japan running news

The final edition of the East Japan Women's Ekiden was held Nov. 10 in Fukushima, with teams of 9 athletes ranging from junior high school students to corporate leaguers representing the 18 prefectures in eastern and northern Japan competing over 42.195 km. For the first time in 18 years Saitama took the win, running 2:19:07 to score its fourth title in the event's 39-year history despite not taking a single individual stage title. Gunma was 2nd, with Tokyo placing 3rd. Saitama's lead runner Wakana Fukuyama , a 2nd-year at Saitama Sakae H.S. , started them off in 8th after the 6.0 km 1st leg. Over the next three legs Saitama moved up as high as 3rd, fluctuating a few spots over the stages of that but advancing to 2nd thanks to a great run from Tamai J.H.S. 3rd- year Momoka Ono on the second-to-last stage. That put Saitama's anchor Minami Yamanouchi from the Shimamura corporate team 30 seconds back from the leader, and with 10.0 km to work with and a strong run s...

The final edition of the East Japan Women's Ekiden takes place Nov. 10. 18 teams representing the eastern prefectures will bring high-level women's competition to the streets of Fukushima. Getting attention on the Akita team is Ayaka Suzuki , the younger sister of Paris Olympics marathon 6th-placer Yuka Suzuki . Ayaka is a 3rd-year at Akita's Omagari H.S. She began running seriously after entering high school, citing her sister's influence. "When I saw her winning her stages and helping her team in university ekidens, I thought that I might be able to do the same and decided to give it a try," she said. Before her excellent run at the Paris Olympics Yuka ran the East Japan Women's Ekiden 3 times, inspiring others as she went from a young athlete to one of the best in the world. "I was surprised that she was competitive at that level," said Ayaka. "When I saw how strong she was running it really moved me." In junior high school Ayaka w...

It’s another busy weekend on the roads across Japan. Saturday is the 2nd edition of the Fst in Fukuoka road mile and 5 km, mostly unexplored distances in Japanese running. The road miles aren’t strong, with Australian Sarah Billings the only woman under 4:25 for 1500 m at 4:06.77 and Stewart McSweyn the only man under 3:35 for 1500 m at 3:29.51. McSweyn does have a little competition at least from Yusuke Takahashi , 3:38.69, and Masato Saiki , 3:39.58. The women’s 5 km is probably the race of the day, with six Kenyan women who would probably beat the top Japanese woman by 1 to 2 minutes in an all-out race. Eva Cherono , 14:30.77, Teresiah Muthoni , 14:44.89, and Rebecca Mwangi , 14:55.32, lead the way. 10-mile world best holder Benard Koech is the fastest man in the 5 km at 13:00.38, with the next tier including former Japanese half marathon and marathon NR holder Yuta Shitara at the 13:20-30 level. Sunday is a big ekiden day, with New Year Ekiden corporate men’s national champion...

There was too much going on this weekend to cover everything, but out of the major road race results the final regional qualifiers for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships led the way. In the Kansai region , new transfer Hazuma Hattori got things rolling for the NTT Nishi Nihon team with the top spot on the 12.6 km opening leg, and the rest of the team never looked back. NTT won in 3:56:46 for the full 80.45 km distance, 4th man Ayumu Kobayashi getting special recognition for the only new stage record of the day, 26:21 for the 9.5 km 4th leg. SGH , Otsuka Seiyaku , Sumitomo Denko and Osaka Gas picked up the remaining qualifying spots, with the Osaka Police Department missing out by 1:08 in 6th. The Chubu and Hokuriku regions ran their qualifying races together, with the top 7 Chubu teams and winning Hokuriku team scoring New Year places. Like NTT, Toyota led start to finish to lead the qualifiers, first runner Tatsuya Maruyama getting things m...

It wouldn't be ekiden season without another busy weekend on the roads and track. On the track, Yokohama's Nittai University celebrates the 300th edition of its famous time trials series by banning spectators again as corona numbers climb back upward across Japan. Saturday features 5 heats of men's 10000 m and 4 heats of women's 3000 m and 5000 m, with marathoners Reia Iwade (Denso) and Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Yamaguchi) matching up against Kenyans Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Sumitomo Denko), Jecinta Nyokabi (Hakuoh Joshi H.S.), Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) and Elizabeth Njeri (Josai Kokusai Univ.). Sunday features 27 heats of men's 5000 m, with the A-heat including sub-27 10000 m man Richard Kimunyan (Hitachi Butsuryu), steeplechase great Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu), and 27:28.92 runner Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) on the next phase of his trip back from a long injury. Sunday's Setagaya 246 Half Marathon in suburban Tokyo is the main non-ekiden roa...

