japan running news

On Jan. 21 the Toto corporate women's long distance team announced that 2014 Asian Games women's marathon 4th-placer Eri Hayakawa , 37, will become assistant coach starting Feb. 1. Mitsuhiro Yamamoto , 55, who coached Hayakawa prior to her retirement in 2017, will take over as head coach the same day. source article: https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2019012100995&g=spo translated by Brett Larner

Last year's winners Betsy Saina and Edward Waweru , both of Kenya, return to the Feb. 3 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon , but in both cases they have tough competition. Ranked #1 in the women's race is Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) with a 1:09:14, 3 seconds better than Saina's winning time last year. 3 seconds slower is Sinead Diver (Australia) with a 1:09:20 on home ground last year. Sara Hall (U.S.A.) isn't far behind, and with track star Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) making her debut off a brilliant run at last weekend's National Women's Ekiden it should be a solid pack up front. In the men's race, 2017 marathon world champion Geoffrey Kirui (Kenya) leads the way, his best recent time a 1:00:04 in New Delhi two years ago. Only 2 seconds behind is Shadrack Kiplagat (Kenya), with Evans Cheruiyot (Kenya) and the Japan-based Waweru just over 20 seconds back. Waweru's condition is a question mark after an injury at the New Year Ekiden. Kenta Mu...

by Brett Larner click here for men's field listing The Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon has lined up a great women's field for its 71st running on Feb. 5.  Rio Olympics marathon silver medalist and defending champion Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) will go up against Rio 6th and 9th-placers Shalane Flanagan and Amy Cragg of the U.S.A., 2015 Marugame winner Eloise Wellings of Australia and 2016 Japanese National Corporate Half Marathon champion Miho Shimizu (Team Hokuren). Flanagan's 1:07:51 on the aided San Diego course last year is the only time that tops Kirwa's then-Bahraini national record 1:08:06 in Marugame 2016, promising a close race if Flanagan doesn't repeat her 2015 DNS .  Shimizu, the only Japanese woman to break 1:10 in 2016 , should likewise have a good race for 3rd against Wellings if the Australian shows a return to form following her DNF last month at the Sanyo Ladies Half .  One promising debut comes in the form of sub-31:45 track runn...

by Brett Larner 2014 Incheon Asian Games marathoner Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto) ran Sunday's Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Half Marathon, finishing 3rd in 1:14:10 behind American Rio Olympics marathoners Shalane Flanagan and Amy Cragg .  Japan's Eri Okubo ran into trouble early at Saturday's Stockholm Marathon, dropping out just halfway through the race.  Okubo started slow, averaging around 4:00/km through 15 km, before dropping to slower than 6:00/km through 20 km and then dropping out.  Jane Moraa Onyangi (Kenya) won the women's race in 2:31:46, with countryman Stanley Kipchirchir Koech taking the men's race in 2:10:58. Ai Utsunomiya (Team Miyazaki Ginko) had more success in the Czech Republic, finishing 4th in the women's race at the Mattoni České Budějovice Half Marathon in 1:13:57.  Ashete Bekere (Ethiopia) won in 1:10:40.  Two of Japan's better male athletes, London Olympian Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) and 2016 National XC Champi...

by Brett Larner The world's largest women-only marathon, Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon is the end of the Japanese Olympic marathon selection saga, if not the end of the drama.  2015 World Championships marathon bronze medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) is back to defend her title, and will, her last race a 1:08:06 win last month at Japan's Marugame Half in national record time.  Formerly-Japan based Betelhem Moges (Ethiopia) is her only real international competition, but it would take an off day from Kirwa for Moges to really stand a chance. At the 2014 Asian Games Kirwa beat Japan's Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) for gold.  Kizaki comes to Nagoya with the best time in the last three years among Japanese women, 2:23:34 in Nagoya in 2013, but while Kirwa's star has only risen since then Kizaki's hit a brick wall.  In 2015 she only raced once, placing only 13th on her stage at December's National Corporate Women's Marathon.  There's nothing ...

