japan running news

https://www.athleticsintegrity.org/disciplinary-process/first-instance-decisions More on three-time Nagoya Women's Marathon winner Kirwa's bust including a list of all the athletes Japanese and otherwise who lost out to her in past years.

https://www.athleticsintegrity.org/disciplinary-process/provisional-suspensions-in-force The AIU announced today that Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa has been provisionally suspended for a positive test for EPO. Prior to disappearing at the end of 2017 after winning the Macao International Marathon  Kirwa was a familiar face in Japan, winning all seven of her races there between 2015 and 2017, taking 2nd in another in 2013, and medaling at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, 2015 Beijing World Championships and 2016 Rio Olympics. It was notable that despite her string of international medals Kirwa never ran the big European and American races after hitting that level, her only appearance in the World Marathon Majors a DNF at the 2014 Boston Marathon and her only times running the biggest European marathons coming in 2012 and 2013 in Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt, all in the 2:21-2:23 range and making the top three twice. Details of Kirwa's case are still forthc...

9th Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon Elite Field Highlights Gifu, 4/28/19 times listed are best in last three years except where noted complete men's field complete women's field Women Joan Chelimo Melly (Kenya) - 1:05:04 (Prague 2018) Ruth Chepngetich (Kenya) - 1:06:19 (Istanbul 2017) Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa (Bahrain) - 1:06:46 (Istanbul 2017) Rose Chelimo (Bahrain) - 1:08:37 (Ras Al Khaimah 2017) Miyuki Uehara (Japan/Daiichi Seimei) - 1:09:13 (Sanyo Ladies 2017) Mimi Belete (Bahrain) - 1:09:15 (Verona 2017) Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia) - 1:09:39 (Boston 2018) Ana Dulce Felix (Portugal) - 1:11:50 (Lisbon 2018) Evaline Chirchir (Kenya) - debut  - 30:43 (Valencia 10 km 2019) Men Bedan Karoki (Kenya/DeNA) - 58:42 (Ras Al Khaimah 2018) Jorum Okumbo (Kenya) - 58:48 (Copenhagen 2017) Abraham Kipyatich (Kenya/Asahi Kasei) - 1:00:08 (Prague 2018) Abdellah Mande (Uganda) - 1:00:14 (Venlo 2018) Yuta Shitara (Japan/Honda) - 1:00:17 (Usti nad Labem 2017) Nicholas Kosimb...

In 2017 Japan Running News celebrated its 10th anniversary. From the Hakone Ekiden to the London World Championships to the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon, looking back over the year here are its top ten stories as determined by JRN readers. 1.   Last-Place Finisher Named Winner After Entire Rest of Field Disqualified  -  Feb. 15 At a children's road race in Okayama runners were misdirected on the course and ran a shorter distance. Followed by a sweeper, only the last-place runner ran the correct 3.0 km course, and when the other 262 participants were disqualified the last-placer was named the winner. 2.   Hawkins and Kirwa Win Marugame Half, Takeshita Over Muiru in Kanagawa - Feb. 5 Less than a week after his breakthrough 1:00:24 was annulled due to a short course, Scotland's Callum Hawkins won Marugame in a new national record of 1:00:00, while Rio Olympics silver medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) made it two Marugame titles in a row.  Men's preview  and...

Her form has been dubbed "ninja running." Both arms held straight down with almost no movement. That idiosyncratic style carried Yuka Ando , 23, to the fastest-ever marathon debut by a Japanese woman, 2:21:36, at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon to land at #4 on the all-time Japanese lists. All at once Ando found herself catapulted to the top level of women's marathoning, a candidate for Japan's next great marathoner. When she was younger Ando ran moving her arms like other runners, but she had a bad habit of moving robotically, her upper body and lower body not working in sync. The turning point came in 2014 when she joined Suzuki Hamamatsu AC . Working there with coach Masayuki Satouchi to eliminate the faults in her form, the pair arrived at the ninja running style that let her run relaxed. "Other people keep asking me, "Isn't it hard to run like that?" but for me it's comfortable," she said. The efficient form helped her mai...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/column/20170314-OHT1T50078.html an editorial by Yuji Hosono translated by Brett Larner After running 2:21:36 for 2nd at the Mar. 12 Nagoya Women's Marathon to become the all-time 4th-fastest Japanese woman, the name of 22-year-old Cinderella girl Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) is now synonymous with the slightly incongruous term "ninja running."  Her lower arms hanging loosely, barely moving, gaining forward propulsion through the strength of her legs, a unique form on display throughout her duel with Rio Olympics silver medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain).  It just may be enough to bring the Olympic women's marathon gold medal back to Japan for the first time since Mizuki Noguchi in Athens in 2004. Ando's ninja running first caught my eye about a year ago at the May, 2016 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon.  I had the impression that it seemed to be between Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal), who was expected to medal in the Rio Olympics...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2017/03/15/kiji/20170314s00056000173000c.html an editorial by Kenji Fujiyama translated by Brett Larner At the Mar. 12 Nagoya Women's Marathon , fresh new 22-year-old star Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) gave a straight up head to head challenge to Rio de Janeiro Olympics silver medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) on the way to finishing 2nd in 2:21:36 and becoming the fourth-fastest Japanese woman ever.  Debuting marathoners usually avoid taking on the impossible and keep to their own pace, but Ando stayed with Kirwa determinedly, saying, "To win you have to go with it.  Who cares what happens in the second half."  These days there are a lot of athletes running with the weak motivation of targeting the "top Japanese" position from the start, but even after coming in at all-time Japanese #4, when Ando said, "I still showed weakness.  I want to refine what I'm doing even more so that I can truly take on the world,...

