japan running news

The Hokkaido Marathon happens Aug. 30 in Sapporo. Although it's not a top-tier race on the global schedule, the JAAF gives it special status in qualification for the MGC Race Los Angeles Olympics marathon trials, with 3 spots available to men who run under 2:12:00 and women under 2:32:00. Compare that to the criteria for making the trials by running the WA platinum label Sydney Marathon the same day, where men have to run under 2:06:30 and women 2:23:30 regardless of how they place. It's hard to see that as anything other than disincentivizing Japanese runners from racing abroad, with protecting the JAAF's financial interest in domestic races being the priority over getting the best athletes into the Olympic trials. But anyway, there are pretty good fields of people willing to not step out of line. All 6 women with marathon finishes to their name have run under 2:30 in the last 3 years led by veteran Hitomi Niiya with a 2:21:50 in Tokyo 2 years ago. Most are in the 2:26-2...

Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura will retire at the end of this fiscal year on Mar. 31, 2026. On Jan. 23 he released the following statement on his sponsor Fujitsu 's corporate team site. To everyone who has supported me I have decided to bring my career as a competitive athlete to its end and retire. I started running in 5th grade, and over the many years since then it has been my life. I'm really happy to be able to end it as part of the Fujitsu team. I've been with Fujitsu since I graduated from Komazawa University , and thanks to Fujitsu's flexibility and support I was able to keep Komazawa as my training base and make it all the way to the Tokyo Olympics. Getting there was a major milestone in my career and remains a prized memory. After reaching that height I started being with the Fujitsu team full-time, and under the leadership of head coach Tadashi Fukushima and the rest of the coaching staff I entered a new phase of my career aiming to co...

The Ohtawara Marathon and 10 km took place Nov. 23 at DI Stadium in Ohtawara, Tochigi. 2803 people started the marathon at 10:00 a.m., with 2354 people finishing for a finisher rate of 84.0%. The race has a cutoff time of 4 hours, and all participants are able to use special drink tables. Most years there is a headwind blowing from the mountains of Nasu in the 2nd half of the race, but this year there was almost no wind and cloudy skies. Itto Otawa , a 23-year-old Tochigi local, won the men's marathon in a 2:13:04 course record. Otawa ran this year's Hakone Ekiden for Senshu University , placing 15th on the Ninth Stage. After graduating in March he was hired by the Shimotsuke Newspaper in Tochigi, where he works as a reporter. In August he ran a PB of 2:16:29 at the Hokkaido Marathon. "At work I'm mainly in charge of the Nikko beat," Otawa said. "My goal in Ohtawara this time was to break the course record. I've run a PB every time so far in the marathon...

Paris Olympics alternate Ai Hosoda became the first Japanese athlete to score a place at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic marathon trials with her 2:23:27 for 6th at the Sydney Marathon , but starting immediately after Sydney finished the hot and humid Hokkaido Marathon saw another 2 women and 3 men pick up their own trials spots. The women's race saw Japan-based Kenyan Selly Chepyego Kaptich go out solo around 3:30/km pace, hitting halfway in 1:13:35 before starting to fade. Running her debut, Aiwa Sakaguchi was a bit more conservative, running 1:15:06 through halfway with the trio of Ayano Ikeuchi , Kaena Takeyama and Yukari Nagatomo 20 second behind. Sakaguchi passed Chepyego just past 30 km to take the lead and ran on unchallenged for the win in 2:31:50. Ikeuchi dropped the other two and started to close on Sakaguchi after 30 km but couldn't quite get there, taking 2nd in 2:31:57 with Nagatomo 3rd in 2:33:57. By clearing 2:32:00 both Sakaguchi and Ikeuchi joined Hosoda on...

