japan running news

A day after the qualifying race for January's Hakone Ekiden , the corporate leagues held their qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden national championship. 30 teams raced the 6-stage, 42.195 km Princess Ekiden to try for the 16 spots left alongside the 8 auto-qualifiers from last year's Queens Ekiden. After a slow start Uniqlo moved up to take the win thanks to a stage win from Paris Olympian Yume Goto on the 3.6 km Second Stage, a good run from 4th runner Yumi Yoshikawa to move into 3rd, and a big run from new recruit Dolphine Omare to run down Edion and Otsuka Seiyaku for 1st. 33 seconds up on Edion at the start of the 6.695 km anchor stage, Uniqlo had a scare from Olympian Wakana Kabasawa who started for Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo 50 seconds back in 5th. Kabasawa turned in a stage-winning run and got to within 5 seconds of Uniqlo anchor Ayaka Kato with 1 km to go, but Kato heard her coming and rallied to hang on for the win in 2:19:16. Mitsui Sumitomo was nex...

With temps in the high teens the Nagoya Women's Marathon was warmer than ideal, but that didn't stop the expected protagonists from dominating, and in fast times. 2022 winner Ruth Chepngetich soloed the race the entire way, going ahead of the pacers in the first kilometer and splitting between 16:14 and 16:19 for five of the six 5 km splits up to 30 km. She couldn't quite hold it together enough over the last 10 km to give her 2:17:18 CR from last year a serious go, fading from 1:08:47 at halfway to a 2:18:08 for 1st. But that was still enough for her to win by over a kilometer and take home another $250,000. The main chase group of over a dozen skimmed just under 17 minutes per 5 km through a 1:11:20 half split before top-ranked Japan woman Ayuko Suzuki took off when the last pacer stopped. Deshun Zhang and Mao Uesugi initially went with her but soon lost touch, leaving Suzuki to drop an impressive 48-second negative split for a 2:21:52 PB, 10 seconds better than her ...

Unusually cool weather throughout the weekend worked to the advantage of the athletes in distance events at Kanagawa's National University Individual Track and Field Championships , where the meet records fell in both the men's and women's 5000 m. The poorer cousin of September's National University Track and Field Championships, the individual meet features a reduced program, no team scoring, and some competition from Taiwan. Coming just a week before the National Track and Field Championships many of Japan's best collegians tend to give it a miss, but the level of competition is often high all the same. In the women's race first-year Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) surprised the field, breaking the meet record set six years ago by current top-level pro  Rina Nabeshima  by 6 seconds to win the B-heat in 15:46.84. Fourth-year Honoka Tanaike (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) and Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) were both under Nabeshima's record in the A-heat in 15:49.37 ...

The first round of regional corporate track and field championship meets made up most of the weekend’s track action. Fresh back from going sub-32 at Payton Jordan, Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) was the star of the Kansai Region meet as she repeated her 5000 / 10000 m double from last year with 15:45.58 and 33:00.26 wins. Men’s times were unremarkable, Shohei Morikawa (Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) taking the 5000 m in 14:06.58 and Aoyama Gakuin University grad Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) the 10000 m in 29:16.56 in his corporate league debut. Split between two weekends, the Chugoku Region meet featured only 5000 m this week. Yudai Okamoto (JFE Steel) won the men’s race in 13:59.82, with Miharu Aoki (Tenmaya) claiming the women’s title in 16:19.79. The Chubu Region meet produced some quality men’s 10000 m times, with two-time defending champ Rodgers Shumo Kwemoi (Aisan Kogyo) leading three Kenyan men under 28 minutes in 27:53.73, the fastest of his three wins to date. Daiji Kawai (Toen...

All-time Japanese #4 in the marathon at 2:21:36 in her debut earlier this year in Nagoya, Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) leads the elite field for the Jan. 28 Osaka International Women's Marathon . Hoping for a comeback after an ineffectual run at the summer's London World Championships, Ando faces former under-20 Japanese record holder Reia Iwada (Dome) and debuting 10000 m national champion Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) as her main competition. Eunice Jeptoo (Kenya) and Fayesa Robi (Ethiopia) lead the small international field with the debuting Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia) throwing in an element of unpredictability, but with bests of only 2:26:13 and 2:27:04 it will take a combination of a breakthrough from any of them and a breakdown from Ando and Iwade to have a shot at the win. Along with Matsuda's exciting debut, Osaka will again be putting heavy emphasis on first-timers and university student runners, Ayano Ikemitsu (Kagoshima Ginko) leading the former with a ...

by Brett Larner Corporate and university meets led the way in the first of three straight weekends of regional track action.  At the Chubu Region Corporate Track and Field Championships Kenyan Rodgers Chumo Kemoi (Team Aisan Kogyo) led the top three under 28 minutes, winning in 27:54.19. Returning to the track after a quality 2:10:39 debut at February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, Minato Oishi (Team Toyota) was the fastest Japanese man in the race, running 28:31.28 for 4th. Silas Laikong (Team Aichi Seiko) won the Chubu men's 5000 m in 13:45.59, but the fastest time of the weekend came at the season's first Shizuoka Long Distance Time Trials meet, where Ethiopian teammates Abiyot Abinet and Yeneblo Biyazen (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) went 1-2 in 13:36.08 and 13:36.20. Downhill specialist Yuji Onoda led a large contingent from Hakone Ekiden champ Aoyama Gakuin University , 3rd overall in 13:58.05. The women's 3000 m in Shizuoka also saw teammates sweep the front...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20161230/ath16123013030006-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 【富士山女子駅伝】 スタートしました！ #富士山女子駅伝 pic.twitter.com/sx0ES9dPE0 — 日本学生陸上競技連合 (@iuauj) December 30, 2016 Running through the foothills of Mt. Fuji on a seven-stage, 43.8 km course from Fujisan Hongu Sengen Shrine to Fuji Sports Park Field in Shizuoka, on Dec. 30 Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University won a fourth-straight Mount Fuji Women's Ekiden in 2:25:43.  It was Ritsumeikan's tenth National University Women's Invitational Ekiden Championships title and left the school undefeated since the National Championships moved to the hilly Mt. Fuji course in 2013.   Meijo University was 2nd, with 2016 National University Women's Ekiden champion Matsuyama University taking 3rd. Conditions at the start were good, with 10-degree temperatures, 44% humidity and a gentle north wind.  Running the First Stage on a new course circling Sengen Shrine, Matsuayama's Rio de ...

https://www.kawowo.com/2016/11/20/joshua-cheptegei-wins-netherlands-race/ Zevenheuvelenloop 15 km Road Race Netherlands, 11/20/16 click here for complete results Women 1. Susan Krumins (Netherlands) - 49:30 2. Jip Vastenburg (Netherlands) - 50:42 3. Kanade Furuya (Japan) - 52:10 4. Yomogi Akasaka (Japan) - 52:23 5. Honoka Tanaike (Japan) - 52:41 ----- 20. Misaki Ogata (Japan) - 57:03 Men 1. Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda) - 42:08 2. Abrar Osman (Eritrea) - 43:04 3. Hiskel Tewelde (Eritrea) - 43:06 4. Geoffrey Ronoh (Kenya) - 43:28 5. Abdallah Kibet Mande (Uganda) - 43:35 ----- 8. