japan running news

Hayato Sonodaage: 30
sponsor: Kurosaki Harima
graduated from: Kumamoto Kokufu H.S., Jobu University

best time inside MGC window:
2:09:34, 2nd, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon

PB: 2:09:34, 2nd, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 14:05.64 (2016) 10000 m: 28:52.49 (2018) half marathon: 1:03:00 (2016)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019)
18th, 2019 Boston Marathon, 2:15:58
8th, 2019 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:10:39
5th, 2018 Fukuoka International Marathon, 2:10:31
4th, 2018 Jakarta Asian Games Marathon, 2:19:04
2nd, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:09:34 – PB
11th, 2017 Fukuoka International Marathon, 2:12:04

other major results:
33rd, 2019 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 1:05:42
21st, 2019 Niigata Half Marathon, 1:06:01
27th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Fourth Stage (22.4 km), 1:07:34
5th, 2018 Kyushu Corporate Ekiden Seventh Stage (16.3 km), 47:22
70th, 2018 Valencia World Half Marathon Championships, 1:04:12
7th, 2017 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:11:32
4th, 2016 Fukuoka International Marathon, 2…

At a press conference in Sayama, Saitama on Mar. 20, 2016 Rio Olympics marathoner Suehiro Ishikawa, 39, announced that he will retire from competition at the end of the month. At the time of the Rio Olympics Ishikawa was 36 years and 11 months old, surpassing 1996 Atlanta Olympics marathoner Hiromi Taniguchi's record of 36 years and 3 months to become Japan's oldest-ever Olympic marathoner. He finished 36th.

"Since I started running high school it's been 24 years," said Ishikawa at the press conference. "I've been with Honda for 17 years, and I made it all the way to the top, the Olympics. I'm glad that I've kept going this long. I thank you all."

Ishikawa ran the Mar. 10 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon but dropped out after only 10 km. It was to be the last race of his career. "It was the first time in my career that I'd ever DNFd, and I thought, 'OK, this is where it ends,'" said Ishikawa. Shortly after the race he made …

The World Championships in athletics were first held in Helsinki, Finland in 1983. Up until the 1991 Tokyo World Championships they were held once every four years, but beginning with the 1993 Stuttgart World Championships they switched to an every other year format. London this year was the 16th edition. To date 68 men with Hakone Ekiden experience have competed in the World Championships, with three of them winning medals in the marathon.

In Tokyo in 1991 Hiromi Taniguchi became the first Japanese World Championships gold medalist, raising the excitement level at the games.  As a student at Nittai University Taniguchi had won the Hakone Ekiden's downhill Sixth Stage three years in a row from 1981 to 1983. As a fourth-year in 1983 he set a new stage record of 57:47. Course changes have rendered his record an historical artifact, but Taniguchi is still considered Hakone's greatest downhill runner.

At the 1999 Seville World Championships and 2005 Helsinki World Championships, …

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20170408-OHT1T50191.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

A long distance and marathon powerhouse, the 2017 New Year Ekiden national champion Asahi Kasei team has recruited Kenyan athletes for the first time. Surpassing even the 10000 m national record of 27:29.69 set by Asahi Kasei's Kota Murayama, 24, the pair of Kenyans includes a 32-year-old veteran who has run sub-27 and a young 23-year-old.  With experience coaching Kenyans at the Aisan Kogyo corporate team through the end of March, Isamu Sennai has also joined the Asahi Kasei staff in preparation for the Kenyans' arrival.

At this year's New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships, 30 of the 37 teams in the field featured foreign athletes.  In the midst of such a field, Asahi Kasei scored the first win by a Japanese-only team in 18 years.  Founded in 1946, Asahi Kasei produced greats including twins Shigeru and Takeshi Soh, 1991 World Championships marathon gold m…

http://www.sanspo.com/smp/sports/news/20170306/ath17030605000001-s.html

an editorial by Hiromi Taniguchi, 1991 Tokyo World Championships marathon gold medalist and two-time Olympic marathoner
translated by Brett Larner

Yesterday's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon was a pretty unremarkable race. Akinobu Murasawa and the other young athletes ran at 3:00/km pace in the lead group to 20 km, but at that point there were only 21 people left in the group and it looked like the more inexperienced athletes started to feel afraid somewhere along the way.  Tadashi Isshiki was the same way.  I think the pressure probably did him in before he even started running.  You have to value the experience level of Satoru Sasaki, who fell off pace midway but came back to take the top Japanese position, but in terms of his time it's tough to consider him.

For the World Championships team, why not select the top three Japanese men from the Tokyo Marathon, Hiroto Inoue, Hiroyuki Yamamoto and Yuta Shitara?  …

http://www.sankei.com/region/news/160512/rgn1605120038-n1.html

translated by Brett Larner

On May 11 Rio Olympics men's marathon team member Suehiro Ishikawa (36, Team Honda) visited city hall in Sayama, Saitama, home ground of the Honda corporate team.  "My goal is to make top eight," he said with determination.  "I'm overjoyed and utterly thrilled.  Making the Olympics is a dream come true and I hope that I can enjoy it at least a little." 

