japan running news

by Brett Larner additional results coming shortly The 2016 road race reason got started early in Japan with at least four quality half marathons and one of the world's biggest marathons all happening Sunday.  Aritaka Kajiwara , a former teammate of Yuki Kawauchi 's on the Hakone Ekiden's Kanto Region Select Team who quit the Press Kogyo corporate team mid-fall to go independent, ran a 1:02:45 course record to win Tochigi's Takanezawa Half Marathon by a second over Kinari Ikeda , an alternate for last week's Hakone Ekiden champion Aoyama Gakuin University who broke 1:03 for the first time.  Aoyama Gakuin first-year Homare Morita made a quality half marathon debut in 1:03:01 for 3rd, Ikeda and Morita reassuring Aoyama Gakuin that it has the depth to maintain a solid lineup after four of this year's winning members graduate in March. Further south in Oita, former course record holder Fumihiro Maruyama (Asahi Kasei) ran solo to repeat his 2010 Oita City Ha...

http://www.sanyonews.jp/article/265824/1/ translated and edited by Brett Larner The elite field for the 34th Sanyo Women's Road Race on Dec. 23 was announced on Nov. 30.  The first selection race for next March's Cardiff World Half Marathon Championships in the U.K., Sanyo features world-class talent like 2014 Copenhagen World Half Marathon bronze medalist and Sanyo course record holder Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko), 2015 Marugame Half Marathon winner Eloise Wellings (Australia), 2015 Beijing World Championships 10000 m runner Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya) and more.  A large number of women aiming to make next year's Rio Olympic team will be lining up in the half marathon.  Alongside Ohara are 2014 Asian Games marathon 4th-placer Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto), 2014 World Half Marathon Championships team members Sayo Nomura (Team Daiichi Seimei) and Chieko Kido (Team Canon AC Kyushu), and rising young talent like 2015 Hokkaido Marathon winner Yui Okada (Team Ot...

by Brett Larner This year's 29th edition of the Hokkaido Marathon features an all-Japanese invited elite field led by sub-2:11 men Hideaki Tamura (Team JR Higashi Nihon) and Ryosuke Fukuyama (Team Honda) and 2011 World Championships marathoner and defending women's champion Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease).  The race will take place simultaneously with the Beijing World Championships women's marathon. Hokkaido Marathon Sapporo, Hokkaido, 8/30/15 click here for detailed field listing Men Hideaki Tamura (JR Higashi Nihon) - 2:10:54 (Biwako 2013) Ryosuke Fukuyama (Honda) - 2:10:59 (Biwako 2013) Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta) - 2:11:39 (Nagano 2015) Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) - 2:12:11 (Nobeoka 2014) Tatsunari Hirayama (Yasukawa Denki) - 2:12:38 (Nobeoka 2013) Yu Chiba (Honda) - 2:13:19 (Beppu-Oita 2013) Women Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease) - 2:24:57 (Osaka Women's 2012) Chieko Kido (Canon AC Kyushu) - 2:29:08 (Osaka Women's 2015) Aki Odagiri ...

by Brett Larner The first big 10000 m on the Japanese track calendar, this weekend's Hyogo Relay Carnival is geared up to be a shot at World Championships entry standards and World University Games national team places.  The Grand Prix men's 10000 m features sub-27 world-level medalists Kenyans Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko) and Bedan Karoki (DeNA RC) and four others with sub-27:30 bests to pull the top Japanese men along to clear the 27:45.00 Beijing standard.  The only man to do it so far, Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei) with a 27:38.99 last November in Hachioji, is not in the race, but two others who have cleared that time before, Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta) and Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota) are, along with young stars who have come close like Kenta Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei) and Keita Shitara (Team Konica Minolta).  Especially worth watching is Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta), who tied the 20 km national record earlier this year on the way...

by Brett Larner The Osaka International Women's Marathon holds its 34th running Sunday, with two-time winner Tetiana Gamera (Ukraine) going for a third-straight win and Japanese women going for places on the 2015 Beijing World Championships team.  Gamera's best of 2:23:58 came in Osaka two years ago, and with the withdrawal of Kenyan Margaret Agai it means that if Gamera is anywhere near the same shape this time then her main competition is likely to be 38-year-old Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia) whose best of 2:22:56 also came in Osaka a decade ago but is still running strong with a 2:24:07 in Nagoya last spring. Japanese women are facing a sub-2:22:30 requirement for Beijing representation, more realistic than the laughable sub-2:06:30 requirement for men but still a time no Japanese woman has run since 2007.  Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) has the fastest time since then with a 2:23:23 in Osaka three years ago, but with nothing under 2:30 since then there's not much r...

