japan running news

Fresh off the announcement of the elite fields for the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon come the fields for the China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon a day earlier on July 5. The top 3 Australian women from the June 1 Launceston Half Marathon , CR breaker Jessica Stenson , Caitlin Adams and Sarah Klein , are back together, with domestic competition Leanne Pompeani and Tara Palm and a group mostly from this year's National Corporate Half Marathon led by Yuri Mitsune , Wakana Itsuki and Aiwa Sakaguchi . The main domestic protagonists from Launceston, Isaac Heyne , Brett Robinson , Liam Boudin , Sam Clifford , Andy Buchanan and Ryan Gregson , are all on the Gold Coast too, but where they faced a group from the Marugame Half in Launceston this time it's a massive National Corporate Half contingent led by sub-61 men Yuma Nishizawa , Hideyuki Tanaka and Yoshiki Oshiro . 2:05 marathoner Kenya Sonota is also on the list, quietly down near the bottom of the elite field with only a 1...

A new, nominally one-off event held as part of Osaka's hosting of Expo 2025, Sunday's ACN Expo Ekiden pit top top corporate and collegiate teams against each other on a 7-stage, 54.5 km course. The new race lost a bit of steam when New Year Ekiden runner-up Honda declined to participate, when winner Asahi Kasei pulled out days before the race, and when the top two teams at the Hakone Ekiden, Aoyama Gakuin University and Komazawa University , didn't field A-list lineups. In their absence it was pretty much a blowout for New Year Ekiden 3rd-placer Toyota , who led start-to-finsh off a great leading run by Yamato Yoshii and stage best titles on 4 of the 7 individual legs to win in 2:32:48. Fujitsu came on strong over the 2nd half with wins by 4th and 5th runners Daniel Kosen and Kazuya Shiojiri and strong runs on the final stages by Hiroki Matsueda and Kengo Suzuki to move into 2nd, finishing 1:14 behind Toyota in 2:34:02. Hakonen 3rd-placer Koku Gakuin University b...

Hot conditions held back fast times at the Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon Sunday, where Ugandan Stella Chesang and Kenya Hillary Kipkoech took the top spots over last year's winners Dolphine Nyaboke Omare and Amos Kurgat . In the women's race Chesang, Omare and Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Chebichii Chumba went out as a trio, Japan-based Hellen Ekarare with them initially but eventually dropping out. After a 15:39 opening 5 km Chumba started to slip off, and by 15 km Chesang was on her own. Chesang won in 1:07:59, solid given the conditions, with Omare 2nd in 1:08:31 and Chumba 3rd in 1:09:10. Rinka Hida was the first Japanese woman, 5th overall in 1:12:06 behind Australian Genevieve Gregson . A lead men's pack of 11 went through 5 km in 14:31, but by 10 km it was down to Kipkoech, Kurgat, , Timothy Kiplagat , Ugandan Stephen Kissa and Japan-based Kenyans Patrick Mathenge Wambui and Anthony Maina . At 15 km in 43:40 only Kurgat and Kipkoech were left, and over the last 5...

In the first major race of 2024, Toyota took the lead on the 2nd leg to hold off two-time winner Honda for its first New Year Ekiden national title since 2016. The 12.3 First Stage had a 7-way sprint finish, with Naoki Ota (Yakult) taking the top spot over Hazuma Hattori (NTT Nishi Nihon) in 34:42 and 35-year-old Minato Oishi (Toyota) 4 seconds back in his final New Year Ekiden before retiring. On the new 21.9 km Second Stage, Ota's older brother Tomoki Ota (Toyota) immediately went to the front, initially with company from 2:06 marathoner Yohei Ikeda (Kao) and Ken Nakayama (Honda) but soon on his own. Ota, 2nd at last month's NR-breaking 10000 m National Championships, took advantage of a tailwind to win the stage in 1:01:40, a 59:25 half marathon equivalent, and hand off to new teammate Ren Tazawa . Tazawa, 4th at the 10000 m National Championships, split 27:35 en route on the 15.4 km Third Stage, and after Felix Korir held the lead on the new 7.8 km Fourth Leg it w...

