japan running news

The world's deepest half marathon returns Sunday in Ageo, Saitama for the first time since 2019 as Hakone Ekiden-bound universities line up at the Ageo City Half Marathon . Coaches of the teams set to run Hakone use Ageo to narrow down their rosters of contenders for their 16-member Hakone entry list, and the result of that is hundreds of people turning in times that would win most other races. Since 2012 the top two Japanese collegiate finishers have also earned invitations to the United Airlines NYC Half. People like former national record holder Yuta Shitara and the top placer in the marathon at this summer's Oregon World Championships Yusuke Nishiyama have gone from Ageo to NYC and on to bigger things, and with big names like 2019 winner Joseph Razini Lemeteki (Takushoku Univ.), 1:00:40 half marathoner Chikara Yamano (Komazawa Univ.) and former 5000 m H.S. NR holder Kosuke Ishida (Toyo Univ.) on the entry list this time the front end of the race should be fast and com...

As everyone tunes up for the Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden, New Yeark Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden, Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance meet was the main event. But it wasn't the biggest meet of the long weekend, and it didn't produce the fastest men's 10000 m time. Both of those claims went to Monday's Kanto Region University Time Trials meet at Sagamihara Gion Stadium in rural Kanagawa. With ten heats of men's 10000 m and one women's 10000 m on the program, the seventh heat saw Musashino University first-year Charles Kamau Wanjiku improbably solo the second-fastest time ever by a student at a Japanese university, 27:30.09. Wanjiku's time put him 5 seconds ahead of Hachioji fast heat winner Justus Soget (Honda) and almost two laps ahead of runner-up Yuichiro Ono (Teikyo Univ.). Heat 9 was supposed to have been the main event at the Kanto meet, and although it lost a bit of flair to Wanjiku's incredible run, fourth-year Gaku Hoshi (Teikyo Univ.) ran a ...

It's another big weekend on the track and roads. Two weeks out from the National Track and Field Championships long distance segment, the top tier of men not racing there will be at the Hachioji Long Distance Meet in Tokyo's western suburbs for nine heats of men's 10000 m. The whole meet is being livestreamed for the first time starting at 11:30 a.m. Saturday Japan time, with JRN's Mika Tokairin MCing a commentary crew that includes track and ekiden great Tsuyoshi Ugachi . The B-heat is the main event, with 22 of the top Japan-based Kenyans on the list including Richard Kimunyan Yator (Hitachi Butsuryu) and Andrew Lorot (Subaru). With only one stage at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national championships open to non-citizens, many of the Kenyans will be squaring off against their corporate sponsor teammates so coaches can make an informed decision about who gets to run come Jan. 1. Interesting Japanese entrants include #1 collegiate half marathoner Shoya Kawase (Koga...

Hey, guess what, it's another busy weekend in Japan. 50% busier what with it being a long weekend. Here's what's up: Friday the great Paul Tanui (Kyudenko) leads the show in the Time Trial in Nagasaki track meet, one of the few top-level Japan-based Kenyans not headed to Tokyo for the weekend. Speaking of Tokyo, also Friday is the Fuchu Tamagawa Half Marathon , once the top-level autumn half for university men but fallen on harder times. A few runners from local Komazawa University usually still line up in Fuchu. Everyone but Tanui is headed to western Tokyo for Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance meet, one of the world's premier 10000 m races every year and site of the current Japanese national record. The man who set it, Kota Murayama (Asahi Kasei) is one of two Japanese men entered in the A-heat, the other being 5000 m and marathon national record holder Suguru Osako (NOP). Murayama will be going for a time under the yet-to-be-announced Doha World Champ...

Saturday night saw another round of mid-season track time trial meets across the country. Leading the way, Saku Chosei High School 's Yuhi Nakaya ran the 5th-fastest time ever by a Japanese high schooler, 13:47.22, to take 4th as the top Japanese man behind Ethiopian duo Abiyot Abinet and Yeneblo Biyazen of the Yachiyo Kogyo corporate team and unattached Kenyan James Bunuka Ndiwa in the Heisei Kokusai University Time Trials men's 5000 m A-heat. Former World Youth and World Junior Championships medalist William Malel (Honda) won the Heisei Kokusai 10000 m A-heat in 28:24.46, with Komazawa University grad Shun Inoura (Yachiyo Kogyo) 2nd in 28:28.49. Two Japanese men in the A-heat, Toshinori Watanabe (GMO) and Kazuki Muramoto (Sumitomo Denki) doubled after running in earlier heats of 10000 m. Far to the south, the national champion Asahi Kasei corporate team ran almost its entire team in the 10000 m at the Miyazaki Time Trials meet. 2016 national XC champ Takashi ...

