japan running news

Sunday is the Princess Ekiden , the official qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden, the season-ending national championship race for corporate women's teams. The top 8 placers at last year's Queens Ekiden, Sekisui Kagaku , Japan Post , Panasonic , Shiseido , Daihatsu , Daiichi Seimei , Tenmaya and Iwatani Sangyo , auto-qualified for 2024, leaving the rest of the league's teams to line up in Fukuoka at the Princess Ekiden in hopes of joining them. 30 teams will compete for 16 places at the Queens Ekiden, each with a team of 6 running a total of 42.195 km. TBS is broadcasting the race live starting at 11:50, with streaming on Youtube. 16th at Queens last year, Kyudenko has scratched from Sunday's race due to athlete injuries preventing them from having enough people ready to run. 22nd at Queens, Yamada Holdings is also out because it couldn't field 6 runners, one reason being the transfer of one of its star runners, Sakiho Tsutsui , to Universal Entertai...

In one of the wildest elite-level ekidens in memory, half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi ran her best race in almost 3 years to anchor the Wacoal team to the win at the Princess Ekiden , the qualifying race for next month's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships. The field of 27 teams raced 6 stages totaling 42.195 km for one of 14 spots at Nationals alongside last year's top 8. Things were complicated by the disqualification of 2017 national champion Universal Entertainment , which found itself back at the Princess Ekiden to requalify. Sayaka Sato got things off to a good start for Sekisui Kagaku , winning the 7.0 km First Stage in 22:36 just off the CR. 4 seconds back was Shiori Yano , whose Canon AC Kyushu team missed Nationals by a minute last year. and another 5 seconds behind was Miku Daido of the debuting Iwatani Sangyo team. Coached by marathon national record holder Mizuki Noguchi 's former coach Hisakazu Hirose , Iwatani ...

by Brett Larner Two important women-only ekidens celebrate their 30th anniversaries this weekend.  In eastern Japan, Fukushima's East Japan Women's Ekiden features a scaled-down version of January's National Women's Ekiden, with teams made up of pro, collegiate, high school and junior high school athletes representing each of the 18 prefectures in the region.  Defending champion Chiba fields a very different lineup from last year's winning team led by one of Japan's current best track runners Riko Matsuzaki (Team Sekisui Kagaku).  Gunma , featuring last weekend's East Japan Corporate Women's Ekiden anchor stage course record setter Yuika Mori and Yamada Denki corporate teammate Shiho Takechi , Saitama and Shizuoka look to be Chiba's main competition.  The East Japan Women's Ekiden will be broadcast live starting at noon on Nov. 9. Further west in Fukui, the Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden delivers an interesting format pitting top corporate ...

http://www.oita-press.co.jp/localSports/120731038207/2010_127276116467.html translated by Brett Larner At the 64th Oita Prefectural Track & Field Championships at the Oita Civic Grounds on May 1, Chieko Kido (Canon Oita AC) ran a new Oita prefectural women's record of 15:55.45, breaking the old mark by 3.87 seconds. Throughout her training for this month's track season Kido has had pacemaking and guidance from male coach Aki Shimizu. Shimizu was onhand for the record attempt, calling out, "Stick to it!" and "Go for the time!" as she ran. Kido said Shimizu's words helped spur her on. "I got into a really comfortable rhythm," she smiled afterwards. Shimizu told reporters, "I'm as happy as if I had set a new PB myself. She did a great job." Canon Oita AC head coach Michio Ito commented, "This will be a big boost for her self-confidence. I'm looking forward to seeing how she does in the 10000 m tomorrow." Translator...

http://www.e-obs.com/obs-news/genko/DD01110011914.html http://www.oita-press.co.jp/localNews/2010_126318885586.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Nearly 600 runners took part in the 50th anniversary Oita Godo Road Race on Jan. 11 in downtown Oita. Intended to help raise the level of distance running within Oita prefecture, the race takes place each year on the Coming of Age Day national holiday and is the frequent site of breakthrough performances by new stars. This year's 50th edition saw course records in the men's half marathon and high school men's 10 km as well as the first women's 10 km race in 22 years. With extended checkpoint cutoff times helping to swell the numbers, this year saw 406 finishers in the men's half marathon, 137 in the high school men's 10 km, and 36 in the women's 10 km. In the men's half marathon, Oita Tomei H.S. graduate Fumihiro Maruyama (19, Team Asahi Kasei) dropped his rivals with an attack over the last km, winning...

http://mainichi.jp/area/oita/news/20090503ddlk44050297000c.html translated by Brett Larner Having become an official team on only Apr. 1, the Oita Canon women's track and field team made its competition debut on May 2 at the Oita Prefectural Track and Field Meet at Oita Municipal Track and Field Grounds . The fledgling team's Chieko Kido (19), who as a high school student had run a stage 2nd-best in the National Interprefectural Women's Ekiden, got the team off to a smooth start with a 2nd place finish in the women's 5000 m. Five of Canon's eight athletes competed in the meet, taking part in three events. After a first month in which the team's members were busier adjusting to their new lifestyle than to practice itself, "They're on their way to recovering from setback and loss and to rediscovering the way they used to be," said head coach Michio Ito. "This is a great first step. If our runners can recover their old strength it's going...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/090327/spg0903271759002-n1.htm http://mainichi.jp/area/kagoshima/news/20090328ddlk46050630000c.html http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/item/86030 translated and edited by Brett Larner Kyushu-based Kagoshima Bank announced on Mar. 27 that it will begin sponsoring a new professional women's track and field team beginning in April. The new Team Kagoshima Ginko's starting lineup will feature six athletes aged 18-29, four who graduated from high school in March and two experienced professional runners. Kagoshima Bank director Fumiharu Nagata told members of the press, "We want to do our part to help support talented athletes who wish to remain in their hometowns after graduating from high school and to help strengthen the local sports world." Team Kagoshima Ginko's head coach will be Yoshinobu Uchida, a man with experience guiding long distance athletes since his student days. Uchida will be assisted by Natsuko Tatesako, while Kenji Arim...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/item/82664 translated by Brett Larner Major Tokyo-based electronics manufacturer Canon announced that its subsidiary Oita Canon Materials Inc. will begin sponsoring a new women's running team in April. The team will be based in Oita and will be coached by former Oita Nishi High School head coach Michio Ito. Oita Canon has already hired four professional and high school athletes from Oita, Nagasaki and Kagoshima Prefectures who will be employed at the company's Oita facility. It is searching for two more runners to bring the team's starting lineup to six. Among the runners already chosen for the team are Oita Nishi graduate Rina Abe (19), who runs for Team Oki but will lose that position when the team disbands at the end of March, and Yuka Yano (22), another Oita Nishi graduate who currently runs for Team Sysmex. Under Coach Ito, Oita Nishi was a regular at the National High School Ekiden Championships. In his days at Tsurusaki Kogyo High Sc...