japan running news

A record-breaking number of participants ran the Fukuoka Marathon yesterday. In its 12th edition, the mass-participation race welcomed 15,102 participants, the most in its history, and included a 42.195 km full marathon, 5.2 km fun run and 5.2 km wheelchair race. The race started at 8:20 a.m. at Tenjin in central Fukuoka. Following a seaside course out of downtown Fukuoka it finished at Koryu Plaza in Itoshima. Despite wet conditions 96.3% of starters finished the race. Kentaro Nakamoto , head coach of the Fukuoka-based Yasukawa Denki corporate team and a 2012 Olympian, won the men's race in 2:23:21. Amateur Kanami Shigemoto won the women's race in 2:55:47, with Koki Takemura taking the wheelchair title in 11:32. source articles: https://www.nishinippon.co.jp/item/1421322/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZknZZD16kE translated and edited by Brett Larner

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...

In the midst of the novel coronavirus crisis both in Japan and abroad and in light of the disease's constantly changing impact and the difficulty of assessing the future situation, the organizers of the 2020 Fukuoka Marathon , scheduled for Nov. 8, have made the decision to cancel this year's race. We apologize to everyone who had looked forward to the Fukuoka Marathon and to everyone involved with it, but we ask for your understanding. We hope that the coronavirus crisis comes to an end quickly and that everyone can return to their daily lives, and we ask you all to take care of both your physical and mental health until that day comes. --the Fukuoka Marathon Organizing Committee Translator's note: This is the mass-participation Fukuoka Marathon, not December's elite Fukuoka International Marathon. The Fukuoka Marathon had earlier suspended opening entries for this year's race as it assessed the feasibility of staging a race with a field of over 10,000 give...

On Apr. 16 the city government of Tsukuba, Ibaraki just northeast of Tokyo announced that along with two other events in August and September, it was canceling the 40th running of the Tsukuba Marathon scheduled for Nov. 22 due to the effects of the coronavirus crisis. Last year the Tsukuba Marathon had 11,461 finishers with winning times of 2:14:18 for men and 2:46:24 for women, with another 2,002 finishers in its accompanying 10 km. Tsukuba is the third October/November Japanese marathon with a field of around 10,000 to cancel in the last few weeks, following the Oct. 18 Chiba Aqualine Marathon and the Oct. 25 Mito Komon Manyu Marathon , also in Ibaraki. The Nov. 1 Toyama Marathon and Nov. 8 Fukuoka Marathon, each with a field of over 10,000, both announced last week that they were suspending opening registrations for this year pending decisions about the races could realistically be put on. Tsukuba's Nov. 22 date makes it the farthest away race on the calendar to cancel s...

Set to stage its sixth edition this year, the Toyama Marathon has postponed opening entries. The race is scheduled to be held Nov. 1. Priority runner entries were to open on Apr. 11 with general division entries opening on Apr. 25. But with no official position established yet as to whether the race will go ahead amid the spread of the novel coronavirus, the prefectural government made the decision to postpone opening entries that require payment of entry fees. The prefecture currently plans to open entries sometime in early May, with further information to be announced on the race website. At the same time, the organizing committee of the Nov. 8 Fukuoka Marathon 's seventh edition likewise announced on Apr. 9 that they were postponing opening entries and volunteer recruitment due to the coronavirus situation. Both were scheduled to begin on Apr. 13. With regard to a new opening date, an official from the organizing committee commented, "We continue to monitor the status ...

The 2018 Fukuoka Marathon took place Nov. 11 on a course from downtown Fukuoka to Itoshima. In the women's race winner Hiroko Yoshitomi (Memolead) ran 2:30:09, taking 7:01 off the course record and 7 seconds off her PB. Surprised and elated, she told reporters, "I never thought I'd run this kind of time here!" Coming in the early part of the marathon season, Yoshitomi said, "This race was mostly about confirming my condition. I wasn't thinking about running a PB." Until 5 km she was running slower than the kind of pace that would make her tired in training. Mid-race she came across one of her regular training partners, Hiroaki Iwanaga (GGRC Kumamoto) and thought to herself, "If you run with him you might be able to just break 2:30." Never slowing down all the way until the end, Yoshitomi's run turned out what she called "unexpectedly" well. Yoshitomi will run the 4th Saitama International Marathon on Dec. 9 as part o...