Sunday's other big race in Hokkaido was the Hakodate Half Marathon and Marathon , where members of Japan's marathon squad for August's Budapest World Championships and qualifiers for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials tune up for their races. In the men's half marathon, Shun Sadakata held off Evans Kipkemei to take the win by 2 seconds in a PB and CR 1:01:37. Hideyuki Tanaka took 3rd in 1:01:40, with Dan Kiplangat the only other runner under 62 in 1:01:54 for 4th. Half marathon NR holder Yusuke Ogura was 6th in 1:02:38, and close behind him was marathon NR holder Kengo Suzuki , 7th in 1:02:46. For Suzuki it was the first time he'd made it to the starting line of a race since the March, 2022 Tokyo Marathon, and as the first MGC qualifier to finish in Hakodate his performance there was good enough to generate a collective sigh of relief. Budapest marathon team member Kazuya Nishiyama didn't have the same kind of day, only 15th in 1:03:58. Women-o...

Japanese athletes were busy on the track overseas this weekend. At Friday's Stumptown Twilight meet in Portland, indoor mile Asian record holder  Nanami Arai (Honda) took 2nd in the men's 1500 m in 3:39.58, his second time this season breaking 3:40. It used to be a rarity to see a Japanese man clear 3:40, something that happened once every couple of years, but so far this season four Japanese men have done it a total of six times. If the distance had even a fraction of the prestige of the Hakone Ekiden, or of that it has in the U.S., there's no doubt there'd be more. Speaking of distances with prestige, on the first day of London's Muller Anniversary Games Diamond League spectacular Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) became the third Japanese man to join the sub-10 club, running 9.98 (+0.5 m/s) for 4th in the men's 100 m final. Koike also ran 2nd on the Japanese men's 4x100 m relay team, which clocked a season best 37.78 for 2nd despite featuring only two r...

2019 Japanese track and road distance running rankings. Overall rankings are calculated using runners' times and placings in races over 5000 m, 10000 m, half-marathon and marathon and the strength of these performances relative to others in the top ten in each category. Distances will be added as the season progresses. Click any image to enlarge. Past years: 2018  ・  2017  ・  2016   ・  2015  ・  2014  ・  2013  ・  2012  ・  2011 © 2019 Brett Larner,  all rights reserved

National records fell for the third meet in a row in the four-part Hokuren Distance Challenge series Wednesday in Fukagawa, Hokkaido. Longtime Japan resident Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) had a shockingly good run in the women's 10000 m A-heat, following up her 1:06:56 bronze medal run at the Valencia World Half Marathon Championships by lopping over a minute off her 10000 m best and 9 seconds off the Japanese all-comers record with a 2018 world-leading time of 30:41.85. Kamulu lapped the entire field, her nearest competitor Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) returning from a 2:23:46 marathon PB in Osaka in January to take 30 seconds off her own best in 32:13.87. Further back, Seul Ki Ahn broke the South Korean national record set 13 years ago in Fukagawa with a new mark of 32:33.61. Ahn's NR followed the 2:25:41 NR set by Do Yeon Kim at the Seoul International Marathon in March, a miniature renaissance in South Korea women's distance running. The men's 10000 m A-he...

by Brett Larner video highlights courtesy of race broadcaster NHK The men of Aichi returned from the embarrassment of disqualification for an illegal handoff at last year's National Men's Ekiden to join their women and seal a double national title Sunday in Hiroshima.  Like the women's race last weekend , the National Men's Ekiden featured teams from each of Japan's 47 prefectures, each made up of top junior high school, high school, university and pro runners representing their home ground. On-and-off snow meant shifting conditions throughout the seven-stage, 48.0 km race.  With corresponding ups and downs in the pacing, the 7.0 km high schooler First Stage was a bloodbath with three separate falls involving at least four teams.  Undefeated against other Japanese runners in the 2015-16 school year, Hyuga Endo (Fukushima) waited until the final sprint to take the lead, handing off 1 second ahead of more well-known rival Shota Onizuka (Fukuoka).  Gunma pr...