The Aug. 31 Hokkaido Marathon elite fields are out. On the women's side, Japan-based Selly Chepyego Kaptich has a big advantage over the rest of the field in terms of PB, 2:20:03 in Barcelona 2023 vs. nearest competitor Yuri Mitsune , 5th in Hokkaido last year and 2:29:04 in Nagoya this past spring. Last year's 3rd-placer Ayano Ikeuchi is back too, and with Kaena Takeyama and Yukari Nagatomo both right around 2:30-flat it should be a pretty good race for 2nd. On the men's side the top 2 by time, Yugo Kashiwa and Simon Kariuki , are only a second apart with Kashiwa 2:06:28 in Osaka this year and Kariuki 2:06:29 in Tokyo last year. 6 other men on the list have recent times between 2:07 and 2:09, with 2021 Tokyo Olympian Yuma Hattori a notable name among them. Hokkaido doesn't release its complete entry list in advance, so expect to see a lot more people in the lead packs in both races. And if there is the usual hot weather, expect both races to be about more than j...

2018 World Half Marathon Championships bronze medalist Pauline Kamulu Kaveke and Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura survived tough conditions, 22˚C at the start with 82% humidity, sunny skies and almost no wind, to take the 2024 Hokkaido Marathon Sunday in Sapporo. Both running their debuts, Kamulu and Shiho Tachizako ran steadily around 2:28-flat pace surrounded by a group of amateur men, staying together until just before 30 km when Tachizako started to fade. Kamulu struggled with the hot conditions late in the race and could only watch the clock as sub-2:30 slipped away, looking very tired as she crossed the finish line in 2:31:04. Tachizako faded to 2:33:47 for 2nd, but even that was good enough to easily beat the rest of the field, with last year's 2nd-placer Ayano Ikeuchi 3rd in 2:35:26 in her third marathon so far this year. Nakamura had said pre-race that he didn't care about time and was only focused on getting in the win, and that was exactly ho...

Next weekend's Hokkaido Marathon has a good men's field lined up, with five sub-2:10 men and some interesting matchups. At the front is 2024 Osaka Marathon winner Kiyoto Hirabayashi , the winners of the 2024 and 2022 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon Derese Workneh and Yuki Nakamura , and 2023 Beppu-Oita runner-up Atsumi Ashiwa , with threats from two other race winners, 2022 Hokkaido champ Luka Musembi and Tokyo Olympics marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura . Sub-61 half marathoner Kazuki Matsuyama is scheduled to debut, and if he or Hirabayashi actually start it will give the race a very different dynamic. The women's field is thinner, but 2018 World Half Marathon Championships bronze medalist Pauline Kamulu is on the list to make her debut. If she's for real nobody else in the field can touch her. If not, it'll probably be a head-to-head between the only sub-2:30 woman in the race, Yuri Mitsune , and Nanami Aoki , 2:30:01 on Osaka last year. Shiho Tachizako is ...

With temperatures climbing over 30˚C, strong winds and at times heavy rain, 20,000 people ran the Hokkaido Marathon Sunday in Sapporo, which for the first time featured a two-wave start. Former Nihon University  Hakone Ekiden runner Patrick Mathenge Wambui , now with the NTT Nishi Nihon  corporate team, broke away from the rest of the field in his marathon debut and looked set for an easy win. But the hot and humid conditions hit him hard at the end of the race, and as he staggered in the home straight Wambui collapsed to the ground. He managed to get up and finish, just holding off the fast-closing Takumi Iwata  (JFE Steel), a superb effort that outweighed his winning time of 2:20:54 being the second-slowest winning time in Hokkaido history. Iwata was 2nd in 2:20:59, with Shoma Hosoya  (Logisteed) 3rd in 2:22:24. Tomomi Sawahata , an amateur runner and veterinarian in Tokorozawa, Saitama, took the women's race in 2:38:18, the fourth-slowest women's winning time. "I...

Sapporo's Hokkaido Marathon is always a key developmental race on the Japanese calendar, giving top-level people experience training for and running a summer marathon, and in some recent years serving as a route to the MGC Race, Japan's Olympic marathon trials. That was the case in the race's return this year after cancelations in 2020 and 2021, with four men and one woman making the cut for the the 2024 Olympics MGC in September next year. The top 3 Japanese men had to clear 2:14 and 4th-6th needed 2:12 or better to make it. Pacers took a lead group of almost 50 through halfway on a steady pace around 2:10:30 in good conditions by summertime Sapporo standards, cool and thinly cloudy. Just past the half mark, debuting college student Luka Musembi (Tokyo Kokusai Univ.) took off, taking his projected finish down to mid-2:09 and gapping the rest of the field. Dominic Nyairo (NTT Nishi Nihon) was the next to make a move, closing to within 10 seconds of Musembi but unable to ...

