japan running news

The 9th Okukuma Road Race , a JAAF-certified half marathon, took place Jan. 15 across the towns of Mizukami, Yunomae and Taragi in rural Kumamoto. In its first edition in 3 years after pandemic-era cancelations in 2021 and 2022, a total of 364 people finished in the event's 6 categories. In the men's half marathon, Hiroko Hashimoto (SG Holdings) won in 1:02:19, the fastest time ever at the race by a Japanese athlete. Former Hakone Ekiden uphill star Daichi Kamino (Cell Source) also ran, finishing 23rd in 1:06:11. Tokyo Olympics women's marathon 8th-placer and course record holder Mao Ichiyama (Shiseido) won the women's half marathon in 1:12:34. "I want to keep getting back into good shape and to earn my ticket to the Paris Olympics," she said post-race. Rio Olympics 5000 m finalist Miyuki Uehara (Kagoshima Ginko) was 12th in 1:22:27. 9th Okukuma Road Race Half Marathon Kumamoto, 15 Jan. 2023 complete results Men 1. Hiroki Hashimoto (SG Holdings) - 1:02:19 ...

Men's rankings here For the second year in a row 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) took the top spot in JRN's overall Japanese women's rankings, and she got there the same way. After running her 5000 m NR and a 10000 m PB at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Hironaka ran big again at the 2022 Oregon World Championships. Her 30:39.71 in the 10000 m was a 21-second improvement on her PB and the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese woman. This time she missed making the 5000 m final, but her 15:02.03 in her heat still ended up being the 2nd-fastest Japanese time of the year. Post-Worlds Hironaka dropped off a bit, unable to break 15 minutes in the fall track time trial season. But at November's National Corporate Women's Ekiden she delivered the women's ekiden performance of the year, fighting off tough competition to hang onto the lead for the Japan Post team on the race's most competitive stage. Given her lack of experience with the 10000 m, her big jump up in...

The organizers of next month's Osaka International Women's Marathon have announced the invited field of 43 for Japan's last remaining purely elite marathon. Like the 2021 race, despite the event's name it's a Japanese-only field with male pacers, kind of inevitably on the first point given Japan's ongoing border fortification but a bit regrettably on the second. For a domestic field it's pretty good, all 17 of the women in it who've run under 2:35 in the last three years having done it either here or in Nagoya. 2020 winner and unlucky Olympic alternate  Mizuki Matsuda  (Daihatsu) is the favorite, with support from Sayaka Sato  (Sekisui Kagaku), the 4th-fastest Japanese woman in 2020 and 2021, 2019's fastest Reia Iwade  (Adidas), and 2021's 3rd and 4th-placers Yukari Abe  (Shimamura) and Mao Uesugi  (Starts).  Six other women in the field have run under the 2:27:00 B-standard for qualification for the 2024 Olympic marathon trials, including curr...

On Dec. 22 the Osaka International Women's Marathon announced the elite field for its 40th running on Jan. 31, 2021 at a live streamed press conference. Like Fukuoka, Osaka is going ahead with a reduced domestic field of just 99 entrants and no international athletes. Tokyo Olympics marathon team members Mao Ichiyama  (Wacoal), winner of this year's Nagoya Women's Marathon in a women-only national record of 2:20:29, and trials winner and 30 km national record holder Honami Maeda  (Tenmaya) lead the entry list. With none of Osaka's usual international pacers, Osaka will use male pacers to try to set things up for a shot at Mizuki Noguchi 's 2:19:12 national record. The unsponsored Reia Iwade  is the only other athlete who could realistically try to go with them, and for the rest of the field, which includes last year's 2nd-place Japanese woman Haruka Yamaguchi  (AC Kita), there will be other men to pace at around 2:25. With ten women from 2:25 to 2:29 on the l...

Before last weekend only eight Japanese men had ever gone under 1:01 in the half marathon on record-legal courses, with another four on the old downhill Tokyo Half course. At last Sunday's Marugame Half four did it, two who had done it before and two who went under the national record in the first time clearing 1:01. At today's National Corporate Half Marathon Championships eight more did it, equalling all of Japanese history in the course of eight days and the previous record-legal history in a single race. Not too much question why, but the racing was still good. Kenyan James Rungaru (Chuo Hatsujo) earned the win, 16 seconds ahead of the pack at 5 km in 14:33 and only going faster from there to his 1:00:27 finish. The main pack had a leisurely 14:49 opening 5 km before getting it in gear, dropping to 14:17 for the next 5 km and getting down as fast as 14:12 splits between 15 and 20 km. Kiyoshi Koga (Yasukawa Denki) was the first Japanese man across the line, dropping ...

A teammate of last week's Japanese Olympic marathon trials 1st and 3rd placers Honami Maeda and Rei Ohara , Mizuki Tanimoto kicked off the Doha World Championships with a 7th-place finish in the women's marathon. Starting off overly conservatively with Worlds teammates Madoka Nakano and Ayano Ikemitsu , Tanimoto was far behind the lead pack that included all three eventual medalists after just one time around the six-lap course. Hitting halfway in 1:20:11 and 33rd place, Tanimoto was one of the few people in the race to negative split, making a huge jump in position from 25 to 30 km and working her way up to land 7th in 2:39:09, just over six minutes behind winner Ruth Chepngetich (Kenya). Nakano finished 11th in 2:42:39 seconds behind 10th-placer Un Ok Jo (North Korea). In a field of just 68 starters, 28 women dropped out partway, including all five Ethiopian-born athletes. Struggling early, Ikemitsu hung on through 30 km before stepping off the course. In qualif...

