japan running news

Two of Japan's main fall amateur marathons are stepping up their game this year with their best-ever elite fields. Looking to upgrade its IAAF label from bronze to silver, the Nov. 17 Kobe Marathon has an elite field with three women under 2:30 and three men under 2:11 in the last three years. Kaori Yoshida (Team RxL) and Betty Jepleting (Kenya) lead the women, with Eliud Barngetuny (Kenya) and Weldu Negash Gebretsadik (Norway) fronting the men. The men's race will almost definitely see an international winner, with veteran Chiharu Takada (JR Higashi Nihon) the top Japanese man at 2:11:25 on the Gold Coast two years ago, but the women's race has a good chance of seeing a Japanese winner. Along with Yoshida, it has sub-2:30 woman Yurie Doi (Tos Planning) and amateur duo Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) and Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto), both with low-2:33 PBs earlier this fall and keen to join the sub-2:30 club. With a field of 30,000 the Osaka Marathon is one of...

The organizers of the Feb. 3 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon announced on Jan. 23 that invited elite athletes Chiharu Takada (JR Higashi Nihon) and Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta) have withdrawn with stress fractures, Takada in his right fibula and Tanigawa in a metatarsal of his left foot. In addition, general division elite Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) has also withdrawn due to shin splints in his left leg. source article: https://mainichi.jp/articles/20190123/k00/00m/050/146000c translated by Brett Larner

The men's race at Australia's Gold Coast Marathon is usually a Kenya-Japan head-to-head, Kenya taking six wins and Japan three in the last ten years. With not a single Ethiopian in the field for this year's 40th edition it looks set for it to happen yet again. Sub-2:10 Kenyans Victor Kipchirchir , Douglas Chebii , Philip Sanga and the Japan-based Michael Githae will line up to take on three of the race's last four winners, 2017 champ Takuya Noguchi (Konica Minolta), 2015-16 winner and course record holder Kenneth Mungara (Kenya) and 2013 champ and perpetual top three placer Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't). Give the advantage to team Kenya in this bout, but as Noguchi and Kawauchi have proven Gold Coast is a race where Japanese men are legit contenders. With the window for getting qualifying times for next year's MGC Race 2020 Olympic trials starting to close, the powers that be in Japan have taken note of the success of Noguchi and Kawauchi on t...

A Gold Coast Airport Marathon press release. JRN will be on-hand at GCAM as part of its official broadcast commentary crew. Two previous winners Yuki Kawauchi and Risa Takenaka will lead a strong Japanese charge at the 39th Gold Coast Airport Marathon on Sunday 2 July. A flat and fast course will provide the stage for this IAAF Road Race Gold Label event with one of the strongest elite fields ever assembled to fight out the 42.195km race. One of the most popular runners in world athletics Kawauchi, 30, will return to the scene of his epic runner up finish last year behind Kenneth Mungara of Kenya. The two will do battle once again with Kawauchi hoping he can win this coveted race once again as he did in 2013. Takenaka had a breakout year in 2015 with a win on the Gold Coast and setting her personal best of 2:28:09 in Nagoya. The 27-year-old will be attempting to continue the stranglehold that Japanese runners have had on the women’s race with a total of 14 winners includi...

by Brett Larner This Sunday the  Fukuoka International Marathon celebrates its 70th running.  Once upon a time playing the role of the men's marathon world championships in a day before there were World Championships, Fukuoka has seen its importance worldwide dwindle in the face of modernity and the changes it has brought in the sport.  It still manages to put together good-quality, interesting fields from a spectrum of nationalities, but it has been a while since Fukuoka could really pull in the type of talent who now head to the World Marathon Majors.  On the home front too, despite serving as the first of three main selection races for Japanese national teams at the major international championships, its timing a bit less than four weeks before the increasingly important New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships means that more and more top level Japanese man now pass it over in favor of February's Tokyo Marathon or March's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marat...

by Brett Larner The Dec. 4  Fukuoka International Marathon released the elite field for this year's 70th running today.  2014-15 winner Patrick Makau (Kenya) returns, looking to follow Frank Shorter and Toshihiko Seko as just the third man to win Fukuoka three years in a row.  Makau's main competition comes from 2015 World Championships silver medalist Yemane Tsegay (Ethiopia), James Kwambai (Kenya) and Amanuel Mesel (Eritrea).  An interesting name that could represent an extra challenge if he shows the same renewed focus as his older brother Kenenisa is Tariku Bekele (Ethiopia).  Further back, Reid Coolsaet (Canada) has a shot at breaking the 2:10:09 Canadian national record set in Fukuoka in 1975 by Jerome Drayton . The large Japan-based African contingent is headed by the debuting Paul Kuira (Kenya/Team Konica Minolta), who won the 2015 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon in 59:47 in his debut over the distance, 2012 Fukuoka winner...

by Brett Larner The southern hemisphere's only IAAF gold label race, Australia's Gold Coast Airport Marathon returns this weekend with solid fields in both the men's and races.  Nine men and four women come to the race with gold label credentials, times under 2:10 for men and 2:28 for women, within the last three years, and with good weather forecast for Sunday morning more than a few could replicate those times on Australian soil. The top 10 leading female contenders for this Sunday's #GCAM16 ! #thisisqueensland pic.twitter.com/NakKa6HDYy — Gold Coast Marathon (@GCMarathon) July 1, 2016 Japanese women have dominated Gold Coast in recent years, winning the last four years straight and sweeping the top five last year.  They'll have a tougher time of it this year.  Ethiopians Gulume Chala , last year's Frankfurt Marathon winner in 2:23:12, and Meseret Biru , last year's Paris Marathon winner in 2:23:26, lead the way, with Kenyan Leah Kiprono , win...

