japan running news

A big group of Japanese men ran the Berlin Half Marathon on Mar. 29. The top finisher among them, Hikaru Tsujihara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) ran 1:00:33 for 11th, the 8th-fastest time ever by a Japanese-born collegiate runner. The time improved his PB of 1:00:51 from last year's Marugame Half by 18 seconds. Tsujihara went on from that performance to set a CR on last October's Izumo Ekiden 4th leg, then was 9th on the 2nd leg at the National University Ekiden and 4th on the Hakone Ekiden 's 4th leg. Tsujihara's KGU teammate Yuta Asano was 12th in 1:01:12, a PB by 15 seconds over his time at this year's Marugame. Hikaru Ogawara (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was 20th in 1:01:30, another PB by 44 seconds ahead of his time in Marugame last year. Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Logisteed) was 32nd in 1:02:51, Kosei Atomura (Koku Gakuin Univ.) 39th in 1:03:16, Aito Sato (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) 42nd in 1:03:40, and Itsuki Takaishi (Koku Gakuin Univ.) 43rd in 1:04:03. Japanese-born Collegiate...

by Brett Larner photo by Dr. Helmut Winter Japanese athletes turned up in three large road races in Europe this weekend. Moscow World Championships marathon team hopeful Mai Ito  (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) led the way, finishing 3rd at the Berlin Half Marathon in 1:10:00 in a tuneup for the London Marathon in two weeks. Yamanashi Gakuin H.S. graduate and former Team Hokuren runner Philes Ongori (Kenya) was 2nd in 1:08:01. At the Paris Marathon, a group of third-tier athletes doing Paris after taking top placings at November's Ohtawara Marathon ran well.  2009 World University Games half marathon silver medalist Kikuyo Tsuzaki  (Team Noritz) ran a PB 2:36:57 for 12th, while in the men's race both Atsushi Hasegawa  (Team Subaru) and Ryoichi Matsuo  (Team Asahi Kasei) both broke their PBs with marks of 2:15:25 and 2:16:28. At Saturday's Prague Half Marathon, Kenta Iinuma  (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Azusa Nojiri  (Hiratsuka Lease) failed to make much ...

http://www.letsrun.com/2009/berlinhalf0403.php

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/f-sp-tp0-20090318-472737.html http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2009/03/19/12.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 2009 Berlin World Championships marathoner and 2008 Tokyo International Women's Marathon winner Yoshimi Ozaki (27, Team Daiichi Seimei) returned to Japan from a month-long training camp in New Zealand, arriving at Tokyo's Narita Airport on Mar. 18. The first two weeks of the training camp were as part of Rikuren's first national marathon training camp program while the second part was sponsored by her team Daiichi Seimei. "I did a lot of work on the roads," Ozaki told reporters. "It went much better than we expected." As part of her preparations for the World Championships Ozaki plans to run the Berlin Half Marathon on Apr. 5. In May Rikuren is planning a training camp in Boulder, U.S.A. for the members of the World Championships marathon team. Ozaki had originally planned to take part b...