japan running news

http://www.asahi.com/articles/SEB201311260038.html http://www.asahi.com/articles/TKY201311140653.html translated and edited by Brett Larner The organizers of the 67th Fukuoka International Marathon announced on Nov. 26 that feature foreign invited athlete Gebre   Gebremariam  (Ethiopia) has withdrawn from Sunday's race with an injury to his left calf.  Gebremariam was the 2010 New York City Marathon champion and went on to run 2:04:53 at the heavily wind-aided 2011 Boston Marathon.  He placed 8th in the 10000 m at the 2012 London Olympics. Also announced was the withdrawal of domestic elite Hiroyuki Horibata  (Team Asahi Kasei) due to pain in his left knee.  At last year's Fukuoka Horibata ran a PB 2:08:24 to finish 2nd overall as the top Japanese man, qualifying for the 2013 Moscow World Championships marathon.  After suffering a stress fracture in the spring he dropped out of August's World Championships marathon at 13 km after experiencing di...

by Brett Larner The Fukuoka International Marathon has released the entry list for its 67th running on Dec. 1 and it's a familiar story line: one marquee African athlete and a half-dozen other foreign athletes in range of the best Japanese men on the list.  Even more so this year, with its top-end list of seven names identical to last year's field save for the substitution of Ethiopian great Gebre Gebremariam  for Ethiopian greater Haile Gebreselassie .  Gebremariam gets the official number one seed from Fukuoka organizers due to his heavily aided 2:04:53 from the 2011 Boston Marathon with no note on the entry list of that time being aided, but with a legitimate best of only 2:08:00 from the 2011 New York City Marathon he has just the sixth-fastest PB in the field.  The true top seed goes to bib #21, defending champion Joseph Gitau  (Kenya/Team JFE Steel), the only man in the field with a genuine sub-2:07 to his name.  Joining him again are last year's 3...

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/sports/athletic/wc/2013/columndtl/201308180002-spnavi?page=1 translated by Brett Larner On the 8th day of competition at the World Championships, August 17 in Moscow on a loop course starting and ending at Luzhniki Stadium, Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki) ran 2:10:50 for 5th place.  Faced with the impossible task of following the Africans' wild pace changes, he pushed on steadily at his own pace to continue Japan's eight-championship streak of finishing in the top eight.  London Olympics champion Stephen Kiprotich  (Uganda) won in 2:09:51.  Among the other Japanese team members, Masakazu Fujiwara  (Team Honda) was 14th in 2:14:29, Kazuhiro Maeda  (Team Kyudenko) 17th in 2:15:25, and Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't.) 18th in 2:15:35. Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) was a DNF. We talked to three prominent members of the Japanese running industry, former marathon great and current DeNA Running C...

by Brett Larner In his third-straight appearance on a World Championships or Olympic team, Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki) confirmed his position as Japan's best marathoner, building on his 10th-place finish at the 2011 Daegu World Championships and 6th-place finish last summer at the London Olympics with a characteristically steady and relentless race for 5th in 2:10:50 in the Moscow World Championships marathon after spending most of the race in the leading pack with eventual medalists Stephen Kiprotich (Uganda), Lelisa Desisa  (Ethiopia) and Tadese Tola  (Ethiopia) and defending Chicago and London Marathon champion Tsegay Kebede  (Ethiopia). After a slow first 10 km the leading group settled onto a mid-2:10 pace where it stayed for the remainder of the day.  Nakamoto and Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't) were quick to position themselves near the front of the pack, with Kazuhiro Maeda  (Team Kyudenko) and Masakazu Fujiwara  (T...

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/news/130815/oth13081522110024-n1.htm http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20130815-OHT1T00177.htm http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20130815-00001096-yom-spo translated and edited by Brett Larner The Japanese men's marathon team for the ongoing Moscow World Championships appeared at a Moscow-area press conference on Aug. 15 to talk about their ambitions for the Aug. 17 race.   Kazuhiro Maeda  (Team Kyudenko), Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't), Hiroyuki Horibata  (Team Asahi Kasei), Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Masakazu Fujiwara  (Team Honda) all took part in the press conference.  With all five men having run 2:08 to earn a place on the team, talk of making the top eight on Saturday was the main topic. Civil servant runner Kawauchi has taken his own unique approach to preparing for his second-straight World Championships, running a large number of races.  In the last World Championshi...

by Brett Larner Click here for JRN's men's and women's long distance track previews. It's a clear sign of the shift in strength and popularity in Japanese distance running from the women to the men that this year's World Championships marathon team includes only three women but five men.  The Federation laid down strict standards this time, sub-2:24, sub-2:08 or impress us in a domestic race, hit those times in an overseas race or don't come back, and stuck to them.  Tough love for the women, where the almost-always reliable Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) ran 2:24:43 for 3rd at the London Marathon, arguably a more impressive achievement than a bronze medal in Moscow, and was not given consideration because hey, those are the rules, while the great Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) and Kayoko Fukushi  (Team Wacoal) got in with comparable over-2:24 times and placings in the far less competitive Osaka and Nagoya Women's Marathons.  To say nothing of at least one...

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 i...

by Brett Larner The Japanese Federation Rikuren announced the lineup for this year's Moscow World Championships marathon teams at a press conference on Apr. 25.  With tough sub-2:08 and sub-2:24 standards in place this time around, the team selection provided a surprising outcome: a full men's squad but only three women. No men met the sub-2:08 standard, but all five men to run 2:08 in the selection races are on the roster, four of them having run PBs to get there.   Kazuhiro Maeda  (Team Kyudenko) leads the way with a 2:08:00 PB for 4th at this year's Tokyo Marathon, joined by enigmatic serial marathoner Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't), 2011 Daegu World Championships marathon 7th place Hiroyuki Horibata  (Team Asahi Kasei), 2012 London Olympics marathon 6th place Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki), and, running 2:08 again 10 years since the last time he achieved that level, debut and collegiate marathon national record holder Masakazu Fujiwar...

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/sports/athletic/all/2013/columndtl/201303040002-spnavi?page=1 by Yoshimichi Nakao translated and edited by Brett Larner The finale has come and gone for the series of domestic selection races for the Japanese men's marathon team for August's Moscow World Championships.  At the last of the domestic races, the Mar. 3 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, general division entrant Masakazu Fujiwara  (Team Honda) ran 2:08:51 to finish 4th overall as the top Japanese man, ten years and one day since his last 2:08, the longest any man has ever gone between successive sub-2:10 marathons.  Although he missed hitting the Federation's 2:07:59 standard for automatic Worlds team selection Fujiwara's performance still went a long way toward getting his name on the shortlist. 2012 London Olympian Ryo Yamamoto (Team Sagawa Express) was 5th in 2:09:06, with Fujiwara's teammate Suehiro Ishikawa  (Team Honda) achieving his first sub-2:10, 6th in 2:09:10. ...

by Brett Larner Japanese men are back on track. 2012 saw all-time Japanese top ten performances over 10000 m, half-marathon and the marathon, and overall depth at those distances has almost never been better.  Just two years ago there was only one sub-2:10 marathon by a Japanese man, but in 2012 there ten, including a 2:07 and four 2:08's.  Apart from Japan only Kenya and Ethiopia have ever had ten or more in one year.  University men continued to reach unprecedented heights, with course records at all three major university ekidens and collegiates making the 2012 top ten lists for 5000 m, 10000 m, half-marathon and even the marathon. Quality over 5000 m and shorter is still an issue and there is still a long way to go at the longer distances, as well as a major problem with Japanese men's ability to show up at major international competitions and compete.  Apart from London Olympics marathon 6th-placer Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki) the entire Ja...