japan running news

The Mar. 8 Nagoya Women's Marathon is really the last chance for Japanese women to make the 2020 Sapporo Olympic marathon team. At last September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials the top two put themselves on the team for sure. 3rd-placer Rei Ohara (Tenmaya) was provisionally on the team unless someone ran 2:22:22 or better at one of the three main winter Japanese women's marathons. Last month in Osaka , MGC 4th-placer Mizuki Matsuda (Denso) did just that, running 2:21:47 for the win. So, the task now in Nagoya, the last of the three chances to steal a spot, is for someone to run 2:21:46. Yuka Ando (Wacoal) is the only Japanese woman in the race who has done it before, running  2:21:36 in her debut there three years ago. She hasn't been anywhere near that since then, but with a change to the Wacoal corporate team last year she seems to be going in the right direction. Wacoal also has its other two heavy hitters on the list, four-time Olympian Kayoko Fu...

At least six runners broke five national records at today's fast and deep Marugame Half Marathon . The ambitious Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) kicked off the women's race by taking a swing at the 1:06:38 Japanese women's national record set two weeks ago in Houston by Hitomi Niiya (Sekisui Kagaku), with Namibian national record holder Helalia Johannes close behind. Ichiyama dropped off after the turnaround near 10 km, leaving Johannes to run on alone to a new record of 1:08:10, 2:20 under the record she set just last April. Ichiyama faded to 5th in 1:08:56, run down by 2019 Sanyo Ladies Half winner Charlotte Purdue , South Korean Kyun Sun Choi , and Australian Sinead Diver on the return trip. Purdue took 2nd in 1:08:23, with Choi close behind in a national record 1:08:35 for 3rd over Diver, 2:39 off the 2009-era South Korean record. Succeeding where Ichyama fell short, Andrea Seccafien took 3 seconds off the Canadian national record set in Houston by Natasha Wodak , fini...

All three of Sunday's main road races saw quality times thanks to a combination of deep fields, good conditions and the promise of national team spots. First up at the National University Men's Half Marathon Championships in western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park, Hakone Ekiden Fourth Stage course record breaker Akira Aizawa (Toyo Univ.) led the top three under 62 minutes in a skillfully controlled 1:01:45. With places on the team for this summer's Napoli World University Games team at stake Aizawa waited until near the end to take advantage of the final hills to break free of the pack. Runner-up Taisei Nakamura (Komazawa Univ.) and 3rd-placer Tatsuhiko Ito (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) both cleared 62 minutes for the first time, Nakamura in 1:01:51 and Ito in 1:01:52, Ito's mark especially newsworthy from the still fresh new Tokyo Kokusai program. Teammates Hidekazu Hijikata and Yuhei Urano (Koku Gakuin Univ.) were both just over the 62-minute mark to round out the...