japan running news

We're back from a short summer break. A week and a half out from the first race of the season's four World Marathon Majors races, here's a look at Japanese athletes scheduled to run. Everything right now is about qualifying for the MGC Race, the official trials race for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to be held in the fall of 2027 in Nagoya. The JAAF makes no mistake about wanting to keep its top people racing domestically where it can get a share of revenue from the TV broadcast and race operations, so anyone who decides to race overseas has to do it in a WA platinum label race and hit either 2:06:30 or 2:23:30, regardless of place, course or weather if they want to make the trials. At the same time concessions are make for domestic races, like for example the late-August Hokkaido Marathon where up to 3 men and 3 women can qualify if they go 2:12:00 or 2:32:00. As a result, you get things like last year where amateur runner Yudai Fukuda made the trials by finishing 3rd Jap...

This year's Chicago Marathon will be remembered for one thing, cf. the photo above. No Japanese women were in the race to get thrashed by Ruth Chepngetich en route to her era-defining 2:09:56 world record, but five Japanese men were, and most of them did get thrashed. With a 2:06:35 PB Kyohei Hosoya (Kurosaki Harima) went out on low-2:04 NR pace, running comfortably through halfway before a surge from the pacers dropped him. Alone the rest of the way, Hosoya managed to run down some Ethiopian competition to take 6th overall in 2:07:20. Toshiki Sadakata (Mitsubishi Juko) spent most of the way working with American Zach Panning and then CJ Albertson to hit the 2:06:30 Tokyo World Championships standard, ultimately finishing 5 seconds behind Albertson in 8th in 2:08:22. After getting dropped by the JPN/USA men's group, Tomoki Yoshioka (Kyudenko) ended up running as an unofficial pacer for Chepngetich, but over the second half he couldn't match her strength and faded to ...

Runner-up at last year's Fukuoka International Marathon, Kyohei Hosoya was the top Japanese finisher at the Chicago Marathon Sunday. Hosoya went through halfway in the 2nd pack in 1:03:46 en route to a 2:08:05 for 6th. Riki Nakanishi was the only other Japanese man under 2:10, barely, finishing 14th in 2:09:59. Hiroto Fujimagari and Kiyoshi Koga were less successful, Fujimagari 20th in 2:13:04 and Koga 23rd in 2:13:42. Koki Ozawa just made it under 2:20 in an apparent marathon debut, running 2:19:54 for 40th. Sub-2:10 man Masaya Taguchi dropped out after 25 km, hitting halfway in 1:05:10 but abruptly slowing after that. Club runner Tomomi Nakajima was the top Japanese woman to finish, 55th in 2:47:23. © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

It feels like old times again, with at least five big events on the Japanese calendar. The biggest is Monday's Izumo Ekiden , the season opener for the top university men's teams in the country. We'll have a separate Izumo preview out soon, but you can look forward to the race being broadcast live on Fuji TV starting at 13:00 local time Monday. We'll also cover it live on @JRNLive . The other big ekiden is Sunday's Kurayoshi Women's Ekiden and Nihonkai Ekiden , the first major high school races of the season. They're really one thing billed with separate event names for the girls' and boys' races, five stages totaling 21.0975 km for girls and seven stages totaling 42.195 km for boys. Most of the top high school programs in the country will be there, with 2021 National High School Ekiden 2nd and 4th-placers Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. and Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. leading the 70 teams in the girls' race and 2021 Nationals winner Sera H.S. , 2nd-p...

2019 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Taku Fujimoto , 32, retired from the Toyota corporate team after running the Mar. 6 Tokyo Marathon. As a participant in the 2019 Marathon Grand Championship Olympic trials Fujimoto was one of the country's best, but there's another side to him that most people don't know. In just his second marathon, Fujimoto ran an excellent 2:07:57 breakthrough for 8th at the 2018 Chicago Marathon. At the MGC he was only 9th, but he quickly rebounded to finish as the top Japanese placer at Fukuoka the same season. Fujimoto was 2nd across the finish line in that race, but the Moroccan who got there first was later disqualified for doping violations, elevating Fujimoto to the winner's position. After that Fujimoto had problems with injuries, but while he struggled to perform in marathons he was as good as ever in the ekiden. Even so, a year and a half ago he made the decision to retire at the end of the 2021-22 season. "I feel like I'...

