japan running news

The combined 61st Chubu Corporate Ekiden and 51st Hokuriku Corporate Ekiden regional qualifiers for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships took place Nov. 7 in Tahara, Aichi.   Toyota Boshoku won for the first time in 8 years, covering the 7-stage, 80.5 km course in 3:54:16. 2021 New Year Ekiden runner-up Toyota  was 39 seconds back in 2nd, its 7-year winning streak as the king of the Chubu Region coming to an end. Toyota Boshoku didn't take the lead until the final leg, anchor Yuji Onoda , 25, playing the critical role in his team's success. Onoda started the last stage 23 seconds behind Toyota's Atsushi Yamato  but reeled him in within 4 km. Onoda and Yamato were teammates at Aichi's Toyokawa H.S.  and had run together countless times, giving each of them insight into how the other was moving. "Usually I wouldn't be able to overtake him like that," said Onoda. "I figured he must not be in peak condition." That ...

Twenty university teams from around the Tokyo are will square off Sunday at Saitama's Komaba Sports Park Field for the chance to run the Nov. 5 National University Men's Ekiden . Last year the top six-placing teams at the National University Men's Ekiden, winner Aoyama Gakuin University , Waseda University , Yamanashi Gakuin University , Komazawa University , Chuo Gakuin University and Toyo University , were all from the Tokyo-centric Kanto Region, all six earning seeded places at this year's Nationals. The next twenty teams in Kanto with the fastest average time 10000 m among their top eight men based on certified times in 10000 m track races between Jan. 1, 2016 and June 3, 2017 all earned the right to run Sunday's Kanto Region Qualifier for Nationals. Featuring two strong graduate students eligible to run the National University Men's Ekiden, Tsukuba University is making its first appearance in the field in fourteen years, knocking out last year'...

by Brett Larner November's National University Men's Ekiden is the second of the Big Three University Ekidens, midway in distance and prestige between October's season-opening Izumo Ekiden and January's legendary Hakone Ekiden.  Schools that finished outside the seeded bracket at last year's Nationals have to requalify this month, with the toughest of the qualifying races, the Kanto Region qualifier, happening yesterday in Urawa, Saitama.  Twenty Kanto Region schools fielded eight runners, two from each school in four heats of 10000 m on the track.  The total times of all eight runners are combined to determine the team standings, with the fastest nine schools going on to the national race come November. Despite not winning a single heat, Yamanashi Gakuin University took the top spot in 4:03:52.82 with runner-up placings in heats 2, 3 and 4 from Junya Uemura , Kenta Ueda and Dominic Nyairo .  Nihon University was next in 4:05:20.92 thanks in part to Patrick W...

http://www.47news.jp/smp/EN/201501/EN2015012001001451.html by Jun Ikushima translated by Brett Larner At Sunday's National Men's Ekiden the Aichi Prefecture team was disqualified after its opening runner threw the tasuki, the sash that ekiden runners exchange, across the line to the next runner as he struggled to finish, the second time in a month that this sort of rare disqualification happened after an almost identical scene at last month's National Corporate Women's Ekiden, pictured above.  Prominent sportswriter Jun Ikushima wrote the following editorial about Aichi's disqualification. On Jan. 18 in Hiroshima, the Saitama team won the National Men's Ekiden for the first time, but unusually for an ekiden there was also a disqualification.  Responsible for running the First Stage for the Aichi team, Atsushi Yamato (Aichi H.S.) became unsteady just before the handoff zone and couldn't quite make it to the line.  He tried to hold out the tasuk...

by Brett Larner Days after jumping a PB 7.71 m for 5th in the boys' long jump at Oregon's World Junior Championships, Kodai Sakuma (Hosei Prep Daini H.S.) was the star of day three of the 2014 National High School Track and Field Championships in Kofu, Yamanashi.  In the long jump, Sakuma jumped a meet record and new PB of 7.80 m for 1st.  Doubling back in the 4x100 m he helped Hosei Daini take the win there as well, and on the strength of these two wins the Hosei Daini boys advanced to first in the overall school standings.  Another meet record fell in the boys' shot put, where Ayumu Ishiyama (Hanazono H.S.) threw a record 17.40 m to win by almost 60 cm. Mai Shimizu (Shiga Gakuen H.S.) had a big throw of 46.36 m to win the girls' discus by nearly one meter, while Soyo H.S. turned heads in the girls' 4x100 m with a winning time of 45.88.  Other winners included Ryosuke Kashi (Shikama Kogyo H.S.), who took the boys' 5000 m race walk in 21:05.94, boys...