japan running news

Last weekend's Nagoya Women's Marathon and the Tokyo Marathon the weekend before brought the main part of the first year of qualification for the Marathon Grand Championship Race, Japan's L.A. Olympics marathon trials to be held in Nagoya in October, 2027, to an end. There are still a few races like the Nagano Marathon and overseas World Athletics platinum label races this season where people might qualify, but for the most part we're not likely to see many new additions until August's Hokkaido Marathon, where the qualifying period opened last year. As of right now 16 women and 26 men have qualified, although the first woman to make the cut, Ai Hosoda , announced that she was retiring after Tokyo earlier this month. Out of the 16 women to have qualified so far, Mikuni Yada is the fastest with her 2:19:57 debut at Osaka Women's in January. Including Hosoda that makes 2 qualifiers for the Edion corporate team, but Daihatsu has the biggest share of the field so ...

The Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon was a strictly amateur race on the women's side, Chika Yokota running a 2:43:45 PB for the win. But with 6 spots at the L.A. Olympics marathon trials on the line all the Japanese men were obsessed over getting their places reserved early. 2 first-half falls knocked Ethiopian Abe Gashahun and 2024 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon winner Yota Ifuku out of the race, but the rest of the field rolled on steadily just under 3:00/km. The pace crew took them to 30 km in 1:29:45, 2:06:15 pace, and at that point there were still 20 in it including the home soil favorites Yuya Yoshida and Asahi Kuroda . Inside the last 10 km Ethiopian Getachew Masresha went to the front, followed initially by the debuting Takato Suzuki but let go by the rest of the pack. Once Masresha was about 10 seconds ahead Kuroda, the collegiate record holder and CR breaker on the Hakone Ekiden's legendary uphill Fifth Stage a month ago, picked it up in pursuit. After Kuroda ran ...

The Feb. 1 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon is coming in hot this year with what's got to be a shot at the 2:04:55 Japanese NR. Up front is the king of this year's Hakone Ekiden, collegiate marathon NR holder Asahi Kuroda of 2026 Hakone champ Aoyama Gakuin University . Last year at Beppu-Oita AGU's Hiroki Wakabayashi ran a 2:06:07 debut to break the collegiate marathon record. 3 weeks later Kuroda bettered that with a 2:06:05 in his debut in Osaka. He comes in fresh off the greatest run in Hakone history, taking 2 minutes off Wakabayashi's CR for the massive uphill Fifth Stage in a run that Letsrun.com estimated was worth a 57:30-58:00 half marathon. Make of that what you will, if you accept 58:00 that's worth sub-2:02 in the marathon. Call it 59:00 and you're still talking sub-2:04. Can he possibly live up to the hype? Beppu-Oita is basically not that kind of race, but looking at the rest of the front end of the field they've got to be thinking that way. 2:...

A native of Shimabara, Nagasaki, Ryota Kondo , 25, visited Nagasaki City Hall ahead of September's Tokyo World Championships where he will represent Japan in the marathon. At February's Osaka Marathon Kondo set a debut marathon national record of 2:05:39, finishing 2nd overall and in the top Japanese spot to earn himself a place on the Japanese national team for the World Championships. "I like to go hiking in Oehara, or up the steep slopes in Nagayo and Nameshi," he told city officials. "Climbing steep hills strengthens my legs and hips." At the Tokyo World Championships the men's marathon will start at 8:00 a.m. on September 15. The race is likely to happen in lingering late-summer heat. "I tend to be pretty positive about things," Kondo said. "I think the hot conditions will prevent a lot of other athletes from performing up to their full ability. The way I see it, when things get tough it's an opportunity." Kondo is the third ...

38,000 people ran the 2025 Tokyo Marathon . Every runner had their own story, but one of the most special was Tsubasa Ichiyama (Sunbelx). Despite being on almost nobody's radar, he outran some of the best in the country to finish as the top Japanese man. Ichiyama ran most of the race in the 3rd pace group, going through halfway in 1:02:44 and 30 km in 1:29:13. When the pacers stopped, he showed what he could really do. "I'm not good at downhills, so in the first part it was hard to run smoothly," he said at the post-race press conference. "But after the downhill part ended I got into my rhythm, and I think that helped me over the 2nd half." After dropping Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) and others, he quickly bore down on the Japanese athletes who had gone out faster in the 2nd pace group. Overtaking Paris Olympics 6th placer Akira Akasaki (Kyudenko) and Yuhei Urano (Fujitsu), at 39.8 km he caught all-time Japanese #2 man Yohei I...

It’s been a big month for Japanese men’s marathoning. Across four races in the 29 days from February 2nd to March 2nd, the Feb. 2 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon , Feb. 9 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon , Feb. 24 Osaka Marathon and Mar. 2 Tokyo Marathon , from 2:05:39 to 2:09:55 a total of 47 Japanese men broke 2:10 in the marathon. Ethiopia has had 48 under 2:10 so far in 2025, a lot of them in January, and all other countries combined a total of 59, so it’s pretty safe to say Japan is the country that’s been having the biggest impact on World Athletics’ top lists over the last month. Osaka is the heavyweight of the four races, with 28 of the sub-2:10s and four of the five fastest times including both 2:05 performances, Ryota Kondo ’s 2:05:39 debut for 2nd and Kyohei Hosoya ’s 2:05:58 PB. Tokyo was next with eleven sub-2:10 performances led by Tsubasa Ichiyama in a 2:06:00 PB, Beppu-Oita next with seven topped by a 2:06:07 debut by Hiroki Wakabayashi , and Nobeoka producing a 2:09:43 wi...