On Aug. 24 the organizing committee of Sunday's Hokkaido Marathon announced that elite women Mao Uesugi (Starts) and Chiharu Ikeda (Hitachi) have withdrawn from the race. Uesugi has tested positive for coronavirus, while Ikeda sustained an injury to her left ankle during training. Translator's note: This news follows last week's announcement that 2020 Olympic marathon trial winner Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) had withdrawn from Hokkaido with COVID-19. With a 2:22:29 in Osaka in January Uesugi was the fastest woman in the original field , with Maeda 3rd at 2:23:30 and Ikeda 5th at 2:26:50. Uesugi is also entered in November's New York City Marathon. Still on the women's list in Hokkaido, a major chance to qualify for next year's Olympic marathon trials, are: Natsumi Matsushita (Tenmaya) - 2:23:05 (3rd, Osaka Int'l 2022) Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) - 2:26:35 (7th, Osaka Int'l 2020) Miharu Shimokado (SID Group) - 2:29:20 (12th, Tokyo 2022) Yui Okada (Otsuka Se...

An interview with 1:09:50/2:26:35 club runner Haruka Yamaguchi  ahead of Sunday's Hokkaido Marathon where she and others will be trying to qualify for the 2023 MGC Race, Japan's trials for the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

On Aug. 15 the organizing committee of the Aug. 28 Hokkaido Marathon announced that 2020 Olympic marathon trials winner and 30 km national record holder  Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) has withdrawn from the race after contracting COVID-19. Maeda became the first woman to qualify for the 2020 trials when she won Hokkaido in 2017. This was to be her first marathon since the Tokyo Olympics marathon in Sapporo last summer. A win would have qualified her for next year's Olympic trials.  The remainder of the Hokkaido field is listed here . Translator's note: Another major blow for Japanese marathoning. Maeda has been running well this season, with two half marathon PBs. She was a leading contender for the win in Hokkaido. Her withdrawal with COVID-19 follows the last-second withdrawals of women-only NR holder Mao Ichiyama , women's half-marathon NR holder Hitomi Niiya , and men's NR holder Kengo Suzuki from last month's Oregon World Championships marathons after testing posi...

Corona numbers in Japan are at record-breaking levels right now, some of the highest in the world, but at least a few races are throwing caution to the wind, in their own highly controlled way, and trying to go ahead. The Hokkaido Marathon is one of them, an end-of-summer regular making a comeback this year in order to give a shortcut to 2024 MGC Race olympic trials qualification to anyone who can handle hot conditions. It announced its elite field today. Honami Maeda , was the first woman to qualify for the pre-Tokyo Olympics MGC, winning Hokkaido back in 2017 and going on to win the trials. She broke the 30 km NR without wearing super shoes after that, but things haven't been great for her for a long time. But while every other good marathoner from the Tenmaya team has never pulled back up once they start the downward spiral, Maeda has re-emerged this spring with two good half marathons, the better a 1:08:28 PB and CR win in nearby Hakodate a month ago. That's all good, but...

 https://www.hokkaido-marathon.com/info/0216/

https://www.hokkaido-marathon.com/info/北海道マラソン2020%E3%80%80休止のお知らせ/

2020 Tokyo Olympics organizing committee deputy secretary general Toshiro Muto met with Sapporo mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto and Hokkaido governor Naomichi Suzuki in Sapporo on Nov. 8. Just one day after organizing committee head Yoshiro Mori had said that the men's marathon would be moved from the final date of the Olympics , Muto indicated that the committee would be reexamining that idea. Faced by the need to have a marathon course ready for approval by the IOC's board of directors at its Dec. 2-4 meeting, Muto visited the three candidate locations for the course's start and finish point, Odori Park, Sapporo Dome and Maruyama Park. In a reversal of Mori's remarks the previous day about the need to change the date of the Olympic men's marathon, Muto was forced to make a correction. At 9:00 a.m., Muto met first with Mayor Akimoto and then Governor Suzuki. Following the meetings, in response to a question from a reporter Muto commented on the situation, saying, ...