by Brett Larner photos by @rikujolove 2015 national corporate men's champion Toyota held off all comers to take a second-straight New Year Ekiden national title thanks in part to its second-to-last runner Hideyuki Tanaka and some bad luck for its strongest competition. An expected challenge from the all-Japanese Asahi Kasei superteam never materialized as its 10000 m national record-breaking pair Tetsuya Yoroizaka and Kota Murayama finished 16th and 24th out of 43 on the first two of the 100.0 km New Year Ekiden's seven stages.  In their absence Yoshihiro Wakamatsu of East Japan region runner-up Nissin Shokuhin took the First Stage, 4 seconds ahead of Konica Minolta 's Kazuto Nishiike and another 5 seconds ahead of Toyota's Tsubasa Hayakawa , winner of last year's anchor stage. 【動画】これはひどい。 沿道の観客の犬が飛び出しコニカミノルタのポールクイラ選手転倒 ちゃんとリード持っとけよアホ #ニューイヤー駅伝 #tbs pic.twitter.com/tLoyDfBRXe — アナログちゃん (@anlgc) January 1, 2016 2013 World Cross-Country Cha...

by Brett Larner video by Ekiden News Fourteen and a half years is a long time to wait. Everything was aligned. The field. The weather.  The loom of impending Olympic glory.  The sheer vibe.  Hachioji .   Thousands of fans packed around a home soil track tucked in the mountainous foothills of suburban western Tokyo knowing they were going to see something special, that, after the 5000 meter-wide leak sprung mid-summer by the Salazar-powered Suguru Osako , the sheer mass of young talent building in Japan was finally going to break through the dam holding them back. All credit due to Kenyan William Malel (Honda), who went out at 10000 m world record pace and led completely alone start to finish, withering on the vine with 1000 to go but pulling down a PB of 27:22.12 for the win, and to Johana Maina (Fujitsu) who almost ran him down.  But the race was not their story. From the start Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei), once the fastest-ever Japanese co...

by Brett Larner The 2015 New Year Ekiden marked a transition in Japanese distance running as a new wave of heavily talented collegiates including sub-62 half marathoners Shinobu Kubota (Komazawa University to Team Toyota), Suguru Osako (Waseda University to Team Nissin Shokuhin) and twins Keita Shitara (Toyo University to Team Konica Minolta) and Yuta Shitara (Toyo University to Team Honda) made a major impact in their corporate league debuts. Training with Alberto Salazar 's Nike Oregon Project and running for 2012 New Year Ekiden winner Nissin Shokuhin , Osako ran under control through the 12.3 km First Stage before kicking away in the last km to open a 5-second lead, 6 seconds ahead of 2011 winner Toyota and 7 seconds ahead of two-time defending champion Konica Minolta .  2013 World XC Jr. silver medalist Leonard Barsoton (Kenya) took Nissin's lead even further to 11 seconds, soloing a stage-winning 22:39 for the 8.3 km Second Stage.  Sub-27 Kenyan Bedan Karoki ...

by Brett Larner Four regions across Japan held their qualifying races on Sunday for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships.  In the Chugoku region, Team Chugoku Denryoku  suffered a scare in its pursuit of a 17th-straight win, trailing trailing Team Mazda  until the sixth of the ekiden's seven stage before advacing to earn its place in Maebashi on New Year's Day.  Ideal conditions helped runners set new records on five of the ekiden's seven stages, led by a scintillating 19:41 record on the 7.2 km Second Stage by Ethiopian Ayele Abayneh  (Team Mazda), who outran Team JFE ace Kenyan Charles Ndirangu  by nine seconds.  Four teams in all from the Chugoku region qualified. Six teams made the grade in the Kansai Region, where Team Sagawa Express  won despite the absence of London Olympics marathoner Ryo Yamamoto .   Team Osaka Gas had a close victory over the Osaka Police Department team to pick up the last qualify...

by Brett Larner click here for video highlights courtesy of NTV The early going near Shinagawa Stn. on the First Stage. Photo by Phil Suh. With headwinds gusting to over 70 kph  near the Fifth Stage handoff marking the windiest January day in recorded history, Day One of the 2013 Hakone Ekiden saw defending champion and course record holder Toyo University  fall short of making history of its own as Nittai University  captain Shota Hattori  ran down Toyo anchor Toshiki Sadakata  two-thirds of the way through the nearly 900 m uphill, 23.4 km Fifth Stage to give Nittai its first Day One win in 26 years in 5:40:15.  Toyo was in search of a first-ever fifth-straight Day One win, but along with 2011 winner Waseda University and fellow contender  Meiji University  finished the day within range of Nittai for the overall win tomorrow.  2012 Izumo Ekiden course record-setter Aoyama Gakuin University was 6th and 2012 National University Ekid...