japan running news

Two good races happened Sunday at the Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon . The women's race was a head-to-head race between 2022 marathon world champion Gotytom Gebreslase and debuting Japan-based Janet Nyiva . Side-by-side through 15 km, Nyiva shattered Gebreslase with a massive surge over the last 5 km that ultimately put 52 second between them, Nyiva wining in 1:07:37 and Gebreslase next in 1:08:29. 2023 Asian marathon champion Eunice Chebichii Chumba held off the up-and-coming Kana Kobayashi , a member of Japan's marathon team for September's Tokyo World Championships, with a 1:09:07 for 3rd. Kobayashi's 1:09:09 for 4th was a PB by almost 5 minutes and the fastest time ever on the rolling Gifu course by a Japanese woman. Yumi Yoshikawa was 5th in 1:10:51. Five men went out front on mid-59 pace. Dawit Wolde , debuting Kiprono Sitonik , Vincent Yegon and veteran Bedan Karoki all took turns leading, with only Richard Kimunyan tucking in and declining to share the load. ...

Back where she'd run her best in 2017 only to finish 2nd behind Kenyan-born Bahraini doper Eunice Kirwa , Yuka Ando ran down another Kenyan-born Bahraini named Eunice, in this case 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games gold medalist Eunice Chebichii Chumba , to win the Nagoya Women's Marathon in a 2:21:18 PB. Ando and the other top Japanese women in the race, Ayuko Suzuki and Rika Kaseda , had the hopeless task of running a 2:18:58 to make the Paris Olympics team, almost 3 minutes faster than any of them had run before. Hopeless, but not to say they didn't take a serious swing at it. The first 5 km was perfect, 16:28 projecting to exactly 2:18:58, but after that the quartet of pacers struggled to keep things steady. By 13 km pacers Charlotte Purdue and Judith Korir had dropped out of the lead pack, leaving the other two to try to keep it together. At halfway it was down to the three Japanese favorites, Chumba, Oregon World Championships gold medalist Gotytom Gebreslase and Roma...

Last weekend's Tokyo Marathon sealed up the Japanese men's Paris Olympics marathon team lineup when top Japanese man Yusuke Nishiyama came 41 seconds short of the 2:05:50 he needed to take the spot away from marathon trials 3rd-placer Suguru Osako . Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon officially closes the window for Japanese women, but really it was pretty much slammed shut by Honami Maeda with her 2:18:59 national record in Osaka at the end of January. That was almost 3 minutes faster than what she needed to take trial 3rd-placer Ai Hosoda 's place in Paris. Is there any chance anyone lining up in Nagoya could run 2:18:58 or better? There are some good people on the list, but basically no. Gotytom Gebreslase of Ethiopia has run faster than that with a 2:18:11 for gold at the 2022 Oregon World Championships, but she's the only one. Eunice Chumba and Delvine Meringor are both at the 2:20 level, and out of the top tier of Japanese women Ayuko Suzuki and Rika ...

2022 Oregon World Championships gold medalist and 2023 Budapest World Championships silver medalist Gotytom Gebreslase leads the elite field for the Mar. 10 Nagoya Women's Marathon , the last chance for Japanese women to steal a place on the Paris Olympics team. The last two years Nagoya has had a $250,000 payout for the winner, the biggest in the sport, but with the exchange rate and Japan's economic situation being what it is that's down to $150,000 this year. That's still enough to pull in a big talent like Gebreslase, the only woman in the field positioned to verrrry hypothetically drag one of the Japanese women to the 2:18:58 they'd need to pick up the 3rd Paris team spot. Ai Hosoda was 3rd at October's Olympic trials but was bumped down to 1st alternate by Honami Maeda 's 2:18:59 NR last month in Osaka . Hosoda, Ayuko Suzuki , Rika Kaseda and Yuka Ando have run under or within seconds of the 2:21:41 they needed before Maeda's run, but 2:18 puts...

With both teammates out with COVID it was down to Mizuki Matsuda to represent Japan in the women's marathon at the Oregon 22 World Championships . As the front group went out at World Championships record pace Matsuda let go of both them and a chase group centered around Great Britain's Jess Piasecki and Americans Sara Hall and Emma Bates , all alone by 3 km and running that way the rest of the race. As far back as 17th at one point, by the end of the first 14 km lap she was in 16th, 24 seconds behind the chase group which now included U.S. record holder Keira D'Amato . As the leading trio went through halfway in 1:09:01 and the chase quartet in 1:10:17 Matsuda was up to 13th in 1:10:38. From there until 40 km it was a steady advance up through the field in pursuit of a top 8 finish, Matsuda closing to within 2 seconds of D'Amato in 8th. But D'Amato had superior closing speed, and held her off 2:23:34 to 2:23:49. Up front Ethiopian Gotytom Gebreslase , 3rd-placer...

The Tokyo Marathon returned to the streets of the nation's capital Sunday with both a mass participation field of 20,000 and a world-class elite race for the first time in three years. Three of the four divisions in the race had the world record holder in their respective category, and all three put in dominant performances to take the win.  Men's wheelchair marathon world record holder and double Paralympic gold medalist Marcel Hug  of Switzerland soloed a 1:22:16 to beat Japanese national record holder Tomoki Suzuki  by almost 7 minutes. Men's marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge  delivered one of the best performances of his career, taking command before all the pacers had dropped and pushing through headwinds over the final kilometers to win in 2:02:40, the 3rd-fastest record-legal time ever, fastest on Japanese soil, and fastest so far this year. And that despite a wrong turn when the police guide escort went the wrong way on a new section of course near...

With prime minister Fumio Kishida  having publicly confirmed yesterday that Japan will begin relaxing its rigid border restrictions as of Mar. 1, the Mar. 6  Tokyo Marathon  followed up its earlier announcement of the domestic elite field for this year's twice-rescheduled race with the full list of international athletes scheduled to compete. Women's and men's world record holders Brigid Kosgei and Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya are set to return to Japan after winning the Olympic marathon silver and gold medals in Sapporo last summer, with backing from small but high-quality international fields, the Japanese women-only and men's marathon NR holders and half marathon NR holders, and more. Kosgei will face a solid list of proven winners, including last year's Amsterdam winner Angela Tanui (Kenya), 2019 Berlin winner Ashete Bekere (Ethiopia), 2021 Milan winner Hiwot Gebrekidan (Ethiopia), 2021 Berlin winner Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia), 2020 Marathon Project winner S...

All-time Japanese #4 in the marathon at 2:21:36 in her debut earlier this year in Nagoya, Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) leads the elite field for the Jan. 28 Osaka International Women's Marathon . Hoping for a comeback after an ineffectual run at the summer's London World Championships, Ando faces former under-20 Japanese record holder Reia Iwada (Dome) and debuting 10000 m national champion Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) as her main competition. Eunice Jeptoo (Kenya) and Fayesa Robi (Ethiopia) lead the small international field with the debuting Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia) throwing in an element of unpredictability, but with bests of only 2:26:13 and 2:27:04 it will take a combination of a breakthrough from any of them and a breakdown from Ando and Iwade to have a shot at the win. Along with Matsuda's exciting debut, Osaka will again be putting heavy emphasis on first-timers and university student runners, Ayano Ikemitsu (Kagoshima Ginko) leading the former with a ...