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...

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by Brett Larner all statistics c/o the ARRS database corrections and additions welcome The upcoming sub-2 marathon attempt is generating a lot of talk about the very sharp end of men's marathoning, the delivery of the single greatest marathon performance of all time. But there are other ways of thinking about who ranks at the top of the list of all-time greats than just a single run by a single athlete. Who performed the most consistently at a high level, had the greatest depth at quality as a marathoner over their career? Sub-x marathon records, the greatest number of times a single runner has gone under 2:03, under 2:04, under 2:05, are one way to look at that. The table below shows the seven men from four countries who hold the records for every one minute increment from sub-2:03 to sub-2:20. Click to enlarge. Athletes with names in green are still active, while those in red no longer compete. Within the table green indicates a sub-x record, yellow a record which a given a...

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...

by Brett Larner The Dec. 6 Fukuoka International Marathon , not to be confused with the mass-participation Fukuoka Marathon four weeks earlier despite its URL, has wheeled out the elite field for this year's race, the first Japanese trials race for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic team.  World record holder Dennis Kimetto (Kenya) will be in town for a late-season payday after dropping out of this summer's Beijing World Championships, facing sub-2:06 men Bernard Koech (Kenya) and Getu Feleke (Ethiopia) and Fukuoka's last three winners Patrick Makau (Kenya), Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel). Running five weeks after his third shot at the TCS New York City Marathon, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) leads the Japanese field along with fellow 2:08 runner Koji Kobayashi (Team Subaru) and 2:09 former National Team member Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei).  Sub-2:06:30 is the time the JAAF is dictating for auto selecti...

by Brett Larner For the first time since 1997 no Japanese men made the top 10 in a World Championships marathon.  With the withdrawal of Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu), the favorite to clear the JAAF's top 8 requirement for a place on the Rio de Janeiro Olympic team, and no alternate in place to take his spot, Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) and Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), both 34 and with sub-2:09 bests, had a chance of making it on paper, but neither proved up to the task.  Looking heavy in stride, Maeda was out of the lead pack early in the race.  Fujiwara looked more comfortable and lasted longer but likewise could not cope when the race really began.  Fujiwara ultimately finished 21st in 2:21:06, just ahead of the only Kenyan athlete to finish the race, with Maeda 40th out of 42 finishers in 2:32:49, seconds behind Mongolia's Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Team NTN).  Chol Pak (North Korea), who had an unfortunate fall late in the race at last year's Asian G...