japan running news

by Brett Larner click here for video highlights courtesy of Sanyo Newspapers The world's last elite half marathon of the year took place Dec. 23 in Okayama, with a large group of elite Japanese and foreign women squaring off at the Sanyo Women's Road Race half marathon and 10 km. #1-ranked Japan-based Kenyan Sally Chepyego  (Team Kyudenko) was the class of the field in the half-marathon division, blasting a solo 1:08:24 course record to take the 2013 title.  Facing impending retirement, 2013 London Marathon 3rd-placer Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) ran a race characteristically unmotivated to compete for the win, sitting far back in the pack until late in the race and then turning on her usual surge to move up through the field, ultimately taking 2nd a minute behind the highly motived Chepyego in 1:09:24.   Felista Wanjugu  (Kenya/Team Universal Entertainment) and Mai Ito  (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) ran up in the chase formation with Akaba early in the race before ...

by Brett Larner The Japanese outdoor track season got started Saturday at Kumamoto's Kanaguri Memorial Meet depite high winds and heavy rain from a passing storm that kept times from what was hoped.  Japan-based Africans won all the major races, with last year's winners Patrick Mutunga  (Kenya/Team Toyota Boshoku) and Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) repeating in the men's and women's 5000 m A-heats in 13:26.48 and 15:42.81.  The Koichi Morishita -coached  Yuya Konishi  (Team Toyota Kyushu) clocked the fastest time of the day by a Japanese man, 13:39.46 for 2nd in the B-heat, while independent Yuka Ando  (Tokinosumika T&F Assoc.) took 2nd behind Chepyego for the top Japanese time in 16:02.08.  The year's leading Japanese marathoner, Kazuhiro Maeda  (Team Kyudenko), started his buildup to August's World Championships, running a 14:07.46 shakeout in the men's 5000 m B-heat in his first race since running 2:08:00 at February's Tokyo Marath...

by Brett Larner After winning the 2012 National Corporate Track and Field Championships 10000 m Friday night and her 5000 m heat Saturday, Kenyan Sally Chepyego  (Team Kyudenko) returned to Fukuoka's Hakatanomori Field Saturday evening to score her third win in 24 hours, just outrunning Misaki Onishi  (Team Sekisui Kagaku) and the three others in the tightly-packed lead group to win the 5000 m final in 15:32.37.  In addition to the triple win it was Chepyego's second-straight national corporate 5000 m title.  Although Onishi was unable to match Chepyego's closing speed in the home straight she had the satisfaction of doing what Chihiro Miyawaki  (Team Toyota) was unable to do in the men's 10000 m, clipping 0.01 seconds off her best to record a new PB of 15:32.88.   Hanae Tanaka  of 2011 National Corporate Women's Ekiden champion Team Daiichi Seimei  held off Kenyans Grace Kimanzi  (Team Starts) and Doricah Obare  (Team Hitachi) for 3rd...

by Brett Larner click here for complete results The 2012 edition of the early-summer staple of the Japanese track circuit, the Hokuren Distance Challenge, wrapped up July 7 with a big night in Abashiri, Hokkaido.  Having missed out on the London Olympics team, women's 1500 m national record holder Yuriko Kobayashi  (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) made her formal 10000 m debut in 32:21.03, finishing 2nd in the A-heat behind one of the year's leading Japanese women, Ai Igarashi (Team Sysmex), who took the win in 32:17.58.  Eight women altogether broke 32:30, most for the first time.  6th place finisher Akiko Matsuyama  (Team Panasonic) recorded an enormous PB of 32:27.23 ahead of her international road debut at the Great North 10 km.  Marathoners Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) and Yoko Shibui  (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) were far down the field, 20th and 24th in 33:08.59 and 33:27.03 respectively. The men's 10000 m A-heat was a showdown between newly...

by Brett Larner Somewhat usually, all of Japan's major track action this weekend took place on Saturday.  The biggest meet of the day was the first in the Hokuren Distance Challenge series, held in Shibetsu, Hokkaido.  London Olympics men's marathon team member Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) made news by running both the A and B heats of the men's 10000 m with less than six minutes in between.  Fujiwara won the B-heat in 29:08.00, then ran 29:00.98 in the A-heat where he placed 5th.  With new half marathon and marathon PBs of 1:01:34 and 2:07:48 behind him earlier this year, Fujiwara's three-year-old 10000 m PB of 28:41.05 is no doubt up for renewal whenever he wants it.  Fujiwara will run next weekend's Sapporo International Half Marathon as another tuneup for the London Olympics. Kenyan Alex Mwangi  (Team YKK) won the 10000 m A-heat in 28:12.47 over 2011 World Championships marathoner Yoshinori Oda  (Team Toyota), who took the runner-up position ...