by Brett Larner Australia's Gold Coast Airport Marathon has released the men's and women's elite fields for this year's race on July 3.  Cementing its position as a significant IAAF gold label event, the race features nine men and five women with recent times under the gold label standards of 2:10 and 2:28.  Peter Some of Kenya leads the men's field with a 2:07:05 at the 2014 Tokyo Marathon and should give the 2:08:42 Australian all-comers' record set last year by returning champion Kenneth Mungara a scare.  Yuki Kawauchi is the top-ranked Japanese man with a 2:09:05 from the 2013 Fukuoka International Marathon, his domestic competition including corporate runner Chiharu Takada and Kawauchi's longtime rival and sometimes training partner Arata Fujiwara . The women's all-comers' record is Naoko Takahashi 's mighty 2:23:14 gold medal run from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  Ethiopians Gulume Chala and Meseret Biru both have recent times under...

by Brett Larner photos by @rikujolove Former world record holder Patrick Makau (Kenya) was back to take out tough competition and score a second-straight win at the 69th running of the Fukuoka International Marathon , with Kyushu local Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei) emerging at the top of the home soil field to land as a candidate for the Rio Olympic team after favorite Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) ran into trouble early. Confluence of A and B-group starts outside track. pic.twitter.com/lZlxwtMIAH — Japan Running News (@JRNLive) December 6, 2015 With Fukuoka featuring two pace groups, one targeting 2:06 and the other 2:08, the front group quickly shook down to Makau and fellow heavyweights Dennis Kimetto (Kenya), Getu Feleke (Ethiopia), Bernard Koech (Kenya), Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and Samuel Tsegay (Eritrea), last year’s 3rd-placer Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/NTN), Sasaki and countrymen Kawauchi, Chiharu Takada (JR Higashi Niho...

by Brett Larner photo by Dr. Helmut Winter This Sunday Japan's three-part domestic selection race series to choose its men's marathon team for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics kicks off with the 69th running of the Fukuoka International Marathon .  Fukuoka's elite coordinator typically sets up his races featuring one marquee international athlete to draw media attention and show the public that Fukuoka still matters to the rest of the world, with a second tier of internationals within a stone's throw of the top Japanese names in the field to help goad them on to quality times. This year has that covered by the spadeful, with world record holder Dennis Kimetto (Kenya) coming in fresh from dropping out of the summer's Beijing World Championships after jogging a few kilometers.  It could just be an easy end-of-season payday, but the presence on the start list of 2:04 countryman Bernard Koech and sub-2:06 Ethiopian Getu Feleke suggests that Fukuoka wants an up...

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/lemi-berhanu-warsaw-marathon Chiharu Takada (Team JR Higashi Nihon) ran 2:12:27 for 13th in Warsaw, just missing the 2:12:13 run in Zurich last week by Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) as the year's fastest time by a Japanese man outside Japan.   Click here for complete results . Elsewhere, Yuko Watanabe (Team Edion) was an apparent DNF at the Hamburg Marathon.  Click here for complete results .

by Brett Larner photo credits at bottom click here for race highlights video courtesy of broadcaster KBC Former world record holder Patrick Makau (Kenya) ran what he needed to score the win in his return to the marathon today in Fukuoka , sitting back in the pack throughout the race before dropping the competition in the last 4 km to win in 2:08:22.  But the star of the show did not hail from Kenya, or Africa, or Japan. At the pre-race press conference the top group of contenders were asked what percent confidence they had that they could win.  Favorite Makau said 90%.  2012 Fukuoka winner Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) replied 82%.  Last year's winner Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) said 50%, a suggestion of things to come.  Japanese top two Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) gave only 50% and 20% estimates.  Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia/Team NTN), who beat Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. ...

29-year-old Jeffrey Eggleston has been quietly rising up through the ranks of U.S. marathoning for the last few years since debuting in 2:14:32 at the 2010 Rock'n'Roll Arizona Marathon. A 2:12:03 at the 2012 Chicago Marathon got him onto the Moscow World Championships team, where he was the top-placing American at 13th overall. In April he was the third American at the Boston Marathon, running his fastest time to that point at 2:11:57. On July 6 he lined up at Australia’s Gold Coast Airport Marathon. Running a race both smart and tough, he took his time working back into contact after the early move by Kenyan pacer Isaac Macharia Wanjohi and eventual winner Silah Limo that brought panic to the rest of the lead pack. At 30 km Eggleston was in 2nd on mid-2:08 pace, and with a gritty last 12 km he held on to that position as he ground out a 2:10:52 PB that made him the fastest American of the year and second-fastest since the London Olympics on an unaided course. Aft...

by Brett Larner The Gold Coast Airport Marathon saw the expected surpassing of Rob de Castella 's 1982 Australian all-comers' record of 2:09:18 to commemorate its graduation to the rank of an IAAF gold label race, but despite having the course, the weather, the goal and the field it was close, and little else about the race went as expected. None of the pre-race favorites factored up front, 2:06 men Nicholas Manza (Kenya) and Gebretsadik Adihana (Ethiopia) dropping out and the hoped-for duel between defending champion Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and London Olympian Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) never materializing after Fujiwara lost contact early in the second half with cramping. Instead, virtual unknown Silah Kipkemboi Limo (Kenya), debuting off a 1:01:26 half marathon best last year in Singapore, went to the front near 20 km with pacer Isaac Macharia (Kenya) and went it alone at 25 to shake off his Kenyan competition and front-running Japanese man Ch...