japan running news

A big group of Japanese men ran the Berlin Half Marathon on Mar. 29. The top finisher among them, Hikaru Tsujihara (Koku Gakuin Univ.) ran 1:00:33 for 11th, the 8th-fastest time ever by a Japanese-born collegiate runner. The time improved his PB of 1:00:51 from last year's Marugame Half by 18 seconds. Tsujihara went on from that performance to set a CR on last October's Izumo Ekiden 4th leg, then was 9th on the 2nd leg at the National University Ekiden and 4th on the Hakone Ekiden 's 4th leg. Tsujihara's KGU teammate Yuta Asano was 12th in 1:01:12, a PB by 15 seconds over his time at this year's Marugame. Hikaru Ogawara (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) was 20th in 1:01:30, another PB by 44 seconds ahead of his time in Marugame last year. Kiyoto Hirabayashi (Logisteed) was 32nd in 1:02:51, Kosei Atomura (Koku Gakuin Univ.) 39th in 1:03:16, Aito Sato (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) 42nd in 1:03:40, and Itsuki Takaishi (Koku Gakuin Univ.) 43rd in 1:04:03. Japanese-born Collegiate...

2024 Hakone Ekiden course record breaker Aoyama Gakuin University was 3:16 up on 2023 winner Komazawa University at the end of Day One of the Hakone 2025, an even bigger margin than last year when it was 2:38 ahead of Komazawa and went on to win the 217.1 km overall race in a course record 10:41:25, beating Komazawa by almost 7 minutes. There was almost no chance Komazawa could close the gap today on the return trip of Hakone Day Two. But that doesn't mean they didn't try. Komazawa 3rd year Aoi Ito was just off the CR on the ~800 m downhill 6th leg in 57:38, but even with a run that good he lost ground when AGU's Akimu Nomura proved a hypothetical, breaking the 57-minute barrier for the 20.8 km leg with a 30-second CR of 56:47. Post-race Nomura said that he had spent the whole year training to run 56, and he executed perfectly. And put AGU 4:07 ahead, hopeless, except for a ray of hope. Injured for most of 2024 and running his first race since March on only 6 weeks of...

  At this weekend's Summer Night Run Festival in CHUO track meet at Chuo University 's Tama campus, Chuo 1st-year Kaisei Okada ran 7:55.41 for 3000 m, the 4th-fastest Japanese U20 time ever. A rebranded version of the Chuo University Time Trials series, the Summer Night Run Festival featured top junior high school and high school athletes and members of Aoyama Gakuin University 's 2024 Hakone Ekiden champion team, with Chuo team members and alumni running as pacers. The third heat of 3000 m included AGU's Asahi Kuroda , Shota Shiode and Shunya Udagawa . Okada won, his 7:55.41 being his first time under 8 minutes, with 2nd-year teammate Hayate Honma also cracking 8 minutes in 7:58.65 for 2nd. Kuroda was 3rd in 8:02.83, with AGU 1st-year Hikaru Ogawara 5th in 8:05.81. Okada graduated from Kyoto's Rakunan H.S. , home of national record setters like Keita Sato , Ryuji Miura , Yoshihide Kiryu and Toshinari Takaoka . His 2nd year of high school he was 12th in the 50...