japan running news

by Brett Larner photo courtesy of STITCHrunner The 2013 International Chiba Ekiden lived up to expectations with a dynamic race that saw two-time defending champion Kenya  make it three in a row in a course record 2:03:59 for the six-stage, 42.195 km course with a team made up of three men and three women. Kenya led wire to wire, but despite a couple of scares from 2012 runner-up Japan  mid-race, Kenya managed to build a lead of over three minutes on the final two stages to seal the record-setting win.  Japan again took the silver spot in 2:07:13, with last year's 4th-placer Russia  moving up to 3rd just a few meters back in 2:07:22.  The 2012 bronze medal U.S.A.  team spent much of the race in the back half of the field, advancing to 5th on the anchor stage but outrun by 28 seconds by a team made up of the world's best collegiate distance runners, the Japanese University Select Team , 4th in 2:08:03. 2010 World XC champion Joseph Ebuya  (Ken...

by Brett Larner Saturday's 2013 edition of the International Chiba Ekiden tops this weekend's list of international long distance action, with thirteen mixed men's and women's teams from around the world competing over Chiba's six stage, 42,195 km course.  Two-time defending champion Kenya  returns with a team led by 2010 and 2013 World XC women's gold medalist Emily Chebet Muge  and 2010 World XC men's gold medalist Joseph Ebuya .   Japan  provides the toughest competition, with a team including all three men from the Moscow World Championships 10000 m, Suguru Osako  (Waseda Univ.), Yuki Sato  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Konica Minolta) along with their Moscow women's 5000 m teammate Misaki Onishi  (Team Sekisui Kagaku).  2012's 3rd-placer U.S.A.  returns a quality squad of domestic talent but should again face tough challenges for the podium from the team it beat to get there last year, Russia , the 2008...

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-138199/ak-pick-team

by Brett Larner For the first time in several years, the Japanese national team at the World Cross-Country Championships will go home empty-handed as its perennial team bronze medal-winning junior women's squad placed only 4th at this year's Championships in Poland on Mar. 28. Junior woman Nanaka Izawa 's 19th place finish was the best individual placing on the entire Japanese team, admittedly in the least competitive of the four fields, but her run led the Japanese junior women to finish as the top non-African team. The junior men were likewise the top non-African team, finishing 6th in their race ahead of a number of teams from countries with far more established cross-country traditions. As JRN predicted Tokai University first-year Akinobu Murasawa was someone to watch. In his last race as a junior Murasawa, the inspiration for JRN's comparison last fall of young American and Japanese men's performances, beat much-hyped American first-year Trevor Dunbar to f...