by Brett Larner Along with the weekend's road action there were high-level track meets and time trials all across the country.  The biggest was the two-day Hyogo Relay Carnival in Kobe.  Highlights from Hyogo: In Saturday's Asics Challenge men's 10000 m, Simon Kariuki (Nihon Yakka Univ.) ran 27:55.10 to outrun Hakone Ekiden star Dominic Nyairo (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) for the win.   Ken Yokote (Team Fujitsu) delivered the fastest Japanese time so far in 2017, running 28:04.51 for 3rd.  In his first race since running 1:00:57 at last month's United Airlines NYC Half, Kenta Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei) was 6th in 28:24.13.   Samuel Mwangi (Team Konica Minolta) stopped mid-race and was carried off the track on a stretcher. Two-time World Junior Championships gold medalist Jonathan Ndiku (Team Hitachi Butsuryu) outkicked Rio Olympic silver medalist Paul Tanui (Team Kyudenko) to win Sunday's Grand Prix men's 10000 m in 27:39.40.  Tanui was 2nd in 27...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20150429-OHT1T50341.html translated by Brett Larner 2015 Beijing World Championships team member Masakazu Fujiwara (34, Team Honda) ran in the 5000 m at the Apr. 29 Heisei Kokusai University Time Trials meet.  His first race of the season, he finished in 14:22.76.  "That was about what I expected," he said. Along with World Championships teammates Masato Imai (31, Team Toyota Kyushu) and Kazuhiro Maeda (34, Team Kyudenko), if Fujiwara makes the top 8 in Beijing and is the top Japanese finisher he will be named to the Rio Olympics team.  "I definitely want to seal up a place on the Olympic team in Beijing," he said.  Anticipating a battle between veterans he added, "The other two guys are probably thinking the same thing.  If we don't do it in Beijing it will be hard to make the team.  We're all in our 30s so we can't keep running lots and lots of marathons."

by Brett Larner video and photos by Ekiden News Second only to May's Prefontaine Classic, one of the world's few remaining ultra-deep 10000 m races went down Saturday in the misty mountains of Tokyo's western suburb of Hachioji at the Hachioji Long Distance Time Trials meet.  Japan-based Million Zewdie (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) ran a PB 27:36.35, the fastest time by an Ethiopian man in 2014, to lead 11 men sub-28 in one of the big tuneups for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships.  Right with him was Kenyan Bernard Kimani (Team Yakult) with a 27:36.60 PB for 2nd, while a few strides back Zewdie's teammate Kassa Mekashaw (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) added to the PB haul in 3rd in 27:38.93. The biggest news from the Japanese point of view came in 4th, where Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei), already the fastest Japanese collegiate ever with a 27:44.30 in the U.K. in 2011, ran 27:38.99 for 4th, all-time #5 in the Japanese record books a...

by Brett Larner Earlier this year when Oregon-training then-future 3000 m national record holder Suguru Osako (Team Nissin Shokuhin) ran in a U.S. track meet its webcast announcer, talking about Osako's PBs, said in a mocking tone of voice, "Who runs track in November?"  The answer, of course, is just about every elite Japan-based runner. November is full of track time trial meets that coaches use to assess fitness within their rosters ahead of the mid-December to mid-January national championship ekiden season.  One of the biggest happens on Saturday, the Hachioji Long Distance time trials meet in Tokyo's western suburbs featuring seven men's 10000 m heats packed with much of the top talent in the country.  The A-heat features 18 of the best Japan-based Africans paced by sub-27 man Bedan Karoki (DeNA RC), young sub-28 Japanese athletes Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota), Keita Shitara (Team Konica Minolta), Yuta Shitara (Team Honda) and Tetsuya Yoroizaka (T...

by Brett Larner On the only quiet weekend of the year in the lull before three-straight weekends of National Championship ekiden action, the only domestic races of note took place on the track.  Women's 5000 m national record holder Kayoko Fukushi  (Team Wacoal) returned to action in her first race since October's Chicago Marathon, winning the women's 5000 m at the Kumamoto Long Distance Time Trials meet on the 10th in 15:50.66.  Wacoal used the race as a tuneup for next weekend's National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships, with Wacoal runners taking the majority of the top places. Further north, Sakushin Gakuin H.S. ace Ken Yokote  followed up last weekend's 28:57.31 PB at the Nittai University Time Trials 10000 m with a 13:58.86 to win the 5000 m A-heat at the Heisei Kokusai University Time Trials.  Yokote was the only runner to break 14, his nearest competition, Toyo University's Norihisa Imai , more than 10 seconds behind. Kumamoto Long Distan...

by Brett Larner Sprints were the main attraction on the second day of the 2010 Japanese National University Track and Field Championships on Sept. 11 at Tokyo's National Stadium. 2009 women's 100 m open national champion Momoko Takahashi (Heisei Kokusai Univ.) took 0.07 seconds off her own meet record, winning in 11.55 and announcing that she will join Team Fujitsu following her graduation next March. Two-time men's 100 m open national champion Masashi Eriguchi (Waseda University) had no trouble picking up the university title, coasting to the win in 10.62. It was his fourth straight year winning the 100 m at national university championship, making Eriguchi only the second Japanese man and the first in 77 years to accompish the feat. Both champions returned a few hours later for the 4x100 m relays. Takahashi ran a solid anchor leg but was outdone by the virtually unknown Shigakkan University 's Saori Imai , who brought Shigakkan home for an unexpected win in 45.45. S...