Two weeks after her public coming out as Japan's next big hope, 18-year-old Seira Fuwa  anchored the Gunma  team to a come-from-behind win at the East Japan Women's Ekiden . A smaller version of January's National Women's Ekiden with teams representing the 18 prefectures in northeastern Japan, each team made up of the best junior high school, high school, collegiate, club team and corporate league runners from that prefecture, East Japan returned this year after the first cancelation in its 36-year history last year. Two weeks ago Fuwa, a first-year at Tokyo's Takushoku University , set an incredible 28:00 course record for her 9.2 km stage at the National University Women's Ekiden . With her name on the list for the 10.0 km anchor stage at East Japan the entire race was about other teams trying to get as far ahead of Gunma as possible before the last of the marathon-length race's nine stages. Gunma didn't make it easy for them. Its leading runner Harum...

We regret to inform you that the 36th East Japan Women's Ekiden scheduled to be held Nov. 8 has been canceled in an effort to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. We attempted to put together a risk management protocol under which the event could be safely staged, but with teams made up of runners including junior high school and high school students from 18 regions traveling across prefectural borders we determined that it would be difficult to guarantee a completely safe event environment. In the 35 years since this race began in 1985 it has never been canceled, not even after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. But with the health of all participants and personnel our absolute highest priority we felt that canceling this year's edition was the correct step to take. We regret that this was necessary, but we are already at work together with the Tohoku Athletics Association to begin preparations for the 2021 race. We ask for you understanding and support of ...

After a slow start that saw it playing catchup for the first half of the 35th anniversary East Japan Women's Ekiden  in Fukushima today, the Chiba prefecture team came on strong late in the race with three straight stage wins to put anchor Rika Kaseda safely 2:45 out front with 10 km to go. A smaller version of January's National Women's Ekiden, East Japan features 18 teams made up from the best junior high school, high school, university, club, corporate and pro runners from each prefecture in the region. With their home battered by typhoons this fall the Chiba team hoped to pull of a win to give some inspiration to the people back home. Mai Shinozuka , Chika Kosakai and Rika Minami played a big role on the 6th through 8th stages, giving Kaseda, the silver medalist in the half marathon at this year's World University Games, the margin she needed to have a chance against Tokyo's Hitomi Niiya . Last year, in her first road race back from a five-year retirem...

5th in the women's 10000 m at the 2013 Moscow World Championships, Hitomi Niiya (30, Nike Tokyo TC) returned to Japan on Dec. 15 from Melbourne, Australia. In her first track 10000 m since Moscow over five years ago Niiya won the Zatopek:10 in 31:32.50 to clear the 2019 Doha World Championships entry standard of 31:50.00. "I just barely cleared my minimum goal," she said of her performance. In the Zatopek:10 race Niiya showed that her aggressive style lives on. Taking off from the lead group after only 2000 m she ran the entire rest of the way to the win alone. "The last 3000 m were hard," she said. "I understood that I'm not doing enough distance in training." Asked to compare her performance to her golden years in Moscow, where she ran an all-time Japanese #3 mark of 30:56.70 she rated Zatopek "50-60%." In just her fifth race since starting to make a comeback in the spring from five years of retirement Niiya cleared the World Ch...

Ladies and gentlemen, Hitomi Niiya is back. You might remember Hitomi Niiya from the 2013 Moscow World Championships 10000 m, where she led the entire way only to get destroyed over the last lap and finish 5th in 30:56.70. That made her the third-fastest Japanese woman ever over that distance, but not long after that race she quit the sport entirely, getting an office job as far away from athletics as she could and not running for almost five years. But the pull of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is strong, and, now 30, early this year she made the decision to try to make a comeback. Under the eye of former men's 800 m national record holder Masato Yokota she ran a 3000 m and two 5000 m time trials on the track between April and October before choosing the East Japan Women's Ekiden for her return to the roads and the longer distances. The East Japan Women's Ekiden celebrated its 34th running Sunday, 9 stages totaling 42.195 km through the Fukushima countryside with teams...

