japan running news

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 regulars…

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.


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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-heat was als…

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 prefecture too…

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#tbspic.twitter.com/tLoyDfBRXe — アナログちゃん (@anlgc) January 1, 2016
2013 World Cross-Country Championships junior silver medali…

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 collegiate over 10000 m and until today the …

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 (DeNA) tied Bar…

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 qualifying spot, but the big news of the race f…

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 HakoneEkiden 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 Ekiden champion Komazawa University came only 9th.  Two teams, Josai…