by Brett Larner #名古屋ウィメンズマラソン 🥇キルワ 🇧🇭 2:21:17 =3連覇 🥈安藤 🇯🇵 2:21:36 #nagoyawomensmarathon pic.twitter.com/aVP3sVJg2Q — EKIDEN_MANIA (@ekiden_mania) March 12, 2017 Rio Olympics silver medalist, two-time defending champion and course record holder Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) brought the race of her career to the Nagoya Women's Marathon .  And she needed to in order to win. Despite a fall at the start Kirwa was out strong, accompanied by the star first-timer of last year's Nagoya, Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), her debuting teammate Yuka Ando , and the likewise debuting Hisami Ishii (Team Yamada Denki).  The 5 km split of 16:51 put them on track for 2:22:12, just under the JAAF's London World Championships auto-selection standard of 2:22:30, but when the pacers took it up to 16:25 for the next 5 km the pace got too hot for Kiyota and Ishii. Kiyota made a few brave attempts to get back on board but quickly lost touch for good.  Ando, 10th at last year's C...

https://www.iaaf.org/news/preview/kirwa-targeting-three-peat-nagoya-womens-mara

by Brett Larner The Nagoya Women's Marathon is the largest women-only marathon in the world, with 19,112 finishers last year.  It was also the deepest elite women's marathon in the world next to the Rio Olympics, with more women sub-2:27 than in Rio and only three fewer under 2:30.  Many of the main people who made it what it was last year are set to return, led by course record holder and two-time defending champion Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) who comes back to Nagoya as an Olympic silver medalist.  Japan's Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya), Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), Reia Iwade (Team Noritz), Sayaka Kuwahara (Team Sekisui Kagaku) and Shiho Takechi (Team Yamada Denki) all ran sub-2:26 PBs in Nagoya last year, Ohara's 2:23:30 just missing her a place on the Rio Olympic team.  Ohara is Kirwa's closest competition, but with a nearly two-minute difference in their recent half marathon wins Ohara will have a very tough battle facing her to stay in contact.  At sta...

by Brett Larner 神野くん粘り強い。すごいわ。 #丸亀ハーフ pic.twitter.com/XZu299LBWY — roomie (@3runn9) February 5, 2017 Having lost his 1:00:24 Scottish national record after the Great Scottish Run was announced earlier this week to have been almost 150 m short, Callum Hawkins was out to prove he had done it for real when he lined up at today's Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon .  Against a field including sub-60 man Kenneth Kipkemoi of Kenya and a group of Japanese athletes aiming for the 1:00:25 Japanese national record led by 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) and 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei), Hawkins went to the front from the gun and never relented. After a relatively slow 14:20 opening 5 km, the next 5 km went by in 14:07 and shook the lead group down to ten including Hawkins, Kipkemoi, Kenyan Joel Mwaura of 2016 National High School Ekiden champion Kurashiki H.S. , Osako and three other Japanese men. ...

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 Bahraini national record holder Eunice Kirwa did it again, easily breaking the Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon women's course record in 1:08:55 to win by over two minutes.  Kenyan Rebecca Kangogo Chesir was the only one to put up some competition, running with Kirwa through 5 km in 15:49 before dropping back to take 2nd in 1:11:09.  Formerly Japan-based Ethiopian Betelhem Moges started much more conservatively, over 30 seconds behind the lead pair at 5 km but closing to take 3rd close enough to record the same 1:11:09 finish time as Chesir.  Japan's Rio Olympics marathon medal hopeful Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) started in the 2nd pack with Moges but fell far off pace in the second half, taking 6th overall in 1:12:04 and just holding off Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) for top Japanese honors. In the men's race Kenyan Kenneth Keter pushed a lead group of nine, eight Africans plus Mongolian national record holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Team NTN) through a...