In the last week or two, four major international marathons have announced elite fields that include Japanese athletes, mostly men. There aren't many homegrown elite-level races for them to pick from, either for men or women.  Postponed from the spring, despite corona numbers breaking new records almost daily the Tokyo Marathon is still scheduled to go ahead Oct. 17, a date that plops it right in the middle of ekiden season for both corporate men and especially women. The men-only Fukuoka International Marathon will hold its 75th and final running on Dec. 5, the traditional date that has contributed to its downfall due to a conflict with the New Year Ekiden less than four weeks later. The Hofu Marathon is two weeks after Fukuoka, even more in conflict with the New Year Ekiden, and with a World Athletics Elite Label this year it may be capitalizing on the void in women's racing opportunities by giving something approaching parity to its women's field. Or maybe not. With thos...

interview by Mika Tokairin and Tsuguki Matsuda translated by Mika Tokairin and Brett Larner In part one of his interview with JRN,  Arata Fujiwara talked about the 2008 Tokyo Marathon 2:08:40 run that made him famous. In part two of the interview he discussed the mental and physical aspects of his training. Now in part three he talks about racing; his strategy, tactics and long-term goals. Do you think it’s important to have practice runs on the course, to study the course and know where the curves and hills are? Yes, definitely, if you have the chance to do that it’s always a good idea. The first time you run a course it’s totally different whether you know a course well or not at all. The time passes more quickly if you know the course. For example, if you go somewhere on a training camp and jog for 60 minutes on a road you don’t know it feels longer. So, it’s a big advantage to know the course well. If you know the course you know what’s coming next, and after that...

After moving up to the top ranks of amateur Japanese women's marathoning with a 2:36:37 PB at this year's Tokyo Marathon, club runner Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto) took another big step with a 2:33:16 PB for 14th at the Chicago Marathon . Running almost perfectly evenly, her first 5 km 18:11 and none after that faster than 17:49 or slower than 18:17, Kaneshige managed a slight negative split with a 1:16:46 first half and 1:16:30 second half. Just short of rival club runner Haruka Yamaguchi 's 2:33:09 PB in Sydney last month, with that kind of control Kaneshige looks to have plenty more room for growth. On the men's side, four Japanese men, Minato Oishi (Toyota), Tsubasa Hayakawa (Toyota), Ryoma Takeuchi (Hitachi Butsuryu) and Yuta Takahashi (Otsuka Seiyaku), went out in the second pack with the main leading group of American men. The fastest Japanese half marathoner so far this year, Oishi was almost as steady as Kaneshige the entire way as he opened with a 15:...

Sunday’s Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon , the top-level race in Japan’s second tier of elite men’s marathons, saw some historic results, with fourteen men breaking 2:12, ten of them Japanese. Given last year’s Tokyo Marathon , where nine Japanese men went sub-2:10, that might not seem like a big deal. But there were virtually no A-list Japanese men in the race, most of the ten who broke 2:12 heading into the race with PBs in only the 2:12 to 2:15 range and a few of them guys who never made their university ekiden teams’ starting rosters. For perspective, the United States has never had ten men under 2:12  in an entire year  on record-eligible courses, and even including ineligible ones the only time it has ever happened was thanks to the tailwind-aided 1983 Boston Marathon. It’s pretty clear that something special happened in Beppu. One of the runners who benefited from that special something was American Andrew Epperson . An assistant coach at Colorado State University, ...

JRN's ten most-read stories in the best year in Japanese men's marathoning history and one of the best for Japanese women . 1. How it Happened - Apr. 20 Inside the first Japanese men's  Boston Marathon  win in 31 years. JRN's all-time most-read story. Based on actual events. Preview . 2. Kazami Breaks 100 km World Record at Lake Saroma - June 24 Nao Kazami (Aisan Kogyo) broke the longstanding men's 100 km world record on the same course where it had been set previously. The top five all broke 6:30, with 3rd and 4th-placers Takehiro Gyoba and Hideaki Yamauchi going on to medal at the 100 km World Championships . 3. Kawauchi Breaks Sub-2:20 World Record in Sub-Zero Temperatures - Jan. 1 Running solo in below-freezing temperatures, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) became the first person to run under 2:20 in the marathon 76 times with a 2:18:59 course record win at the Marshfield Road Runners New Year's Day Marathon. 4. Guinness Certifi...

Just over seven months since Yuta Shitara broke Toshinari Takaoka 's longstanding 2:06:16 national record from the 2002 Chicago Marathon with a 2:06:11 in Tokyo in February, U.S.-based Suguru Osako  brought the record back home to Chicago with a 3rd-place finish in 2:05:50. Running the same pattern as in his first two marathons, Osako sat back in the lead men's pack, never exerting himself as it whittled down to the core members. Just past the turn into Chinatown near 35 km his Nike Oregon Project teammate and 2017 Chicago winner Galen Rupp fell off the front group to leave Osako in contention with former NOP member Mo Farah , 2:04 Ethiopian Mosinet Gemerew , former Asahi Kasei runner Kenneth Kipkemoi and 2017 world champion Geoffrey Kirui . As in Boston and Fukuoka last year, when the real move came, this time in the form of a surge by Farah and Gemerew, Osako was left behind to battle it out for 3rd. While Farah kicked away for the win by 13 seconds in a European rec...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/sports/yuki-kawauchi-marathon.html A correction to the NYT article: At the time of this year's Boston Marathon, Kawauchi's 2:08:14 PB was over a minute faster than Rupp's. Rupp later ran 2:06:07 in Prague after his DNF in Boston.