by Brett Larner This Sunday the  Fukuoka International Marathon celebrates its 70th running.  Once upon a time playing the role of the men's marathon world championships in a day before there were World Championships, Fukuoka has seen its importance worldwide dwindle in the face of modernity and the changes it has brought in the sport.  It still manages to put together good-quality, interesting fields from a spectrum of nationalities, but it has been a while since Fukuoka could really pull in the type of talent who now head to the World Marathon Majors.  On the home front too, despite serving as the first of three main selection races for Japanese national teams at the major international championships, its timing a bit less than four weeks before the increasingly important New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships means that more and more top level Japanese man now pass it over in favor of February's Tokyo Marathon or March's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marat...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nnp/f_toshiken/article/203976 translated and edited by Brett Larner A former Japanese national representative at the World Championships is getting ready to take on his second marathon.  Injuries having forced him into retirement at just age 30, this time he will be running in a new role.  With two World Championships appearances on the track behind him, Yu Mitsuya will run the Nov. 8 Fukuoka Marathon as a guide runner for blind marathoner Misato Michishita , 38, already named as a member of the women's marathon team for next year's Rio de Janeiro Paralympics.  "I want to be a source of strength that will help Michishita on her road to Rio," Mitsuya said. A native of Kagawa prefecture, Mitsuya emerged as a star in high school before joining the Toyota Kyushu corporate team after graduating in 2003.  At Toyota Kyushu he was coached by Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita and trained alongside future Beijin...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nnp/f_toshiken/article/126034 translated by Brett Larner The first running of the Fukuoka Marathon took place Nov. 9 on a course from downtown Fukuoka to Itoshima.  A total of 12,156 people took part in the full marathon and the 5.2 km fun run and wheelchair divisions, soaking up enthusiastic cheering from local residents as the course passed through towns and along the seafront. The full marathon featured 11,173 participants including 7929 men and 2244 women.  Rain that began falling the night of the 8th lifted just before the 8:18 wheelchair start and 8:20 marathon and fun run start from Tenjin Crossing outside Tenjin Station in Fukuoka.  Light rain fell occasionally during the race, but with a high temperature of 18.4 degrees conditions throughout the day were comfortable for a marathon.  9898 runners, 7754 men and 2144 women, reached the finish line near Itoshima City Hall, a finish rate of 97.3%. Local runners led the day,...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20141022/ath14102221220003-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Oct. 22 the organizers of the Nov. 16 Yokohama International Women's Marathon revealed that the event, jointly operated by the JAAF and the Asahi Newspaper group, will be discontinued after this year's sixth running due to ongoing financial difficulties with the race.  As a continuation of the former Tokyo International Women's Marathon it played an important role in establishing the prosperity of Japanese women's distance running over its 36-year history, a history on which the curtain is now set to fall after this year's race. Established in 1979 to encourage the participation and development of female athletes, the Tokyo International Women's Marathon was the first women-only marathon in the world to be officially certified by the IAAF and led directly to the introduction of a women's marathon to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.  It laid the ...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20141019-1384249.html translated by Brett Larner 1229 people ran in the 39th edition of the Takashimadaira Nikkan Sports Road Race Oct. 19 on a 5 km loop course in Takashimadaira, Tokyo.  In the men's open division, last year's winner Benjamin Ngandu (23, Team Monteroza) ran solo from the first lap to defend his title in 1:00:01.  His next race is the Dec. 7 Fukuoka Marathon, where he made an unsuccessful debut last year.  "This year I want to break 2:10," he said with conviction. 39th Takashimadaira Nikkan Sports Road Race Takashimadaira, Tokyo, 10/19/14 Men's 20 km 1. Benjamin Ngandu (Kenya/Team Monteroza) - 1:00:01 2. Shohei Hayakawa (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:00:14 3. Yuta Takahashi (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:00:21 4. Yusei Tsutsumi (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:00:22 5. Takayuki Tsuchiya (Tokai Univ.) - 1:00:29 6. Hiroki Takemoto (Teikyo Univ.) - 1:00:30 7. Kenta Ando (Tokai Univ.) - 1:00:38 8. Kodai Matsushit...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nnp/f_toshiken/article/90266 translated by Brett Larner With the closure of entries, on May 23 the organizing committee of the new Fukuoka Marathon scheduled to be held Nov. 9 announced its final tally of applicants.  46547 people applied to run the event's full marathon, which has a field limit of 10000. 1000 of those places have already been assigned in a separate entry lottery for local residents.  The other 9000 runners will be selected from among the remaining 45547 applicants including locals not selected in that lottery, a 5.06:1 applicant-to-runner ratio.  Results of the lottery will be announced in mid-June. 3320 people also applied to run the event's 5 km fun run, which has a maximum field size of 2000.  4 people applied for the 5 km wheelchair division, which can accommodate up to 20.  Altogether the three divisions totalled 49871 applicants. Translator's note: This is a completely separate event from the long-st...