japan running news

Alongside the weekend's 2 big 30 km races and college ekiden action, 4 of Japan's big mass-participation races with quality sub-elite fields happened across the country. The Kitakyushu Marathon just north of Fukuoka saw the fastest men's race up front, with Toyo University 's Mashu Nishimura scoring the win in his debut in 2:16:14, outrunning Rio Olympian Hisanori Kitajima by 2 minutes. The Daihatsu corporate team's Yuki Shibata had a decent debut to win the women's race in 2:40:36. The only one of the 4 marathons to be on the World Athletics calendar and visible to the rest of the world, the Kumamoto Castle men's race was almost as fast as in Kitakyushu, with amateur Hiroaki Furukawa taking a 5th win in 2:16:56 and 3 others under 2:20 like in Kitakyushu. Another amateur, women's winner Michiru Kato took her 5th win too, running a CR and PB 2:42:00. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. , the Kyoto Marathon had the fastest Japan...

The  Tokyo Marathon  announced some withdrawals and additions to the field for next week's race today. Names are as below with reasons given on the Tokyo Marathon website : Men's Marathon Withdrawals Suguru Osako (Japan/Nike) - declines to participate Benard Koech (Kenya/Kyudenko) - in poor condition Hidekazu Hijikata (Japan/Asahi Kasei) - injury Tadashi Isshiki (Japan/NTT Nishi Nihon) - injury Takumi Oishi (Japan/Suzuki) - injury Keigo Yano (Japan/Kao) - injury Tatsuro Oyazaki (Japan/Shindengen) - injury Men's Marathon Additions Hiroaki Furukawa (Japan/Tokyo University Grad School) - 2:16:14 (Kumamoto 2024) Women's Marathon Withdrawals Brigid Kosgei (Kenya) - in poor condition Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) - in poor condition Men's Wheelchair Withdrawals Jin Hua (China) - injury Women's Wheelchair Withdrawals Eden Rainbow-Cooper (Great Britain) - injury Women's Wheelchair Additions Yen Hoang (U.S.A.) © 2025 Brett Larner , all rights reserved

The Kumanichi 30 km and Ome 30 km were the two big road races this past weekend, but there were at least 5 big mass-participation marathons with decent semi-elite results Sunday too. The Kyoto Marathon saw the fastest times of the weekend, with local boy Yuma Morii beating Yudai Fukuda 2:16:19 to 2:16:50 to win. Fuka Hirokawa won the women's race by over 3 minutes in 2:45:09, but 3rd-placer Miyu Fukada had a much faster net time, 2:41:09 versus her gun time of 2:50:16. It's not clear why she started so far back. The Kumamoto Castle Marathon had a great race up front between last year's winner and CR holder Hiroaki Furukawa and Hyuga Abe . Abe missed Furukawa's CR by 12 seconds but beat Furukawa by 14, going 2:16:26 to 2:16:40. Michiru Kato won out over the ageless Mai Fujisawa in the women's race, winning in 2:45:32 to Fujisawa's 2:47:11. Veterans dominated at the Kitakyushu Marathon , where Rio Olympian Hisanori Kitajima , now 40, beat another 40+ ru...

Japan's other big marathon this weekend, the Katsuta Marathon saw a tough four-way race in the men's marathon that came down to a sprint finish in the home straight. Tokyo University graduate student Hiroaki Furukawa , who last year launched action against the Hakone Ekiden organizers for not including a select team in the field for Hakone's 100th edition, passed Sota Yamamoto in the final meters to take 1st in 2:17:28 to Yamamoto's 2:17:29. 3rd and 4th-place Tatsuya Inagaki and Yudai Hiruta weren't far behind, Inagaki finishing in 2:17:41 and Hiruta in 2:17:56. The women's race wasn't as close, but the top three were still only a little more than a minute apart. Kana Numata scored the top spot in 2:44:34, with Natsuki Tomii 2nd in 2:45:33 and Natsumi Kuroda 3rd in 2:45:56. Furukawa and Numata both scored invitations to April's Boston Marathon for their wins, the only Japanese athletes currently in the elite field. In the 10 km race, high schoole...