Ekiden season is in full swing, and across the country it was another busy weekend. Although there were four major ekidens nationwide, the best action came as runners from high school to the pros tuned up for the string of national championship ekiden races stretching from the end of this month to mid-January. At Kanagawa's Nittai University Time Trials meet, two-time steeplechase junior world champion Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu) pipped 5000 m junior world championships bronze medalist William Malel (Honda) at the line in the 10000 m A-heat, winning in 27:22.73 to Malel's 27:22.79. Four other Kenyans including Ndiku's junior teammate Richard Kimunyan broke 28 minutes as their coaches eye who to run at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden. Evans Yego of the tiny Sunbelx supermarket team won the more conservative 5000 m A-heat in 13:48.04, a race most notable for high schoolers Luka Musembi (Sendai Ikuei H.S.), Masato Suzuki (Suijo H.S.) and Reito Hanzawa (Gakuho Is...

Sunday's Saitama International Marathon leads a busy weekend of women's racing across the country. 4th in August's London World Championships marathon, last year's winner Flomena Cheyech Daniel (Kenya) returns to lead the tiny elite field of six internationals and two domestic women. Cheyech's strongest competition is Japan's Reia Iwade (Dome), the former under-20 marathon record holder who abruptly quit the Noritz corporate team earlier this year to go the solo route. Whether her new situation finds her ready to go remains to be seen. Close behind and maybe a more likely bet to stay with Daniel is Shitaye Habtegebrel (Ethiopia). Iwade, Kaori Yoshida (Team RxL) and any other Japanese women in the general elite field will have the chance to qualify for Japan's 2020 Olympic Trials race if they go under 2:29:00. Starting 30 minutes after the elite women, Saitama also features a coed mass participation field. Local poster boy Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pr...

by Brett Larner Two different women's ekidens led the weekend's action, both in their 31st runnings but each with a highly different format. On the west coast in Fukui, corporate, university and club teams went head to head at the six-stage, 30.0 km Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden .  Just 7th last year, the Yamada Denki corporate women led start to finish bookended by stage wins from star members Shiho Takechi and Kasumi Nishihara to take the win in 1:36:48. 2nd place saw heavy turnover, with the Kyudenko team briefly moving up mid-race thanks to Kenyan Mariam Waithera before returning to overtake Canon AC Kyushu for 2nd in 1:38:03 thanks to a strong run from anchor Yuka Miyazaki .  Canon held on to 3rd by 5 seconds in 1:38:31despite anchor Chisaki Takegami struggling late in the 7.45 km stage.  Last year's winner Osaka Gakuin University was only 9th but still claimed the top university team position. On the east coast in Fukushima the Tokyo team very nearly dupl...

by Brett Larner Two of Japan's elite women-only ekidens founded after the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics celebrated their 30th anniversaries Sunday.  At the Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden , last year's top collegiate team Osaka Gakuin University staged a classic come-from-behind race to take its first Fukui title, covering the six-stage, 30.0 km course in 1:38:23.  Down by more than a minute behind leader Panasonic and in 15th place after the 6.55 km First Stage, each of Osaka Gakuin's next five runners moved up in both stage ranking and overall standing until Sakie Arai took the lead by four seconds over 2014 National University Women's Ekiden champion Ritsumeikan University and by six over Panasonic with a 16:10 stage best on the Fifth Stage.  Anchor Saori Noda then put both Ritsumeikan and Panasonic away with a 24:25 stage best for the 7.45 km Sixth Stage to win by nearly a minute.  Panasonic's anchor, 2014 Gold Coast Airport Marathon winner Asami Kato , overtook Ri...

by Brett Larner Two important women-only ekidens celebrate their 30th anniversaries this weekend.  In eastern Japan, Fukushima's East Japan Women's Ekiden features a scaled-down version of January's National Women's Ekiden, with teams made up of pro, collegiate, high school and junior high school athletes representing each of the 18 prefectures in the region.  Defending champion Chiba fields a very different lineup from last year's winning team led by one of Japan's current best track runners Riko Matsuzaki (Team Sekisui Kagaku).  Gunma , featuring last weekend's East Japan Corporate Women's Ekiden anchor stage course record setter Yuika Mori and Yamada Denki corporate teammate Shiho Takechi , Saitama and Shizuoka look to be Chiba's main competition.  The East Japan Women's Ekiden will be broadcast live starting at noon on Nov. 9. Further west in Fukui, the Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden delivers an interesting format pitting top corporate ...