http://www.sanyonews.jp/article/265824/1/ translated and edited by Brett Larner The elite field for the 34th Sanyo Women's Road Race on Dec. 23 was announced on Nov. 30.  The first selection race for next March's Cardiff World Half Marathon Championships in the U.K., Sanyo features world-class talent like 2014 Copenhagen World Half Marathon bronze medalist and Sanyo course record holder Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko), 2015 Marugame Half Marathon winner Eloise Wellings (Australia), 2015 Beijing World Championships 10000 m runner Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya) and more.  A large number of women aiming to make next year's Rio Olympic team will be lining up in the half marathon.  Alongside Ohara are 2014 Asian Games marathon 4th-placer Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto), 2014 World Half Marathon Championships team members Sayo Nomura (Team Daiichi Seimei) and Chieko Kido (Team Canon AC Kyushu), and rising young talent like 2015 Hokkaido Marathon winner Yui Okada (Team Ot...

by Brett Larner With decent performances in Chicago and Frankfurt and a 2:09:21 PB at this year's Tokyo Marathon behind him, Koji Gokaya (Team JR Higashi Nihon) turned in the fastest marathon of the year by a Japanese man outside Japan, running 2:10:58 for 9th at the Berlin Marathon .  Gokaya, sub-2:10 men Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) and Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko) and track star Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) ran the entire race inside the third pack just under 2:10 pace, Morita and Sakai tending toward the front of the group and Gokaya and Sato relaxing out back.  A late-race move by Reid Coolsaet in a bid for the Canadian national record pulled Sato along, but after 40 km he faded badly and was easily run down by Gokaya.  Sato, in his third marathon, still managed a sizable PB of 2:12:32 for 14th, while Sakai and Morita dropped to 22nd and 33rd in 2:14:52 and 2:15:57. In the women's race, 2014 Asian Games team member Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto) started ne...

http://running.competitor.com/2015/05/news/meb-keflezighi-has-sparkling-masters-debut-at-rock-n-roll-san-diego_129158 Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto) won the women's race in 1:10:50, the fastest time outside Japan so far this year by a Japanese woman.

by Brett Larner photos by @rikujolove Despite the late withdrawal of domestic favorite Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu), the Nagoya Women's Marathon delivered on the promise of its interesting young domestic field and accompanying seasoned internationals, answering Japan's hunger for a new women's star to pick up the legacy of days gone by with one of the best women's marathons in years. Kenyan-born 2014 Asian Games gold medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) and 40-year-old defending champion Mariya Konovalova (Russia) pushed the Kenyan pacer from the start, the first km going by in 3:17, well ahead of the planned 3:22-3:24 pace.  Things settled to the front end of that range by 5 km with a 16:50 split, 2:22:04 pace, by the lead group including Kirwa, Konovalova, Aheza Kiros (Ethiopia), Mai Ito (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto), collegiate NR holder Sairi Maeda (Team Daihatsu), under-20 NR holder Reia Iwade (Team Noritz), first-timers Rei Ohara (Te...

by Brett Larner Update: Kizaki has withdrawn. The Nagoya Women's Marathon is one of the Japanese races taking steps to adapt to the mass-participation boom, changing from an elite-only format but still keeping its identity by incorporating a mass field that makes it the largest women-only marathon in the world.  At the front end, like last week's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon for the men Nagoya is the last chance for Japanese women to qualify for the 2015 Beijing World Championships marathon team.  While Japanese men's marathoning has grown over the last five years, women's marathoning has been hit by an absence of new top level-names, today's top women running 2:23-2:25 where they would have been 4 minutes faster 10-15 years ago. But Nagoya has done a great job of pulling together most of the best current women and future hopefuls for some kind of return to past success.  In the house are the fastest Japanese woman of 2013-14, Asian Games silver medalist Ryoko...