Gifu, 5/15/16 click here for complete field listing times listed are 2013-2016 bests except where noted Women Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) - 1:08:06 (Marugame 2016) Rebecca Kangogo Chesir (Kenya) - 1:08:21 (Milan 2015) Betelhem Moges (Ethiopia) - 1:09:23 (Olomouc 2014) Visiline Jepkesho (Kenya) - 1:09:43 (Adana 2016) Yuka Ando (Japan/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:09:51 (Sanyo 2015) Sayo Nomura (Japan/Daiichi Seimei) - 1:10:03 (Sanyo 2013) Kayoko Fukushi (Japan/Wacoal) - 1:10:04 (Berlin 2014) Lauren Kleppin (U.S.A.) - 1:10:16 (Copenhagen 2014) Eri Makikawa (Japan/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:10:27 (Marugame 2014) Mao Kiyota (Japan/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 1:10:31 (Valencia 2015) Bornes Jepkirui (Kenya) - 1:10:32 (Azpeitia 2014) Men Bedan Karoki (Kenya/DeNA) - 59:14 (Copenhagen 2015) Paul Kuira (Kenya/Konica Minolta) - 59:47 (Marugame 2015) Kenneth Keter (Kenya) - 59:48 (Venlo 2016) Martin Mathathi (Kenya) - 1:00:11 (Marugame 2014) James Rungaru (Kenya/Chuo Hatsujo) - 1:00:12 (Nice ...

by Brett Larner Again this week, what a race. Defending champion Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) led the largest women-only marathon field in the world through a tense and thrilling race at today's Nagoya Women's Marathon , tailed closely by a large Japanese group that collectively broke through to new ground in the race for the last spot on the Rio Olympics team. With some erratic pacing in the early kilometers the race soon settled down in the mid-to-high 2:23 range, slow of the JAAF's sub-2:22:30 Olympic standard but still uncharted territory for almost every Japanese woman in the field.  National record holder and Athens gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex), trying one last time to return to the Olympics, was the first to fall off, losing touch with the lead group after 5 km.  The trickle of stragglers continued as the pace held steady around 2:23:30-40 until a core group of 11 remained behind the pacers when they hit halfway in 1:11:45. Kenyan Monica Jepkoech w...

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 ...

by Brett Larner The last chance for Japanese women to make the Rio de Janeiro Olympic team, the Mar. 13 Nagoya Women's Marathon has announced the elites who will front the largest women-only marathon field in the world, more than 17,000-strong in its 2015 edition.  Last year's winner Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) is back with a World Championships bronze medal under her belt, facing formerly Japan-based Betelhem Moges (Ethiopia), Valeria Straneo (Italy) and most of Japan's best. The controversial selection process for the Japanese Olympic team, in which outside of finishing in the top eight at the previous year's World Championships there is no way to guarantee yourself a place on the team no matter how you run in any of the three domestic selection races, has resulted in the top Japanese women at both of the other selection races, Kaori Yoshida (Runners Pulse), 2nd in November's Saitama International Women's Marathon in 2:28:43, and Kayoko Fukushi (Team Waco...

by Brett Larner Great conditions meant fast times across the board including three national records at the first major Japanese half marathon of the season, the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon . A large pack including internationals Goitom Kifle (Eritrea), Fabiano Sulle (Tanzania) and Japan-based 18-year-old Dominic Nyairo (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.), Hakone Ekiden stars Keisuke Nakatani and Naoki Kudo (both Komazawa Univ.), corporate runners Keijiro Mogi and Shuho Dairokuno (both Asahi Kasei) and Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) went out slightly slower than expected, hitting 5 km in 14:27 on track to just crack 1:01.  20-year-old Kudo, a second-year at Komazawa, pushed the next 5 km faster, on 1:00:50 pace at 10 km in 28:50.  Mogi, also just 20 after going straight into the corporate leagues post-high school, took over after 10 km and dropped the fastest 5 km yet, shaking down the leaders to just himself, Kifle, Nyairo and Sulle as he took them through 15 km...

by Brett Larner It's a big weekend of racing across Japan.  The 70th Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon leads the way with a shot at the Japanese men's national record as Konica Minolta teammates Masato Kikuchi , Keita Shitara and Tsuyoshi Ugachi , all 1:00:32 to 1:01:12 for the half marathon, line up with support from past winner Collis Birmingham (Australia), Goitom Kifle (Eritrea), track star Yuki Sato (Nissin Shokuhin) in his serious half marathon debut, and more.  2014 Asian Games marathon gold medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) leads a women's field that includes 2015's top Japanese woman Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya), last year's winner Eloise Wellings (Australia), Canadian record hopeful Natasha Wodak and many more. Likewise celebrating an anniversary year is the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon in its 65th running.  Not counting in the qualifying for the Rio Olympic team the home field is weaker than usual, Kenichi Shiraishi (Team Asahi Kasei) ...

by Brett Larner For its 70th edition the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon has wheeled out another quality field of top-level domestic elites peppered with an international seasoning to meet IAAF labelling requirements.  Like the United States' Houston Half Marathon, Marugame is a surprisingly fast race where many run lifetime bests they never approach again, enough of them to set world records for depth .  For Japanese men this year it serves as one of the selection races for the 2016 World Half Marathon team while for the women it's simply a day at the races. Five athletes with recent sub-70 marks make up the top tier in the women's race.  2014 Asian Games gold medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) leads the way with a best of 1:08:31, followed closely by Diane Nukuri (Burundi) and the top female Japanese half marathoner of 2015, Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya).  Just under the 70-minute mark with PBs at December's Sanyo Ladies' Half are the promising Yuka An...