Motivated in part by the legacy of Toshinari Takaoka 's longstanding former national record of 2:06:16 at its 2002 race, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon has long been a draw for top-level Japanese athletes male and female. Few men have made much of an impact in Chicago, with none making the top five in the last 14 years and only two, Hiroaki Sano and  Koji Kobayashi , breaking 2:11 in the same time period. But they still keep coming, and this year's crew of five looks to have the best chance of bettering the results of the last decade and a half. 【 #シカゴ・マラソン 】 10月7日（日）号砲🔥 #川内優輝 選手（埼玉県庁）、 #大迫傑 選手（Nike）、 #木滑良 選手（MHPS）、 #鈴木洋平 選手（愛三工業）、 #藤本拓 選手（トヨタ自動車）の大会前コメントです🇯🇵🎤🙋‍♂️ ▼こちらから▼ https://t.co/En6uRnqTNj #JAAF #陸上 #ChicagoMarathon #MGC pic.twitter.com/VyjFpTjzdI — JAAF（日本陸上競技連盟） (@jaaf_official) October 6, 2018 Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) PB: 2:15:30 (15th, Lake Biwa Marathon, 2018) Major recent results: 7:59.30 - PB (6th, Hokuren Distance Challenge...

Having both gone under the old 5000 m Japanese national record in the same race in Belgium in 2015, Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) and Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei) met up again in Redmond, Washington at the September 3rd  Labor Day Half Marathon . Osako, who set the current NR of 13:08.40 in the race in Heusden, ran Redmond as part of his buildup for next month's Chicago Marathon, soloing a 1:01:01 PB to win. Yoroizaka, 13:12.63 in Heusden, finished behind Osako again. Well behind, as in 2nd in 1:04:17 just 8 seconds ahead of top American Gregory Leak . A PB by 12 seconds, Osako's solo run was the fastest half marathon so far this year by a Japanese man and moved him up to all-time Japanese #9 on a record-legal course. In terms of time and ranking it brought his half marathon up closer to the 2:07:19 he ran in Fukuoka last December, a mark which currently puts him at #7 all-time in Japan. The question is whether it was only bringing his half marathon performance ...

A Bank of America Chicago Marathon press release. The Bank of America Chicago Marathon announced today that several international running stars are joining the 41st annual Bank of America Chicago Marathon elite athlete competition. Past champions Abel Kirui (KEN) and Dickson Chumba (KEN) lead the charge on the men’s side, and 2017 runner-up Brigid Kosge i (KEN) and two-time podium finisher Birhane Dibaba (ETH) stand out among the women. They will join previously announced global sensations Mo Farah (GBR), Yuki Kawauchi (JPN) and Suguru Osako (JPN). Note: The previously-announced Chihiro Miyawaki (Japan) is no longer listed in the men's field. 41st Bank of America Chicago Marathon Elite Field Highlights Chicago, U.S.A., 10/7/18 times listed are best in last three years except where noted complete elite fields Women Roza Dereje Bekele (Ethiopia) - 2:19:17 (Dubai 2018) Birhane Dibaba (Ethiopia) - 2:19:51 (Tokyo 2018) Brigid Kosgei (Kenya) - 2:20:13 (London 2018)...

A Bank of America Chicago Marathon press release The Bank of America Chicago Marathon announced today that reigning Boston Marathon champion and “citizen runner” Yuki Kawauchi and 2016 Olympian and Nike Oregon Project runner Suguru Osako will join the elite competition as they both seek to become the first Chicago Marathon champion from Japan since Toshihiko Seko took the crown in 1986. "I'm really happy to have the chance to race in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and the Abbott World Marathon Majors," Kawauchi said. "I'm looking forward to running the same race where Toshinari Takaoka set the former national record and so many other great Japanese athletes have run well. My results in the other American Abbott World Marathon Majors races, Boston and New York, were pretty good, and I'll do everything I can to line up in Chicago ready to produce good results there too." “Yuki and Suguru are exciting additions to our elite field,” said ...

Japanese men lined up at three major overseas races Sunday. At the Netherlands' Eindhoven Marathon, 2:07:39 marathoner Masato Imai (Toyota Kyushu), coached by 1992 Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita , was ranked 3rd in the field on PB but ran only 2:17:00 for 10th after fading from the lead pack early in the second half. At Boston's B.A.A. Half the race was hurt by the late withdrawal of aggressive sub-61 half marathoner Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) with illness. In his absence Suguru Osako (NOP) and Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu), the latter a former teammate of Murayama's at Komazawa University , sat in the lead pack throughout the race without exerting pressure despite a very slow pace. Two-time defending champ Daniel Salel (Kenya) made it three in a row, easily outkicking Osako to win in 1:04:31, Osako next across the line in 1:04:42 and Nakamura 4th in 1:04:50. Two other Japanese men were non-factors, Ken Yokote (Fujitsu) 7th in 1:05:57 an...