by Brett Larner The Nagoya Women's Marathon , the world's largest women-only marathon, features a good matchup for this year's race on Mar. 8, bringing back together 2014 Asian Games marathon gold medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain, nominally) and silver medalist Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu).  The pair's battle was one of the highlights of the Asian Games, and with any luck Nagoya will get a replay.  Their main competition is 40-year-old Mariya Konovalova , with a 2:22:46 PB at age 39 one of the seemingly few elite Russians to have escaped current doping revelations so far. One of the notable things about the field for is its evenness, with a steady progression of PBs all the way from Kirwa's 2:21:41 to the 2:31 level.  Aheza Kiros (Ethiopia), Anna Incerti (Italy), Olena Burkovska (Ukraine) and others fill out the international component, but evenly mixed in with them is the best Japanese women's field in any of the three Beijing World Championships races a...

http://www.shikoku-np.co.jp/sports/local/20150114000155 translated and edited by Brett Larner On Jan. 13 the organizers of the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon released the elite field for the 69th running of the race on Feb. 1.  48 elite men and women including 9 from overseas will make up the front end of what promises to be an exciting race this year.  Former Toyo University Hakone Ekiden star twins Keita Shitara (Team Konica Minolta) and Yuta Shitara (Team Honda) feature in the domestic men's field after making big impacts in their corporate league debuts at this year's New Year Ekiden.  Several members of New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Nissin Shokuhin also lead the large corporate contingent in the general division. London Olympics marathoner Arata Fujiwara (Miki House) will return again this year.  Top collegiate names scheduled to run include Daichi Kamino , whose course record run on the 2015 Hakone Ekiden's uphill Fifth Stage set the stage...

by Brett Larner The Incheon Asian Games women's marathon played out almost to script, with the four fastest women in its field finishing almost perfectly in PB order.  After a very slow first 5 km of 18:49, 2:38:48 pace, Kenyan-born Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa (Bahrain), the #1-ranked woman in the race, began a series of small surges to cover the next 5 km in 17:27 and open a gap over a chase pack of eight led by her teammate, #4-ranked Ethiopian-born Lishan Dula Gemechu (Bahrain), and #2-ranked Japanese favorite Ryoko Kizaki , the 4th-place finisher in last year's Moscow World Championships marathon. From there Kirwa simply exploded, covering the distance from 10 to 15 km in 16:28, 2:18:58 pace, with Kizaki and Gemechu close behind.  As Kirwa relaxed slightly Kizaki picked it up to get into contact, leaving Gemechu to run the rest of the race alone.  Once Kizaki was next to Kirwa they stayed side-by-side virtually until 37 km, their splits constant and hovering around ...

Representing four billion people, more than half the world's population, the 2014 Asian Games get underway Sept. 19 in Incheon, South Korea, athletics competition running from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3.  With 2013 Moscow World Championships marathon 4th-placer Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu), veteran Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto) and 2:08 men Kohei Matsumura (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) Japan has serious medal prospects in both the Oct. 2 women's marathon and Oct. 3 men's marathon, and you have the chance to show your support and win some quality schwag by predicting how they do in JRN's Asian Games Marathon prediction contest. To enter, click here to send JRN an email with the subject line 'Asian Games prediction contest.'   Look at the official start lists below featuring Japan's main competition and email your prediction for each Japanese runner's overall finishing place and time including seconds. List '...