Tokyo University 's Hiroaki Furukawa and Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University 's Shota Shiode scored sub-2:20 wins at the Kumamoto Castle Marathon and Kochi Ryoma Marathon, and Hakone runner-up Komazawa University 's Ibuki Kaneko and Kyosuke Hanao had good runs over 30 km , Kaneko 2nd at the Ome 30 km in 1:34:15 and Hanao only 5th at the Kumanichi 30 km but faster in 1:33:14. But there were other big results for Japanese collegiate runners this weekend overseas and at home. At the FISU World University Cross Country Championships in Muscat, Oman, Haruka Ogawa of Rikkyo University was at the front of the pack the entire way through the women's 10 km, unable to hang with eventual gold medalist Maria Karabo Mailula of South Africa over the last 2 km loop and losing touch with Great Britain's Alice Goodall just before the end but hanging on for bronze in 34:22. Ogawa was the only Japanese woman to make the top 10, with Rio Einaga (Osaka Gakuin Univ.)...

Both of the big 30 km races this weekend had some of the fastest winning times in their histories, with the Kumanichi 30 km the faster. Kotaro Kondo (SGH) pushed the pace to grind the competition, splitting 15:02-14:56-14:37-14:31 until only Kyuma Yokota (Toyota Kyushu) was left. Things slowed from 20 to 25 km but Kondo still pulled away, putting over a minute on Yokota over the last 10 km and just missing the CR by 2 seconds in 1:28:54. Yokota was 2nd in 1:30:01, with nobody else clearing 1:32. Mao Kiyota (Suzuki) had an even bigger margin of victory in the women's race, wining in 1:44:39 by nearly 2 minutes. At the Ome 30 km and 10 km Road Race , Paris Olympics marathon team members Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Mao Ichiyama (Shiseido) took the top spots in solo performances. With a strong tailwind in the uphill first half and headwind in the mostly downhill second half Akasaki went out incredibly hard, splitting 28:45 at 10 km, on track to break the NR by 1:45, and 58:35 at...

  The Hakone Ekiden will see its 100th running in January. To celebrate this landmark in the event's history, qualification has been opened up to universities from across the country. In June last year the event's organizers the Kanto Region University Sports Association (KGRR) announced that the field would be expanded from the usual 20 schools to 23, but that the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team made up of top individual finishers at October's Yosenkai qualifying race from schools that fail to make the top 23 would not be a part of the 100th running. But that last decision is now being questioned. This spring eight universities led by Tokyo University and Tokyo Kogyo University formed a group to lobby the KGRR to reverse the decision not to include the Student Alliance team. Lobby group member Hiroaki Furukawa , a graduate student at Tokyo University, discussed the situation. Furukawa only learned that the Student Alliance would not be a part of next year...

Another busy weekend in Japan as its road races and marathons continue to return from pandemic-era hiatuses, with two 30 km races, four big marathons, and a post-season university ekiden. In Kumamoto, Yuki Sato (SGH), 36, put in a hard last 5 km to pull away from the massive leading pack and win the Kumanichi 30 km in 1:30:57, the oldest athlete to win Kumanichi to date. Kira Migita (Toyota Kyushu) was 2nd in 1:31:13, just beating Sato's teammate Kazuto Kawabata (SGH) by 1 second. Rui Nishida (Higo Ginko) won the women's race by over 2 minutes in 1:46:58. Sato, who ran a 1:00:35 PB at last weekend's National Corporate Half Marathon, said post-race that he'd done a 30 km training run on Thursday and that Kumanichi had been only a workout effort. In western Tokyo, 2018 Ome 30 km Road Race men's winner Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Danryoku), 38, led almost start to finish in pursuit of a second win on the hilly Ome course, but in the home straight he fell victim to a...

On Nov. 20 Yuji Kawasaki , head coach at Chuo Gakuin University and acting coach of the Kanto Region Student Alliance team for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden, announced that team members would be allowed to choose which stage they will run, with first pick given to the highest-placing finisher at October's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifier half marathon and going down the team's roster in finishing order. "They made this team by running the Yosenkai, so they'll get to pick their stage in the order in which they finished there," he said. "Whatever stage the top finisher wants to run, that's what he'll run." Top placer Hayate Nitta , a 4th-year at Ikuei University and 33rd at the Yosenkai in 1:03:28, chose the First Stage. Ryutsu Keizai University 2nd-year Ryu Hasegawa , 34th in 1:03:32, opted for either the Second or Third Stage. Akio Hashimoto , a 3rd-year at Shibaura Kogyo University and 36th in 1:03:37, picked the famous uphill Fifth Stage. ...