If there was one consistent theme through all 4 races at the Tokyo Marathon this year it was risk. With temperatures nearing 20˚ and sunny conditions in the forecast pacing plans audaciously called for 2:01 for the lead men and 2:12 for the lead women, with the next 3 groups on both sides all slated for very ambitious times. The men's wheelchair race kicked things off, 2024 Tokyo winner and NR holder Tomoki Suzuki going after his own NR completely solo and coming up with a 1:19:14 CR that saw him beat 2nd place by over 11 minutes. The women's race was a CR-pace showdown between Paris Paralympics gold and bronze medalists Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland and Susannah Scaroni of the U.S.A. that saw them locked together until 40 km. Debrunner had that something else that makes her the world record holder, throwing down to open 32 seconds on Scaroni over the last 2 km, both breaking the CR but Debrunner getting the win in a stellar 1:35:56. The women's marathon was a comp...

Four of last year's top five women will be back at the Osaka Marathon , with 2023 winner and CR breaker Helen Tola Bekele returning to face runner-up Beyenu Degefa , Lisa Weightman , and new additions Fancy Chemutai , 2:18:11 in Valencia 2022, and Viola Jelgata Kibiwot , 2:22:57 in Frankfurt last fall. Misaki Ichida was the 2nd Japanese woman last year in 2:25:51 for 5th, and she's the top-ranked domestic name this year at 8th in the field. You wouldn't know Osaka is the third of four big men's marathons in Japan in the course of four months, as 49 sub-2:10 men are entered. It's a completely different field from last year, with the top returning runner being Shohei Otsuka , 8th last year in 2:06:57. Japanese men have to run 2:05:50 to have a chance of taking the third Olympic team spot away from Suguru Osako , and top three-ranked Stephen Kissa , Adeladlew Mamo and Yihunilign Adane are all positioned from 2:04:48 to 2:05:53 to help enable that. Realistically, ev...

Japan's 2022 first half domestic marathon season is done, and with Sunday's Wan Jin Shi Marathon having been the last chance for people to get onto the board for the Japan Marathon Championship Series I it's clear where things stand for the new JMC national title, for Oregon World Championships team qualification, and for qualification for the 2023 Marathon Grand Championship , volume 2 of Japan's more-or-less one-shot Olympic marathon trials. In terms of pure numbers, the 10 fastest men so far in 2022 average 2:07:30 and the 10 fastest women 2:22:45, putting the men #3 in the world behind Ethiopia and Kenya and the women 2nd only to Ethiopia. For men that's the 3rd-fastest annual average ever, following 2021 and 2020. For women it's the fastest-ever. Kengo Suzuki leads the men at 2:05:28, with another 9 men having run 2:07. Mizuki Matsuda is the fastest women at 2:20:52, with 9 other women under 2:25. It's not that meaningful to compare modern times to ...

A few days ago the Tokyo Marathon announced the domestic elite field for its 2021 edition being held Mar. 6, 2022, with the caveat that final decisions on whether it would go ahead and whether it would have an international field, originally slated to feature men's world record holder Eliud Kipchoge , would have to wait until Feb. 18. Yesterday the Osaka Marathon announced its field for this year's race on Feb. 27, and like Osaka, Tokyo's field gives away its history as a men-only race. The men's field is even more massive than Osaka's, and the women's field only slightly deeper. Overall Tokyo is solid, with the men's NR holder, the women-only NR holder, both half marathon NR holders, the last three Fukuoka International Marathon winners, seven men with recent times under 2:07, 31 under 2:10, 112 under 2:20, and two debuting sub-61 half marathoners. Only three women on the list including women-only NR holder Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) have gone sub-2:30 vs. th...

Beating the odds as race after race cancels amid rising COVID numbers, the Osaka International Women's Marathon went ahead as planned Sunday in great conditions along with its partner Osaka Half Marathon . Osaka local and favorite Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) proved unstoppable again, running with three male pacers on mid-2:19 pace most of the way, dropping lone competitor Mao Uesugi (Starts) with a surge at 25 km, fading over the final 10 km but hanging on to break the course record with a PB 2:20:52 that moved her up to all-time Japanese #5. In six marathon starts to date Matsuda has won Osaka three times, Nagoya once, and placed 5th in Berlin, all between 2:20:52 and 2:22:44. Not many people have that kind of record of success, anywhere. With this performance she's all but a lock to be named to the Oregon World Championships team, where she'll get a chance to show what she can do against real international competition. But having been in the same position for the Tokyo ...

Just about the only mass-participation race not to have canceled as Japan's COVID numbers hit record-breaking levels every day, the  Osaka Half Marathon happened Sunday alongside the Osaka International Women's Marathon . 3,572 people finished the half, making it the biggest in Japan so far this year. 2:06 marathoner Hiroto Inoue (Mitsubishi Juko) ran a PB to win the men's race in a 1:01:14 course record as part of his buildup for a shot at the 2:04:56 marathon national record at March's Tokyo Marathon, if it happens. Chugoku Denryoku corporate teammates Joseph Waweru Nganga , Takumi Kiyotani and Naoki Okamoto did most of the work leading the race, with Inoue not taking over until around 15 km, which he split in 43:22. When he made his break for it Kiyohito Akiyama (Aichi Seiko) was the only one to go with him, but Akiyama soon let go and settled back into a small chase group with Nganga, Okamoto and Akira Tomiyasu (Raffine). Inoue was unchallenged over the final...