japan running news

by Brett Larner all statistics c/o the ARRS database corrections and additions welcome The upcoming sub-2 marathon attempt is generating a lot of talk about the very sharp end of men's marathoning, the delivery of the single greatest marathon performance of all time. But there are other ways of thinking about who ranks at the top of the list of all-time greats than just a single run by a single athlete. Who performed the most consistently at a high level, had the greatest depth at quality as a marathoner over their career? Sub-x marathon records, the greatest number of times a single runner has gone under 2:03, under 2:04, under 2:05, are one way to look at that. The table below shows the seven men from four countries who hold the records for every one minute increment from sub-2:03 to sub-2:20. Click to enlarge. Athletes with names in green are still active, while those in red no longer compete. Within the table green indicates a sub-x record, yellow a record which a given a...

by Brett Larner photo courtesy of NYRR Kenta Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei) ran the fastest time ever by a Japanese man on U.S. soil to take 5th in the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon in 1:00:57.  The first alumnus of the Japan Running News-New York Road Runners program to bring top collegiate talent from November's Ageo City Half Marathon to New York to return as a pro, Murayama asserted himself from the gun, ensuring the race got off to an honest start as he led the first 5 km in 14:24.  " The last time I was here the first 5 km was close to 15:00," he told JRN post-race.  "If it starts too slow it affects how you feel later in the race and keeps too many people up front.  I wanted to run comfortably.  I figured that 14:20 would be about right.  It didn't feel too fast, but when I looked around almost nobody was left." Remaining up front after just the first 2 km were the eventual top six including Murayama, 2017 Marugame Half winner Callum Hawki...

by Brett Larner With his 2:09:54 at Sunday's Ehime Marathon Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) became the fifteenth runner in history to run sub-2:10 eleven times or more in his career.  The achievement puts him in distinguished company, including two marathon world record setters, seven Olympic marathon medalists, seven World Championships marathon medalists, three World Marathon Majors champions and eight winners of the six races now making up the World Marathon Majors. Kawauchi is one of only three non-African athletes to make the list, one of four on the list without either an Olympic or World Championships medal or a win at one of the Big Six, one of four to have not broken 2:07, and, with a PB of 2:08:14, the only one who has not run sub-2:08.  A sub-2:08 PB and a World Championships medal remain the major goals of his career. Tsegaye Kebede (Ethiopia) - 16 times sub-2:10 PB: 2:04:38 2013 World Marathon Majors champion 1st, 2013 London Marathon 1st, 2012 C...

by Brett Larner No real surprises in the men's marathon to wrap up the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.  Berlin and London Marathon winner Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) for gold, Tokyo Marathon winner Feyisa Lilesa (Ethiopia) for silver, Galen Rupp (U.S.A.) stepping up for a medal in bronze, world champion Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (Eritrea) just missing the podium, DNFs for Kenyan and Ethiopian B-men Stanley Biwott and Tesfaye Abera , and irrelevant performances from the Japanese men.  The Japanese men finished in PB order, Satoru Sasaki and Suehiro Ishikawa hanging on to the pack for a while until fading to 16th and 36th, Hisanori Kitajima never in it and finishing 94th in 2:25:11. Four men born outside Africa qualified for Rio with sub-2:10 times.  The Japanese men were three of them.  Sasaki was the only non-African-born athlete to have qualified sub-2:09.  This was a good team, one of the best in the field.  And yet, they were irrelevant, again.  Hats of...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20160229-OHT1T50026.html translated and edited by Brett Larner With Sunday's Tokyo Marathon serving as the second selection race for the Japanese men's Rio de Janeiro Olympic team, general elite division entrant Yuki Takamiya (28, Team Yakult) ran a smart and punchy race to finish 8th overall in a PB of 2:10:57 as the top Japanese man.  Running down Beijing World Championships team member Masato Imai (31, Team Toyota Kyushu), Hakone Ekiden ace Tadashi Isshiki (21, Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and other famous star athletes, Takamiya put himself into contention for the Rio team.  Feyisa Lilesa (26, Ethiopia) won Tokyo for the first time in 2:06:56. Takamiya was already more than 15 seconds behind the main Japanese pack by 10 km and was over 40 seconds behind at 35 km.  It all came down to the last 2 km, Takamiya's legs turning over with great drive straight from his soul.  Flying past leading Japanese man Yuma Hattori (22, Toyo Un...

by Brett Larner 2015 Beijing World Championships marathon silver medalist Helah Kiprop (Kenya) delivered the outstanding performance of the 10th Tokyo Marathon , doing all she could to try to deliver a performance that would score her the win in the Abbott World Marathon Majors.  Leading a pack including two-time world champion Edna Kiplagat (Kenya), fellow AWMM title contenders Birhane Dibaba (Ethiopia) and Aberu Kebede (Ethiopia) and three other Ethiopians through halfway in 1:10:41, Kiprop kept it even and ground down the others, never really accelerating or losing pace on the hills in the last 6 km but dropping the competition one by one. All alone by 40 km it looked like she might take down the fastest marathon ever run by a woman on Japanese soil, Mizuki Noguchi 's 2:21:18 in Osaka in 2003, but despite coming up just short Kiprop succeeded in taking nearly a minute off the course record as she won in 2:21:27.  Runner-up Amane Gobena (Ethiopia), a frequent face i...

By David Monti (c) 2012 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved Toyo University's Kento Otsu (#2) and Yuta Shitara (#4).  Photo by Kazuyuki Sugimatsu . NEW YORK (01-Mar) -- The New York Road Runners announced today that some of the distance running's top international stars would run the seventh annual NYC Half on Sunday, March 18, joining USA Olympians Desiree Davila , Kara Goucher , Meb Keflezighi and Dathan Ritzenhein at America's most competitive spring half-marathon. Race director Mary Wittenberg , the NYRR's president and, called the additions to the race "a dynamic field of stars," adding that "the NYC Half will provide a thrilling preview" for this summer's Olympic Marathon. Leading the list on the women's side are defending champion, Caroline Rotich of Kenya (1:08:52 PB); the fastest-ever women's half-marathoner on U.S. soil, Kim Smith of New Zealand (1:07:11); and reigning ING New York City Marathon champion, Firehi...

by Brett Larner photos by Dr. Helmut Winter Update: 5/16/11: Click here to read Chicago champion Samuel Wanjiru remembered by his Japanese colleagues and friends . After years of near-misses, former Second Wind AC and Team Shiseido runner Kaori Yoshida (Amino Vital AC) finally broke through the 2:30 barrier, barely, with a 2:29:45 PB for 8th place at the 2010 Chicago Marathon. After a solid buildup which included wins at July's Gold Coast Marathon and last month's Hakodate Half Marathon, both in times just off her PBs, Yoshida hit Chicago hard with a 1:13:06 first half, just seconds off her winning time in Hakodate. Largely ignored on the Japanese television broadcast which concentrated on cursed Tenmaya runner Naoko Sakamoto 's attempt to make a comeback, Yoshida faded in the final kilometers but rallied to just clear her target and mark the best Chicago finish by a Japanese woman since her former Shiseido and Second Wind teammate Kiyoko Shimahara 's 3rd-place showin...