Mayor Tsuyoshi Koyano offered Ishikawa words of support, saying, "On behalf of the city, I offer you our congratulations and best wishes.  We are all looking forward to cheering you on on race day."

Ishikawa turns 37 in September.  In Rio he will become the oldest-ever Japanese man to make an Olympic marathon team, surpassing the record set at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics by Hiromi Taniguchi,  recently turned 36 at the time.  "I want to prove that you can still do it even at this age," Ishikawa said.

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20160229/ath16022905000003-n1.html
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20160229/ath16022905030007-n1.html

translated and edited by Brett Larner

After Aoyama Gakuin University second-year Yuta Shimoda, 19, ran a 2:11:34 debut to finish 10th overall as the second Japanese man in Sunday's Tokyo Marathon, AGU head coach Susumu Haracalled for Shimoda to be put on the Rio team, calling it essential for Shimoda's development before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  While Katsumi Sakai, one of the JAAF executives in charge of team selection, responded flatly, "We do not take the future into account," two of Japan's marathon greats, Olympians Takeyuki Nakayama and Hiromi Taniguchi, gave more nuanced views on Hara's statement.

Takeyuki Nakayama, 4th place, 1988 Seoul Olympics and 1992 Barcelona Olympics marathons

I can understand how Hara feels, but there are a lot of opportunities to get marathon experience even without the Olympics.  Get Shimoda r…

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/why-japans-incredible-longdistance-runners-will-never-win-the-london-marathon-10182050.html

Two Japanese long distance runners have, in fact, won the London Marathon.  The coach cited in the article, Kenji Takao, is a middle and long distance track coach at Ritsumeikan University, a Kansai Region school in Kyoto that, being outside the Tokyo-centric Kanto Region, does not participate in the Hakone Ekiden.

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nnp/f_sougou/article/24670

translated by Brett Larner

A fixture in local culture with runners from Kyushu, Okinawa and Yamaguchi handing off the tasuki on the late autumn roads of Kyushu, the organizers of the Grand Tour Kyushu ekiden announced that the historic event will come to an end following this year's 62nd running from Oct. 27 to Nov. 3.  Organizing board chairman Hiroshi Okazaki told reporters, "This race has long played an important role for the athletics world in Kyushu and across Japan, but we were forced to make this decision due to a combination of growing traffic and budget problems."

With enthusiastic support from dedicated athletes and fans alike the organizers have tried to make adaptations to keep the race alive.  To cope with increased automobile traffic timing rules for the white sash starts were tightened, the number of lead and accompanying vehicles was reduced and more police were employed along the course, but in recen…

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20130218-1087016.html

translated by Brett Larner

2013 Hakone Ekiden winners Nittai University held a banquet at Tokyo's Hotel New Otani on Feb. 18 to celebrate their first Hakone title in 30 years.  More than 1200 guests and dignitaries attended the banquet, including former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, 75, holder of an honorary doctorate from Nittai.  A lifelong Hakone Ekiden fan, Prime Minister Mori praised team captain and Fifth Stage winner Shota Hattori, telling the banquet attendees,  "On TV he looks so strong and powerful, but seeing him in person he is an adorable little munchkin, that Hattori."  Hattori, looking nervous onstage up to that point, laughed and relaxed.

The members of Hattori's last Hakone-winning team from 30 years ago were also in attendance and gathered onstage for a commemorative photo.  Among them were 1991 Tokyo World Championships marathon gold medalist Hiromi Taniguchi, 51, and ot…

by Brett Larner
click here for a collection of 2013 Hakone Ekiden photos courtesy of jiji.com
click here for video highlights courtesy of NTV

Riding the momentum of its Day One win, Nittai University ran unchallenged throughout the second day of the 2013 HakoneEkiden to take its first overall Hakone title in 30 years, crossing the line in 11:13:26 with a lead of nearly five minutes over defending champion Toyo University. Nittai, winners of October’s Yosenkai qualifier after finishing a miserable 19th at Hakone last year, became the first team in Hakone’s 89-year history to go from the qualifier to the overall win. With its last winning team in 1983 having included future marathon world champion Hiromi Taniguchi in its lineup, Nittai’s return to the top took on special symbolic significance.

Nittai’s Yusuke Suzuki made a crucial contribution to the team’s success as he started the day off on the net 750 m downhill Sixth Stage, running well in his Hakone debut to prevent last year’s st…

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/04/02/kiji/K20120402002965070.html

translated by Brett Larner

Tokyo Nogyo University announced on Apr. 2 that 1991 Tokyo World Championships men's marathon gold medalist Hiromi Taniguchi, 51, has been named head coach of its track and field program and an associate professor in the university's Department of International Agriculture and Food Studies.  With an eye to improving its placing at the Hakone Ekiden, Taniguchi has been advising the Tokyo Nogyo University ekiden team since last fall.

Taniguchi ran in both the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 1996 Atlanta Olympics.  After retiring he took a coaching position at Team Asahi Kasei, followed by helping to found the Oki corporate team where he was also head coach.  Most recently he was head coach of the Tokyo Denryoku ekiden team, leaving that position in September, 2010.

Translator's note: Tokyo Nogyo University finished last at this year's Hakone Ekiden after its Day One anchor …