by Brett Larner Click here to enter JRN's Asian Games marathon prediction contest for a chance to win some quality limited-edition prizes. With over half the world's population represented making it the biggest of the world's regional championships, track and field events kick off September 27 at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.  It's a reality of the region that Bahrain and Qatar field distance teams virtually entirely made up of Ethiopian and Kenyan athletes who duly take home most of the medals, but with Japan hosting the 2020 Olympics it is not screwing around, sending its best talent to what Japanese broadcaster TBS is hyping as "The Asian Olympics." Saturday, Sept. 27: Women's 10000 m, Men's 5000 m, Women's 3000 mSC The women's 10000 m, men's 5000 m and women's 30000 m steeplechase get things moving on the 27th.  Complete start lists are as yet unavailable, meaning updates to this preview in coming days, b...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/asia/2014/news/f-sp-tp0-20140911-1365110.html translated by Brett Larner Sanitary and housing equipment manufacturer Toto held a sendoff meeting Sept. 11 at its offices in Shiodome, Tokyo for company workers to voice their support for Incheon Asian Games women's marathon team member Eri Hayakawa , 32, and other Toto-sponsored athletes.  Three athletes were feted including members of the Asian Paralympics team.  Hayakawa vowed to supporters that she would go for the gold medal, telling them, "As a national representative I am aware of my responsibility, and I will do my best to produce results that will let me finish with the best kind of smile and bring you all back good news." The Toto-sponsored athletes competing in the Paralympics are women's wheelchair basketball player Chihiro Kitada , 25, and women's wheelchair tennis player Miho Nijo , 33.  Using language chock full of Kansai slang, Takada made the full house laugh ...

by Brett Larner On June 9 the Japanese Federation released the 54 athlete lineup for its national team at the Sept. 27 - Oct. 3 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.  Where in the past it has allowed top talent to blow the Asian Games off, with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics hanging in the distance this time the Federation is taking a serious and long view, fielding an A-squad of national record holders, collegiate national record holders and junior national record holders in fifteen events, at least a half dozen more in the all-time Japanese top three in their events, and incorporating high-potential high school and university athletes with an eye toward their development pre-2020. Major names on the men's list of 31 include teen sprint star Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.), 2010 World Junior 200 m gold medalist  Shota Iizuka  (Mizuno), Berlin World Championships javelin bronze medalist Yukifumi Murakami  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), the Alberto Salazar -coached Suguru Osak...

by Brett Larner Organizers announced that 17,000 fans turned out on a spectacular spring day for the final track and field meet at Tokyo's 1964 Olympics National Stadium, Sunday's Golden Grand Prix Tokyo . Many were there to relive memories of Abebe and Tsuburaya, of Taniguchi and Yamashita's 1991 World Championships medals, and of Seko, Takahashi and Noguchi's wins at the old Tokyo International Marathon, but there's no question that the main draw was the meet-closing men's 100 m featuring Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) up against the likes of Justin Gatlin (U.S.A.), Christophe Lemaitre (France) and Mike Rodgers (U.S.A.). Strong winds precluded fast times as multiple medalist Gatlin duly took 1st in 10.02 (-3.5) over Rodgers and Lemaitre. Kiryu was just 5th in 10.46, but fans seemed happy to see him in action regardless of the outcome. Along the way they were treated to a great men's high jump that saw Moscow World Championships gold medalist M...

http://www.jaaf.or.jp/20140312_AsiaNationalTeam translated by Brett Larner The Japan Association of Athletics Federations is pleased to announce the nomination of the following athletes to the Japanese National Team for this fall's 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. Men Kohei Matsumura Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki, Nagasaki Asian Games debut PB: 2:08:09 (2014 Tokyo Marathon) Yuki Kawauchi Saitama Prefectural Government, Saitama Asian Games debut PB: 2:08:14 (2013 Seoul International Marathon) Women Ryoko Kizaki Team Daihatsu, Osaka second Asian Games appearance; ran 5000 m at 2010 Asian Games PB: 2:23:34 (2013 Nagoya Women's Marathon) Eri Hayakawa Team Toto, Tokyo Asian Games debut PB: 2:25:31 (2014 Nagoya Women's Marathon) The formal confirmation of the athletes on the National Team will be made by the Japanese Olympic Committee, the official organizers of the Asian Games team.  The Asian Games will take place from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3. ...