Speaking on the subject of the course to be used for the 2020 Olympic marathon now that the IOC has decreed it be relocated to Sapporo, JAAF long distance and marathon director Tadasu Kawano gave his honest opinion at a JAAF press conference on Nov. 5. "I don't see any issue with using the Hokkaido Marathon course as a base, but I don't think we can use the Shinkawa-dori section due to security and other issues," he said. He went on to say that that portion of the course would likely be made up using a loop segment. "I'm not in a position to say what might be good or bad about the course," Kawano said, but with regard to the 13 km straight out-and-back section of the Hokkaido Marathon course along Shingawa-dori he said, "The security and medical access issues are difficult problems. Preventing spectators from accessing the course would be difficult. The IAAF will probably find it unacceptable." The organizing committee is examining chang...

As a route to qualification for next month's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials the Hokkaido Marathon saw higher-quality results than usual last year, but in its first edition after the closing of the trials qualifying period yesterday's 2019 running had no shortage on quality. In warm conditions the men's race went out conservatively with a 1:06:57 first half and turned into a show of who could negative split the hardest, with the top six all running the second half faster. Ryo Matsumoto , part of the top current marathon program in Japan, Toyota , won by over 30 seconds in 2:12:57 with 2nd through 6th all finishing within 15 seconds of each other in the mid-2:13s. Kasumi Yoshida (Nitori) did a lot of the work in leading the women's pack for the first 30 km before heavy favorite Mirai Waku (Univ. Ent.) took off. Waku had said pre-race that she wanted to break 2:30, but despite falling well short of that she opened a lead of over a minute and a half to win in 2:33:...

Naoki Okamoto age: 35 sponsor: Chugoku Denryoku graduated from: Tottori Chuo Ikuei H.S., Meiji University best time inside MGC window: 2:11:29, 1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon PB: 2:11:29, 1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 13:37.71 (2009) 10000 m: 28:05.84 (2011) half marathon: 1:02:16 (2009) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) DNF, 2019 Beppu-Oita Marathon 1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:11:29 – PB DNF, 2018 Boston Marathon other major results: 4th, 2019 Shibetsu Half Marathon, 1:03:53 2nd, 2019 New Year Ekiden Fourth Stage (22.4 km), 1:05:13 1st, 2018 Chugoku Corporate Ekiden Sixth Stage (19.0 km), 56:25 – CR 1st, 2018 Ome 30 km Road Race, 1:33:09 21st, 2017 Tokyo Marathon, 2:13:53 We’re picking Okamoto as our official dark horse of the men’s race. The second-oldest man in a field, Okamoto is a journeyman corporate leaguer who never broke 2:12 and whose PBs all came a decade ago. But, nearing the end of his career, over the la...

Ayuko Suzuki Age: 27 sponsor: Japan Post graduated from : Jishukan H.S., Nagoya University best time inside MGC window: 2:28:32, 1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon PB: 2:28:32, 1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 15:08.29 (2015) 10000 m: 31:18.16 (2016) half marathon: 1:07:55 (2019) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019): 1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:28:32 other major results: 2nd, 2019 National Championships 10000 m, 31:46.25 2nd, 2019 Kagawa Marugame Int’l Half Marathon, 1:07:55 2nd, 2019 National Women’s Ekiden 9th Stage (10.0 km), 31:08 2nd, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden 3rd Stage (10.9 km), 34:46 2nd, 2018 National Championships 10000 m, 31:57.82 10th, 2017 London World Championships 10000 m, 31:27.30 2nd, 2017 National Championships 10000 m, 31:41.65 2nd, 2017 National Championships 5000 m, 15:20.50 12th, 2016 Rio Olympics 5000 m H2, 15:41.81 2nd, 2016 National Championships 5000 m, 15:24.47 1st, 2016 National ...