japan running news

by Brett Larner 熊日３０k　男子　優勝　上野裕一郎選手（DeNA） pic.twitter.com/Oa0TgDRcMp — M.Kawaguchi (@rikujolove) February 19, 2017 Both of the world's two main 30 km races took place in Japan today.  In the morning, to the south in Kumamoto the Kumanichi Road Race held its 61st edition, the first since last year's powerful earthquakes caused heavy damage in the area.  2009 double 1500 m and 5000 m champion Yuichiro Ueno (DeNA RC) went out fast, close to 30 km national record pace at 10 km in 29:27 and still on track for a 1:28 time at 20 km in 59:11.  Over the last 10 km Ueno slowed dramatically, taking 31:06 to reach the finish line in 1:30:17, but even so his margin of victory over runner-up Ryu Takaku (Team Yakult) was more than a minute. The women's race was closer, with last year's 4th-placer Sakie Arai (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) outrunning corporate leaguers  Rie Uchida (Otsuka Seiyaku) and Yoko Miyauchi (Team Hokuren) by just 8 seconds to win in a PB of 1:46:29 just ...

A quick summary of this weekend's major action.  Click any for detailed results and coverage. Suguru Osako (Team Nissin Shokuhin) set a 13:28.00 indoor 5000 m national record at the Millrose Games in New York. Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) ran a 1:00:18 debut to break the National Corporate Half Marathon course record.  Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta) tied the 20 km Japanese national record of 57:24 but missed the half marathon NR by 7 seconds as he took 3rd in 1:00:32.  Michi Numata (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) won the women's half marathon in 1:09:27, while Yuika Mori (Team Yamada Denki) won the 10 km in a course record 32:26. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) ran 2:15:06 to win the Kochi Ryoma Marathon a week after running 2:15:16 in Nobeoka, his first time tackling back-to-back marathons.  Kawauchi set new world records with 35 career sub-2:16 marathons and 37 sub-2:17s. Collegiates Shin Kimura (Meiji Univ.) and Saori Noda (Osaka Gaku...

by Brett Larner On a busy weekend the Japanese racing calendar featured not one but two elite 30 km road races.  In western Japan, the Kumanichi 30 km staged its 59th running, its fourth edition since adding a mass-participation marathon to help keep the small elite-level 30 km afloat. The men's 30 km featured a pack of five up front featuring corporate teammates Sota Hoshi and Shota Yamaguchi (Team Fujitsu) and collegiates Shin Kimura (Meiji Univ.),  Shohei Otsuka (Komazawa Univ.) and Hazuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.), the younger brother of last year's winner Yuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.).  Kimura did most of the early leading before making a two-man break with Minato Oishi (Team Toyota) at 10 km, opening a 15-second lead by 15 km but swallowed back up by 20 km.  The pace slowed and the race turned tactical, and in a five-way sprint finish Kimura again pulled to the front for the win in 1:31:27, just ahead of 2013 national 5000 m champion Hoshi who clocked the sam...