2012 Oda Memorial Track & Field Meet Big Arch Stadium, Hiroshima, Apr. 28-29, 2012 click here for complete results Women's Grand Prix 5000 m 1. Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) - 15:19.27 2. Beatrice Wainaina Murugi (Kenya/Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 15:38.71 3. Toshika Tamura (Matsuyama Univ.) - 15:49.11 4. Ayame Takagi (Meijo Univ.) - 15:54.80 5. Yoko Aizu (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 15:57.38 6. Azusa Kurusu (Juntendo Univ.) - 16:07.19 7. Yuka Ando (Team Mizuno) - 16:10.19 8. Sayuri Sendo (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 16:10.85 9. Michi Numata (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 16:18.85 10. Mika Tanimizu (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 16:22.46 Men's Grand Prix 5000 m 1. Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) - 13:36.29 2. Jeremiah Karemi (Kenya/Toyokawa H.S.) - 13:40.64 3. Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) - 13:42.27 4. Ryo Matsumoto (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 13:46.02 5. Yasuhito Ikeda (Team NTT Nishi Nihon) - 13:46.58 6. Yasuhiro Tago (Team Chugoku Denryoku)...

by Brett Larner Beyond all the road action in Fukuoka and Kosa, this weekend saw the last two big track time trial meets before the national championship ekidens.  High schoolers made most of the noteworthy news at both meets.  On the first day of the Nittai Time Trials in Yokohama, Ken Yokote  (Sakushin Gakuin H.S.) ran 28:57.31 to place 3rd in the men's 10000 m B-heat behind pros Jun Shinoto  (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) and Kazuki Onishi  (Team Kanebo).  Led by World XC silver medalist Paul Tanui  (Team Kyudenko) Africans took the top 10 places in Sunday's men's 5000 m, but close behind in 13:55.91 and 13:57.30 were the aptly-named Kenya Sonota  (Aomori Yamada H.S.) and Soma Ishikawa  (Sano Nichidai Prep H.S.).  Ishikawa's time was the 3rd-best ever by a Japanese high school junior.  The high school girls also ran well at Nittai, with outstanding first-year Rosemary Wanjiru  (Aomori Yamada H.S.) running 15:26.07 in one of th...

by Brett Larner Another weekend, another round of massive track time trials.  The Shizuoka Long-Distance Time Trials meet, always the site of the fastest 10000 m of the fall season, had a tight race up front as Edward Waweru  (Kenya/Team NTN) outkicked John Thuo  (Kenya/Team Toyota) for the win, 27:23.82 to 27:24.41.   Patrick Muwaka  (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) also cleared the 27:45 Olympic A-standard, 3rd in 27:33.14. A large selection of top young Japanese talent ran the same heat to shoot for the A-standard, but the only new athlete to achieve an Olympic mark was 20-year-old Chihiro Miyawaki  (Team Toyota) who ran a PB of 28:01.00, the tenth Japanese man this year to clear the London A- or B-standard.  Only five days after a disastrous university debut at the Izumo Ekiden where he was 13th on his stage, 18-year old Komazawa University first-year Kenta Murayama  was the second Japanese finisher, outkicking pro Takuya Fukatsu  (Team Asahi...

by Brett Larner Japan's road season got into swing this weekend with two large road races and two competitive ekidens. At the Fukuoka Prefecture Road Championships in Omuta, Kyushu, Yuya Konishi  (Team Toyota Kyushu) won the 10-miler in 48:00, one of the fastest winning times on record at the race.  The rest of the top ten went under 48:30 as well, making for an outstanding tight race.   Sally Chepyego  (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) won the women's 5 km for the second year in a row and took advantage of the ideal temperatures to set a course record of 15:51.  Runner-up Yuka Miyazaki  was 44 seconds behind.  Local boy Yuki Koga  (Omuta H.S.) won the high school 10 km in 31:29. At the other end of the country, the Sapporo Half Marathon, not to be confused with July's Sapporo International Half Marathon, saw 12,003 finishers led by Toshiaki Nishizawa  (Komazawa Univ.) in 1:05:07 and Mika Sawa  (Bukkyo Univ.) in 1:16:10. Across the world, J...

by Brett Larner 2010 Asian Junior Women's 3000 m Champion Mahiro Akamatsu of Kojokan H.S. came up agonizingly short of completing the 1500 m and 3000 m double on Aug. 2 at the 2010 National High School Track and Field Championships in Amami. With the 1500 m title under her belt Akamatsu coasted through yesterday's 3000 m qualifying heats, but on the final day of the 2010 Nationals she fell to the last sprint of Toyokawa H.S. Kenyan Beatrice Murugi Wainaina in the final. Wainaina, who had the fastest qualifying time in the three heats, 9:20.78, just clipped Akamatsu at the line as she won in 9:11.51. Akamatsu was 2nd in 9:11.60, 0.54 off her PB but a credible time given the sub-tropical weather. 3rd-placer Mary Wydira of Sendai Ikuei H.S. was the only other runner under 9:15, finishing in 9:12.33. The top 11 finishers all broke 9:30 including the identical twin Kyuma sisters Haruka , who ran last month's World Junior Championships 3000 m, and Moe , who will run this month...