi Igawa (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) won the men's 10000 m in 29:02.00. The 10000 m was Fukushi's first race since December's National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden. Suffering from plantar fasciitis after the qualifying meet for the National Ekiden, Fukushi dropped out of planned participation in February's Rikuren-sponsored national training camp in New Zealand. She is now on the way back. Six women took part in the Kansai Meet's 10000 m. The first 10000 m was a very slow 3:26, with the pace settling in to 80 seconds per...