by Brett Larner Two high-level mid-season women's ekidens held their 29th runnings on Nov. 10.  A dry run for January's National Women's Ekiden and featuring the same format of teams made up of junior high school, high school, university and pro runners from each prefecture, the nine-stage, 42.195 km East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima saw 2010 winner Chiba Prefecture  advance in the second half of the race after a strong Fifth Stage run from ace Yurie Doi  and a brilliant performance from the Seventh Stage's Asahi Tate  to return to the top.  Anchor Mai Shinozuka  had a scare from 2013 London Marathon 3rd-placer Yukiko Akaba  (Tochigi Pref.), but with a starting margin of almost 45 seconds at her disposal fro the 10 km Ninth Stage she was safe enough to run a steady, conservative leg to bring Chiba home in 2:19:23, 27 seconds ahead of Akaba.  Up front through much of the race, Nagano Prefecture was the only other team to break 2:20:00 in ra...

by Brett Larner Two major women's ekidens took place Nov. 11 on opposite coasts of Japan.  For the second year in a row, the Kanagawa Prefecture  team set a course record to outrun Nagano Prefecture  for the win at the 28th running of Fukushima's East Japan Women's Ekiden, an event featuring teams made up of runners from junior high to pro from eighteen regions in eastern Japan.  Kanagawa's Rui Aoyama  led off with a win by a hair over last year's stage winner Yuko Shimizu  of Nagano after a brutal head-to-head battle of surges on the 6.0 km First Stage.  Nagano's second runner Honoka Yuzawa  took over the lead, a position Nagano occupied for three stages before losing it for good to Kanagawa on the Fifth Stage.  Kanagawa covered the nine-stage, 42.195 course in 2:16:16 to break its own course record set last year, with Nagano ultimately finishing nearly two minutes back in 2:18:12. The Tokyo  team, only 6th last year, had a str...

by Brett Larner Nagano anchor Aki Odagiri tries to hold off Kanagawa's Mika Yoshikawa with 450 m to go. Click photo for video highlights courtesy of Fukushima TV. On Japan's busiest weekend of ekiden action , some of the best of it came at the first major event held in Fukushima since March's disasters, the East Japan Women's Ekiden, a regional version of January's National Women's Ekiden with 18 prefectural teams made up of runners ranging from junior high to pro. 2009 winner Nagano Pref.'s Yuko Shimizu  took the race out hard, winning the 6.0 km First Stage by 18 seconds over Miyagi Pref.'s Hiroko Shoi  as pre-race favorites Kanagawa Pref. and Chiba Pref. sat back in 7th and 14th.  Kanagawa's second runner Hitomi Nakamura  ran a stage best to bring her team with 13 seconds of the lead, but over the next two stages the gap grew again to 22 seconds.  The remaining five stages were tense and dramatic as each of Kanagawa's runners in turn cl...

by Brett Larner It was a busy weekend across Japan, with six major ekidens taking place simultaneously. For professional men there were four regional qualifiers for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden, while for women there was the Fukui Super Ladies' Ekiden featuring corporate, university, regional and amateur teams, and the regional East Japan Women's Ekiden. Among the highlights: Ritsumeikan University had a surprise win over rivals Bukkyo University and every corporate team in the Fukui Super Ladies' Ekiden. Four of the six Ritsumeikan runners took stage bests, leading the team to a course-record 1:34:56 for 30 km. Bukkyo was 2nd without a single stage best, while Team Denso took 3rd thanks to stage bests from aces Betelhem Moges and Kayo Sugihara . Chiba Prefecture prevented another Nagano Prefecture win at the East Japan Women's Ekiden, taking four of nine stage bests. Anchor Chika Horie , who runs for Team Universal Entertainment and is usually thought of as a marat...

The 2010 East Japan Women's Ekiden will be broadcast live on Fuji TV from 12:00 to 2:35 p.m. on Nov. 14, Japan time. International viewers should be able to watch online for free via Keyhole TV. Click here for more information .