japan running news

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20120930-OHT1T00285.htm http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/0005414888.shtml translated and edited by Brett Larner The university women's ekiden season kicked off Sept. 29 with the Kansai Region (Kobe/Kyoto/Osaka area)  qualifier for the Oct. 28 National University Women's Ekiden Championships in Sendai.  22 schools ran in the six-stage, 30 km Kansai qualifier in Kobe's Shiawase no Mura, with defending champion Bukkyo University  taking its second-straight and fourth-overall win in 1:37:54.  Last year's national champion Ritsumeikan University  finished 4th in Kansai.  Along with Bukkyo and Ritsumeikan, five other schools from the Kansai Region made the cut for Nationals. Having run on the Shiawase no Mura course since her days at Tomogaoka H.S., Bukkyo's Shiho Takechi  had the fastest time on the anchor stage for the second year in a row.  Takechi ran 47 seconds faster than the next-fastest ...

http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/sports/article/20120713000152 translated and edited by Brett Larner Seven events saw finals on the first day of the Kyoto Track and Field Championships at Nishi Kyogoku Sports Park Field.  Among them, Kyoto native and Ayabe H.S. graduate Haruka Kyuma (1st yr., Tsukuba Univ.) ran 15:54.33 to win the women's 5000 m for the first time. Kazuki Noda (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) won the men's 5000 m in 14:23.60, while 38-year-old Yoshihisa Fukumoto (Kyoto T&F Assoc.) took his eleventh high jump title, five years since his last win. Translator's note: Kyuma's identical twin sister Moe Kyuma  ran for the Japanese team at this year's World Junior Championships. Kyoto Track & Field Championships Women's 5000 m Nishi Kyogoku Sports Park Field, Kyoto, 7/13/12 1. Haruka Kyuma (Tsukuba Univ.) - 15:54.33 2. Chika Ogawa (Bukkyo Univ.) - 16:12.69 3. Nanami Aoki (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) - 16:14.08 4. Chinami Mori (Bukkyo Univ.) - 16:22....

89th Kansai Regional University T&F Championships Nagai Stadium, Osaka, May 10-13, 2012 click here for complete results Women's 10000 m 1. Chinami Mori (Bukkyo Univ.) - 33:16.28 2. Chika Ogawa (Bukkyo Univ.) - 33:18.12 3. Ayako Mitsui (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 33:57.40 4. Eriko Kushima (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) - 34:03.48 5. Kanade Iida (Osaka Geidai Univ.) - 34:05.40 6. Aya Goto (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 34:19.36 7. Aiko Sakata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 34:43.77 8. Rina Asano (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 34:54.86 9. Shiori Hayashida (Osaka Geidai Univ.) - 35:06.84 10. Nanae Fukaumi (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) - 35:07.19 (c) 2012 Brett Larner all rights reserved

by Brett Larner This weekend is the first of two successive weekends featuring regional track championships and an elite half marathon.  The Kansai Regional University T&F Championships , the most competitive university women's region in the country, starts things off May 10 and runs through the 13th, the first major meet following the graduation of Bukkyo University's collegiate 10000 m record holder  Hikari Yoshimoto  (Team Yamada Denki).  Entry list standouts include Chinami Mori  (Bukkyo Univ.), Sayuri Oka  (Osaka Taiku Univ.) and Eriko Kushima  (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.). The Kanto Region University T&F Championships , the center of university men's running and typically a higher-level meet than the National University Championships, is split between this weekend and next.  Women's competition is thinner than in Kansai, but the meet will see talented twins Haruka  and Moe Kyuma  making their Regionals debut for Tsukuba Univ...

