japan running news

by Brett Larner Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) lived up to pre-race talk as they won the women's and men's divisions at the 35th running of the Gold Coast Airport Marathon .  In a moderate headwind over the opening 15.5 km that grew in strength as the morning progressed, Akaba ran a characteristically controlled and steady race, ignoring the fast early pace set by Kenyans Alice Ngerechi and Helen Mugo  and going out at a steady 2:27 course record pace before picking it up over the second half of the race aided by the growing tailwind.  By 25 km she had overtaken Mugo, Ngerechi's turn coming just minutes later. Rounding the second turnaround at 36.5 km Akaba suffered in the now-stronger headwind and her pace dropped, but she was never in danger of missing the antique 2:29:29 course record set 20 years ago by Eriko Asai .  Akaba took more than two minutes off that record, setting a new mark of 2:27:17.   "I didn'...

by Brett Larner On Nov. 12 the organizers of the 2010 International Chiba Ekiden announced the entry lists for this year's edition, scheduled as always for Nov. 23. The last of the great international ekidens, Chiba has in recent years scaled down to an interesting format of mixed-gender teams, with top men and women from 12 teams worldwide alternating stages on a six-leg, 42.195 course. Notable names on the list this year include: Bobby Curtis (U.S.A.) - 2008 NCAA 5000 m champion Atsushi Fujita (Chiba Pref.) - former marathon nat'l record holder Wilson Kiprop (Kenya) - 2010 African 10000 m champion Yuriko Kobayashi (Japan) - 1500 m nat'l record holder Maria Konovalova (Russia) - 3rd, 2010 Chicago Marathon Hiroki Mitsuoka (Japan Univ.) - 2010 nat'l univ 5000 m champion Ed Moran (U.S.A.) - 2010 U.S.A. road 10 km champion Craig Mottram (Australia) - 2005 WC 5000 m bronze medalist Kasumi Nishihara (Japan Univ.) - 2010 nat'l univ 5000 m champion Yuki Sato (Ja...

http://www.runnerstribe.com/blog/post/show/id/146-2009-Chiba-International-Ekiden-By-Len-Johnson http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/relay-puts-buster-back-in-business/story-e6frf9if-1225803460296

by Brett Larner Japan's excessively stacked national team did the expected, taking the 2009 International Chiba Ekiden over teams from Kenya, the U.S.A, Russia and elsewhere. The team, made up of 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B), women's 1500 m national record holder Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshoki), 5000 m and 10000 m national university record holder Kensuke Takezawa (Team S&B), women's 10000 m national champion Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren), half-marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and women's 5000 m national champion Yurika Nakamura (Team Tenmaya), all of whom ran in the Berlin World Championships, the Beijing Olympics, or both, took the lead on the 5 km Second Stage and never looked back. Kobayashi, Takezawa, Akaba and Sato all took stage best titles, Akaba tying the 5 km Fourth Stage record of 15:34, but as a whole Japan fell 31 seconds short of breaking the mixed team-format course record...