japan running news

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20131008-OHT1T00074.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner On the third day of competition at the 2013 East Asian Games in Tianjin, China, 5000 m national champion Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu) won gold in the men's 5000 m in 14:25.00. Developing off a slow early pace, Hoshi shook free of his Korean competition in the very late stages of the race. In the women's 10000 m, Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Kagaku) ran a strong 32:50.42 to claim gold alongside Hoshi and women's 5000 m champion Riko Matsuzaki  (Team Sekisui Kagaku), completing a Japanese sweep of the distance events.

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2013/10/07/kiji/K20131007006765350.html translated by Brett Larner As the 6th East Asian Games got underway Oct. 7 in Tianjin, China, 20-year-old Riko Matsuzaki (Team Sekisui Kagaku) ran 16:09.72 to win Japan's first gold medal in the Games' first final, the women's 5000 m. Matsuzaki surged away from the rest of the field of five near 3000 m, opening a gap of 26 seconds on the 2nd-place runner from North Korea. "This was a good experience-builder," she said post-race. "My goal was to win and I achieved that. I was expecting the pace to get slow, so when I did I was ready for it and didn't get nervous or impatient." In other events, London Olympian Seito Yamamoto (Chukyo Univ.) cleared 5.50 m to win the men's pole vault with teammate Hiroki Ogita (Mizuno) 3rd in 5.30 m.

by Brett Larner Alongside its post-National Championships announcement of the 41-member Japanese team for August's Moscow World Championships, the Japanese Federation announced the teams it has selected for July's Asian Athletics Championships in Pune, India and October's East Asian Games in Tianjin, China. 26 men and 26 women will make up the Asian Athletics Championships team, with sprinters Chisato Fukushima (Hokkaido Hi-Tec AC),  Yuzo Kanemaru  (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), Yuichi Kobayashi  (Team NTN) and Kei Takase  (Team Fujitsu), hurdlers Yasuhiro Fueki  (Team Aima), Satomi Kubokura  (Niigata Albirex RC) and Hitomi Shimura  (Saga T&F Assoc.) and high jumper Miyuki Fukumoto  (Konan Gakuen AC) doubling there and in Moscow. The East Asian Games team includes 30 men and 28 women, led by 2013 national champions Yuki Ebhiara  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC),  Sota Hoshi  (Team Fujitsu),  Shota Iizuka  (Chuo Univ.), Sho Kawam...

translated and edited by Brett Larner Update: The IAAF has a series of articles summarizing each day of the East Asian Games including the medalists in each event. Click for Day One (800 m, 20 km RW), Day Two (M 5000 m, W 10000 m, W 3000 mSC), Day Three (1500 m, M 10000 m) and Day Four (Half marathon, M 3000 mSC, W 5000 m). Tomoya Onishi on the way to the win in Hong Kong. Click picture for sanspo.com's East Asian Games photo gallery. The East Asian Games Half Marathon took place Dec. 13 in Hong Kong. 22 year-old Tomoya Onishi (Team Asahi Kasei) won the gold medal in the sprint-finish men's race in a time of 1:06:05. World Championships women's marathon 7th place finisher Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC) was 2nd in the women's half marathon in 1:12:03 with teammate Yoko Miyauchi (Team Kyocera) close behind in 3rd. Kano lacked her usual frontrunning race pattern, losing out to a North Korean athlete on the last lap of the track. "That wasn't how I wanted to race,...