by Brett Larner note: International travel resulted in a delay to posting these results.  Apologies. Three big road races produced noteworthy results across Japan over the past weekend.  At last year's Takashimadaira Road Race 20 km, the completely unknown Takehiro Deki  (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) exploded onto the Kanto region university men's distance scene by tying the course record of 58:51 while winning by a margin of 1:30.  This year as a more established name Deki successfully repeated, winning Takashimadaira again in warm conditions in 59:44 by a margin of 1:13.  Veteran Yoshimi Hoshino  (eAthletes AC) took her fifth win in the women's division, running 1:15:12, while five-time women's 10 km division winner Maki Inami  (Kita AC) made it six as she won in 34:50.  Komazawa University graduate  Akinori Iida  (Team Honda) won the men's 10 km in 29:59. Further north in Sendai, Ritsumeikan University  scored a major upset as it b...

by Brett Larner It was a relatively quiet long weekend across Japan, with a smattering of prefectural track championships across the country in the hot sun ahead of an approaching typhoon.  At the Kyoto Prefecture Championships, Bukkyo University-related runners cleaned up, taking the top five spots in the women's 5000 m led by recent graduate Kasumi Nishihara 's meet record 15:39.28.  An impressive mark considering that it was run in temperatures in the mid-30's with high humidity.    Fresh from being named to the Japanese 10000 m squad for next month's World Championships, Bukkyo's top current runner Hikari Yoshimoto  won the women's 3000 m in 9:14.75, her first win after a few relatively flat months. Bukkyo's major rival Ritsumeikan University mostly gave the Kyoto meet a miss, opting instead for the West Japan University Championships in Gifu.  There team leader Risa Takenaka  also set a meet record in the 5000 m, running 15:59.07 in even hotte...

by Brett Larner 2010 National University Women's Ekiden champions Bukkyo University rounded out their season by knocking nearly a minute and a half off course record at the five-stage, half marathon-distance 25th anniversary Chugoku Women's Ekiden , Feb. 13 in Hiroshima. 10000 m national collegiate record holder Hikari Yoshimoto led Bukkyo off with a stage record of 18:58 for the 5.83 km First Stage, and Bukkyo runners took stage best on three of the four remaining legs including an anchor stage record by Shiho Takechi . Only the professional Team Deodeo 's Fourth Stage runner Ruriko Kubo broke Bukkyo's domination, running a stage record 7:33 for the 2.4 km Fourth Stage, but even there Bukkyo's Sairi Maeda took second-best. Deodeo took 2nd in 1:09:29, only four seconds off the course record, but Bukkyo was so strong that they were nearly a minute and a half ahead in 1:08:08. Bukkyo's perennial rivals Ritsumeikan University were a distant 3rd in 1:10:11. 201...

by Brett Larner photos by Daniel Seite #2 Kasumi Nishihara, #1 Hikari Yoshimoto and #3 Mai Ishibashi, all of Bukkyo University, with a large lead on the field in women's 5000 m Heat 24. Bukkyo University captain and 2010 National University 5000 m champion Kasumi Nishihara , fresh from a key stage win at last month's International Chiba Ekiden, did it again Dec. 5 at the 213th Nittai University Time Trials meet. Nishihara clocked her second 5000 m PB of the year, 15:25.50, to continue her climb through the ranks of Japanese women's distance running. Her teammate Mai Ishibashi was not far behind, 2nd in 15:35.38, while the team's ace, 10000 m national university record holder Hikari Yoshimoto , finished in 16:04.55 after collapsing while running between Nishihara and Ishibashi in the earlier stages of the race. Ibrahim Jeilan, #30, leads the pack in the men's 5000 m Heat 35. In the men's A-heat, past World XC jr. champion Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) ou...

by Brett Larner Led by stage record performances by its pair of aces, 2010 national university 5000 m Kasumi Nishihara and national 10000 m collegiate record holder Hikari Yoshimoto , Bukkyo University won the 2010 National University Women's Ekiden on Oct. 24, covering the six-stage, 38.6 km distance in a new course record time of 2:02:44. Perpetual rivals Ritsumeikan University were second in a strong 2:04:20 after trailing Bukkyo from the start. Bukkyo's Chinami Mori started things off with a 14-second lead over Ritsumeikan on the 5.8 km First Stage, and from there Bukkyo's next three runners progressively extended the lead to 1:18 thanks in large part to Nishihara's 28:56 stage record on the 9.1 km Third Stage. Ritsumeikan's Akane Yabushita managed to make a dent with a 12:38 stage record on the 4.0 km Fifth Stage, but anchor Yoshimoto delivered the win in style as she outran Ritsumeikan anchor Machiko Iwakawa by 50 seconds, running a new stage record of 25:...