by Brett Larner With a month to go the organizers of the Osaka International Women's Marathon have announced the elite field for their 34th running on Jan. 25.  Two-time winner Tetiana Gamera (Ukraine) returns to try to become the second woman in event history to win three-straight races, facing challenges from 2012 winner Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), 2:23 Kenyan Margaret Agai , veterans Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia) and Mari Ozaki (Team Noritz) and more.  The promising Yuko Watanabe (Team Edion) leads the younger talent along with the debuting Chieko Kido (Canon AC Kyushu), a member of the bronze medal-winning Japanese women's team at this year's Copenhagen World Half Marathon Championships, in search of a place on the 2015 Beijing World Championships team.  Of special interest are former national team-level corporate league runners Remi Nakazato (unattached) and Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease), both pursuing their own routes outside the system. 34th Osaka In...

by Brett Larner photo by Kazuyuki Sugimatsu Running against the wind,  Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.)  at the 2013 Hakone Ekiden. Japan is sending two strong squads to the Mar. 29 World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, both led by their youngest member and each with a good chance of going home with hardware. There's a lot of buzz domestically about the young and talented men's team, four of its five members between 21 and 23 years old, three of them university runners and three students at or graduates of three-time defending National University Ekiden champion Komazawa University .  Much of the buzz is focused on Komazawa third-year  Kenta Murayama , freshly 21 and on a rapid rise to the very top of the Japanese distance world. Last year at age 19 he cracked the all-time Japanese half marathon top ten with a 1:01:19 in Marugame, following up a month later in 1:02:02 for 10th at the NYC Half Marathon.  This year, just before his 21...

http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/general/2014/02/18/0006719014.shtml translated by Brett Larner On Feb. 18 the Japanese Federation announced  Kenta Murayama  (Komazawa University), 20,  and the other nine members of the Japanese national team for the Mar. 29 World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. Note: 2011-2013 National University Ekiden champion Komazawa's Ikuto Yufu , the 2013 National University 1500 m champion and 1:02:51 at November's Ageo City Half Marathon, has also joined the Mar. 16 New York City Half Marathon field. World Half Marathon Championships - Japanese Team Copenhagen, Denmark, Mar. 29, 2014 Men Kenta Murayama (Komazawa University) - 1:00:50 (Marugame Half 2014) - all-time Japanese #3 Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:01:17 (National Corporate Half 2014) Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu) - 1:01:18 - (National Corporate Half 2014)  2013 national champion, 5000 m Hiroto Inoue (Yamanashi Gakuin University) - 1:01:39 ...

by Brett Larner photos by rikujolove A month earlier than usual due to March's World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, this year's 42nd running of the National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships was fast all around, with PB times from virtually everyone in the top in all three divisions.  The men's and women's half marathons played out with very similar plot lines. In the men's race,  Aoyama Gakuin University graduate Ryotaro Otani (Team Toyota Boshoku), running in a plain yellow Adidas sleeveless T-shirt and matching shorts and shoes after forgetting his kit bag at home, took the race out near 61-flat pace, frontrunning through 5 km before Kenyans Daniel Gitau  (Team Fujitsu) and Jacob Wanjuki  (Team Aichi Seiko) and 2014 New Year Ekiden national chmpion team Konica Minolta  member Masato Kikuchi  took over.  Gitau was quick to press ahead, opening a 25-second lead by 10 km with his teammate and 2013 national 5000...

by Brett Larner Two high-level mid-season women's ekidens held their 29th runnings on Nov. 10.  A dry run for January's National Women's Ekiden and featuring the same format of teams made up of junior high school, high school, university and pro runners from each prefecture, the nine-stage, 42.195 km East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima saw 2010 winner Chiba Prefecture  advance in the second half of the race after a strong Fifth Stage run from ace Yurie Doi  and a brilliant performance from the Seventh Stage's Asahi Tate  to return to the top.  Anchor Mai Shinozuka  had a scare from 2013 London Marathon 3rd-placer Yukiko Akaba  (Tochigi Pref.), but with a starting margin of almost 45 seconds at her disposal fro the 10 km Ninth Stage she was safe enough to run a steady, conservative leg to bring Chiba home in 2:19:23, 27 seconds ahead of Akaba.  Up front through much of the race, Nagano Prefecture was the only other team to break 2:20:00 in ra...

by Brett Larner videos by naoki620 and toyosina2008 Stanford University's Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational, home of both the Japanese men's and women's 10000 m national records, once again delivered big times.  In the men's 10000 m,  Suguru Osako  (Waseda Univ.) and Yuki Sato  (Team Nissin Shokuhin), both graduates of Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. and perpetual rivals over the last two years, each got under the Moscow World Championships A-standard but came up just short of the 27:35.09 NR, Osako taking 2nd in 27:38.31 and Sato 3rd in 27:39.50.  Osako's time was the fastest ever by a Japanese collegiate and good for all-time Japanese #4 a fraction of a second behind Sato's all-time #3 mark of 27:38.25.   Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) also got under 28 but was a distant afterthought in 27:55.27, while last year's top two 10000 m runner Chihiro Miyawaki  (Team Toyota) and Daisuke Shimizu  (Team Kanebo) both struggled.  Af...

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...