japan running news

Half marathon national record holder and Olympic marathon entrant Yuta Shitara (Honda) leads the men's field for the July 7 Gold Coast Marathon in Australia, the only man in the field under 2:08:30 in the last three years with a then-national record 2:06:11 at last year's Tokyo Marathon. Shitara is also scheduled to run Japan's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials on Sept. 15, making his goals on the Gold Coast a question mark, but a minimum goal is sure to be the Olympic standard of 2:1:30 or a top five finish.  His competition includes Kenya's Douglas Chebii , 2:08:43 in Seville last year, and Kiwi Zane Robertson . Last year's 3rd-placer Agnes Barsosio of Kenya is the strongest on paper with a 2:20:59 best from two years ago in Paris, but the freshest times comes from fellow Kenyans Rodah Jepkorir and Truphena Chepchirchir , both sub-2:28 earlier this year. Despite a good history of Japanese winners in the Gold Coast women's race no top-tier women are...

This weekend Australia's Gold Coast Marathon celebrates 40 years with a race that should see new course records in both the women's and men's races. On the women's side, favorite Agnes Barsosio of Kenya was quietly confident at the pre-race press conference, saying that she thought a time under last year's 2:25::34 course record was a probability and that a 2:23 wouldn't be surprising if the weather conditions were good enough. The forecast looks to be in her favor, so the main question will be how much support she can get from her strongest competition, fellow Kenyan Ruth Chebitok , local Jessica Trengove and the 2:27 Japanese duo of Ayaka Fujimoto and Miharu Shimokado . Chebitok's 2:25:49 best from earlier this year in Barcelona puts her in range if she can repeat the same quality of performance. Trengove has the motivation of a $40,000 bonus from organizers for a time under 2:28. Coached by former men's half marathon national record holder At...

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...