by Brett Larner On the first genuinely hot day of the year, 10000 m university national record holder Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo Univ.) took the win in the women's 5000 m at the 2010 Kansai Regional University Track and Field Championships on May 21. Yoshimoto led start to finish with a quick 3:03 first kilometer before settling into a more moderate pace. She finished in only 15:44.57, an indication perhaps of the high temperatures, but still had a lead of over 23 seconds on runner-up Risa Takenaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.). Defending champion Kasumi Nishihara (Bukkyo Univ.), who set the meet record of 15:32.89 at last year's Kansai Regionals, was clearly not on form as she was 6th in only 16:44.46. Both Yoshimoto and Nishihara are scheduled to race the 5000 m and 10000 m at next month's National Track and Field Championships. In the men's 10000 m, Hiroki Mitsuoka (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.), the only man in the field with a PB under 29:30, won in a leisurely 30:07.82. 2010 Kansa...

by Brett Larner With the memory of their 3-second loss at last year's National University Women's Invitational Ekiden to spur them on, Bukkyo University followed up on their win over rivals Ritsumeikan University at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden by handing Ritsumeikan their first-ever loss at the national championship ekiden. With four of its runners taking stage best titles, two setting new stage records and one equalling the existing stage record, Bukkyo covered the six-stage, 30.67 km course in Tsukuba, Ibaraki prefecture in 1:37:35, breaking Ritsumeikan's course record from last year by 58 seconds. Ritsumeikan was only two seconds slower than its record-setting performance last year but a full minute behind Bukkyo. Bukkyo's Yuika Mori got the race started on the right note, leading a four-way breakaway on the 5.0 km First Stage and outkicking Kenyan Ann Kingori (Nihon Univ.) and 2008 National University 10000 m champion Michi Numata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) to wi...

by Brett Larner Kenyan star Philes Ongori (Team Hokuren) got the 25th anniversary Fukui Super Ladies' Ekiden started in style with a stage record performance on the 6 km 1st leg. After a conservative first kilometer in which she matched paces with fellow Kenyan Danielle Philomena Cheyech (Team Uniqlo) and top university woman Kazue Kojima (Ritsumeikan Univ.), Ongori sped away to clock 18:28, breaking the 12 year-old record by 7 seconds. Cheyech attempted to follow and initially opened a comfortable gap, but the gritty Kojima returned for a sprint finish in which Cheyech prevailed by only a stride, timed at 19:11 to Kojima's 19:12. Hokuren's lead looked formidable as the team ran on course record pace through the end of the 4th stage, but despite a strong showing as anchor at last week's East Japan Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden 5th leg runner Saori Nejo ran into trouble and lost ground to the chasers. Surprisingly, the team that was running her down was not 10-time cha...

by Brett Larner It was a familiar story: clocking an unprecedented fourth-straight new stage record at the major national university women's championship Morinomiyako Ekiden , ace senior Kazue Kojima led Ritsumeikan University, except for 2005 when it was 2nd the national champion every year since 2003, to break its own course record by nearly two minutes. But there was something strange. TV cameras showed Ritsumeikan's women crying and devastated at the finish. What had gone wrong? The answer: cross-town rival Bukkyo University had beaten them by another margin of nearly two minutes to take its first-ever national title. Bukkyo's performance was just a few degrees off perfection. First Stage runner Mai Ishibashi took a slow first half before taking off in the second half to win the leg by 2 seconds over Ritsumeikan's Hanae Tanaka. From there on every Bukkyo runner just went out hell-bent at 100% from the start, recklessly running stage-record pace and daring Ritsumeika...