Following the end of the qualification period for the 2019 Doha World Championships , the JAAF announced additions to the initial Japanese National Team roster released earlier in the summer. Along with the additions, the JAAF made public that Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Univ. of Florida) will not run the 200 m in order to focus on the 100 m and relay, and that Kazuya Shiojiri (Fujitsu), the only Japanese man to have cleared the Doha standard, will not race due to an apparent injury following a fall last week in Zagreb . Final changes to the team roster, if any, are expected to be announced Sept. 17. Japanese National Team, Doha World Championships as of Sept. 11, 2019 times listed are best within qualifying window Women Hurdles 100 m Hurdles  - Asuka Terada (Pasona Group) - 12.97 100 m Hurdles - Ayako Kimura (Edion) - 13.11 Long Distance 5000 m  - Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki TC) - 15:15.80 5000 m - Tomoka Kimura (Shiseido) - 15:19.99 5000 m /  10000 ...

The JAAF announced the lineups today for the Japanese women's and men's marathon teams for this fall's Doha World Championships . Having scheduled Japan's new MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials event for two weeks before the World Championships the JAAF has specified that nobody can double, meaning that, including alternates, three of the four women and all four men named would have to give up a chance at being part of the Tokyo Olympics in order to get a guaranteed spot on a lesser national team. That means a team drawn from the middle and lower end of the list of trials qualifiers, a good mix of relatively inexperienced younger athletes likely to develop further for the 2024 Paris Olympics, mid-career runners without much chance of making the top few spots at the trials, and aging veterans who've shrewdly sussed out that being on a national team is better for their brands than going for a higher-level one they know they can't make. It's a B-team t...

Weekend Japanese track action kicked off at the Bryan Clay Invitational at California's Azusa Pacific University. Passing on a spring marathon in favor of a shot at the 10000 m national record this season, 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) ran 13:29.11 for 3rd in the 5000 m, the best time so far this year by a Japanese man. Bigger news came in the men's 1500 m, where  Shoma Funatsu  (Chuo Univ.) capped a residency in Oregon with a 3:38.65 to move up to all-time Japanese #5 and collegiate #2. Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) also ran 3:41.51, with U.S.-based Yusuke Uchikoshi (Boise State Univ.) going 3:44.50, Funatsu's Chuo teammate Kazuyoshi Tamogami 3:45.84, another U.S. transplant Yasunari Kusu (AMAC) 3:46.98 and Hirotaka Nakatani (Uchida Chiryoin AC) 3:49.28. At the nearby Mt. SAC Relays Yui Fukuda (Toyota Jidoshokki) won the women's 1500 m in 4:16.64. Mai Shoji (Denso) was slightly off her season best in the 5000 m in 15:56.99, ...

All-time Japanese #4 in the marathon at 2:21:36 in her debut earlier this year in Nagoya, Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) leads the elite field for the Jan. 28 Osaka International Women's Marathon . Hoping for a comeback after an ineffectual run at the summer's London World Championships, Ando faces former under-20 Japanese record holder Reia Iwada (Dome) and debuting 10000 m national champion Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) as her main competition. Eunice Jeptoo (Kenya) and Fayesa Robi (Ethiopia) lead the small international field with the debuting Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia) throwing in an element of unpredictability, but with bests of only 2:26:13 and 2:27:04 it will take a combination of a breakthrough from any of them and a breakdown from Ando and Iwade to have a shot at the win. Along with Matsuda's exciting debut, Osaka will again be putting heavy emphasis on first-timers and university student runners, Ayano Ikemitsu (Kagoshima Ginko) leading the former with a ...

http://www.flotrack.org/article/61851-galen-rupp-runs-1-02-18-to-win-rock-n-roll-philadelphia-hasay-third#.WcCMTq09y8U Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon Japanese results: Men 4. Yuki Sato (Nissin Shokuhin) - 1:04:34 - PB 8. Muryo Takase (Nissin Shokuhin) - 1:06:34 Women 5. Reia Iwade (Dome) - 1:14:01 7. Miyuki Uehara (Daiichi Seimei) - 1:15:30 - debut A small group of Japanese corporate leaguers also ran at Portugal's Porto Half Marathon the same day: Men 11. Naoya Takahashi (Yasukawa Denki) - 1:04:21 13. Keita Baba (Honda) - 1:06:22 Women 5. Ayano Ikemitsu (Kagoshima Ginko) - 1:13:18 12. Rui Aoyama (Universal Entertainment) - 1:17:24 In the Netherlands, Risa Takenaka (Shiseido) returned to the Dam tot Damloop 10-Miler for the first time in two years. Women 3. Risa Takenaka (Shiseido) - 53:15

by Brett Larner 山陽女子ロードレース大会　ハーフマラソンの部　優勝　小原怜選手（天満屋）　１時間１０分０４秒 pic.twitter.com/TcCK4fVuTz — M.Kawaguchi (@rikujolove) December 23, 2016 Japan's Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya) and Kenyan Rosemary Wanjiru (Team Starts) went it alone to win the 35th anniversary Sanyo Ladies' Road Race half marathon and 10 km divisions with strong negative split runs. After a slow 17:00 first 5 km in the half Ohara got to work, covering the next 5 km in 16:24 and opening a 16-second lead over a pack of nine led by Rio Olympics marathoner Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku).  From there she never faltered, her pace holding steady all the way to a 1:10:03 win.  38 seconds behind, Misaki Kato (Team Kyudenko) took 2nd in 1:10:42 with relative newcomer Ayaka Fujimoto (Team Kyocera) 3rd in 1:11:20.  Ito faded to 5th in 1:11:39 just ahead of London Olympics marathoner Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya).  Invited Australians Eloise Wellings and Cassie Fien were both DNFs, Fien dropping out befo...