japan running news

The first two regional qualifying races for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships happened Monday in the two most competitive regions, the Tokyo-area East Japan region and Fukuoka-centered Kyushu region. The New Year Ekiden is pretty much the only major ekiden that doesn't have a seeded podium that guarantees top-placing teams a place at the follow year's race, meaning even the best of the best have to go through the formalities of a regional qualifier and all the disruption it brings to whatever fall racing schedule Japan's top corporate men might be trying to put together. 12 places were available in the East Japan race and 9 in Kyushu, and in honor of the New Year Ekiden's 70th anniversary one more slot was available in both regions to the next team to finish if they made it to the line within 10 minutes of the last regular qualifier. Logisteed took the top spot in East Japan thanks in a big way to a brilliant run on the race's lo...

With the deadline for qualification for the Oct. 15 MGC Race Olympic marathon trials coming right up, at Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon eleven Japanese men took a last shot at joining the 67 men and 29 women to have already qualified. Depending on how fast they had already run inside the qualifying window each of the eleven had an individual qualifying standard to run, ranging from 2:08:00 to 2:11:30. But with the difficulties of doubling after having already raced in February or March, long international travel, and hot conditions in the last half hour of the race, none succeeded in hitting their qualifying mark. Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Soft) and Ryo Osaki (Komori Corp.), who both ran 2:08 earlier this year and needed to run in the 2:11 range to make it, and 2:10 runner Chihiro Ono (GMO) lasted the longest, Takeuchi still on track at 35 km and Osaki and Ono right on the cusp at 30 km. But like winner Yihunilign Adane (Ethiopia), who dropped from 2:06 pace at 30 km t...

11 Japanese men are running Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon , the last race worldwide where Japanese athletes can qualify for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials before the May 31 deadline. Streaming starts at 6:30 a.m. local time on May 28, with the race kicking off at 7:00. Leaderboard and tracking are here , with the race app here . Four pacing groups are currently planned in Ottawa, the lead group going after last year's 2:06:04 CR, one group at 2:08:00 pace, one at 2:09:30, and one at 2:15:00. The Japanese men, who need to either run 2:08:00 or faster or have two races averaging 2:10:00 or better inside the qualifying window, will be split between the 2nd and 3rd groups. 67 men have already qualified, and if all goes well in Ottawa that number could end up over 70. A guide to the 11 runners and their target times is here . The complete elite men's field is here , and the women's field here . © 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

The deadline for Japanese athletes to qualify for the MGC Race , Japan's Olympic marathon trials happening Oct. 15 in Tokyo, is May 31. Up to this point 67 men and 29 women have hit the tough qualifying standards that make the MGC Race the hardest marathon in the world to get into. That looks set to be the final number of women, but 11 men will be taking their last shot at making the cut at the May 28 Tartan Ottawa International Marathon . To get in they'll have to either walk away from Ottawa with an average of 2:10:00 or better between what they run there and one other race since the qualifying window opened on Nov. 1, 2021, or run 2:08:00 or faster in Ottawa. The 11 runners break down into four groups. At the top end, Ryo Osaki , Ryoma Takeuchi and Junnosuke Matsuo can all afford to run slower than what they already have in order to hit the 2:10:00 average. Osaki and Takeuchi both have a 2:08 race to their names inside the qualifying window and only need to run 2:11, but t...

With a young team all aged from 20 to 25 but including two Olympians and a 2:06:26 marathoner, Honda  won its first-ever New Year Ekiden corporate men's national title Jan. 1 in Gunma.  Off to a slow start on the 7-stage, 100.0 km course, Honda went from 13th to 23rd in the field of 37 over the first two legs before third runner Naoki Koyama turned things around. With a strong tailwind that pushed the top 7 on his stage under the older course record, Koyama was 8th-fastest in 37:40 for 13.6 km to take Honda up to 14th. Tokyo Olympics 10000 m runner Tatsuhiko Ito handled the race's longest stage, 22.4 km, and with a 1:04:15 putting him at 5th-fastest Ito advanced Honda to 5th overall. Olympic 3000 mSC team member Ryoma Aoki  ran the 2nd-fastest time on the 15.8 km Fifth Stage, surviving a turn into the wind to take Honda to 3rd and setting up sixth man Ken Nakayama  to go for the top position. Initially working together with Tsukasa Koyama  (Subaru) to close ...

Regional qualification for the New Year Ekiken corporate men’s national championships started Wednesday with two of the most competitive regions, East Japan and Kyushu. In East Japan, 2020 national champ Fujitsu returned with an anchor stage reversal to win East Japan for the second year in a row. Honda ’s Olympic 10000 m man Tatsuhiko Ito led on the 13.4 km opening stage, but on the 8.4 km Second Stage Yakult ’s Stanley Waithaka put his team out front where they stayed until another Honda Olympian, steepler Ryoma Aoki regained the top spot on the 8.4 km Fourth Stage.  Over the next two stages Honda maintained the lead, but behind them Fujitsu drew closer and closer. Fujitsu anchor Ken Yokote started just one second behind Honda’s Yuta Shitara and had no trouble running him down and opening an 8-second margin of victory by the end of the stage. The top 12 teams in East Japan qualified, with the Comodi Iida supermarket team not moving into the 12th spot until late in the fina...

Strong over the second half, it came down to an untried rookie just promoted up from the B-team to seal up the old-school Asahi Kasei team's fourth-straight New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships title. Asahi Kasei was always there, 2nd on the opening stage thanks to a good run from leading man Keijiro Mogi , Kenyan Abraham Kapsis Kipyatich moving them up to 1st on the Second Stage in his final run with the team, and Sixth Stage specialist Hiroshi Ichida holding the lead on the Third Stage. It wasn't until the Fourth Stage, at 22.4 km the longest of the day, that Asahi Kasei lost any ground, with 2019's fastest Japanese half marathoner Minato Oishi (Toyota) running down third man Hiroshi's twin brother Takashi Ichida and opening a gap of 12 seconds. On paper that should have been enough for Toyota, the favorite to end Asahi Kasei's domination, to pull it off, with Olympic marathon trials runner-up Yuma Hattori and the #2 and #3 half ma...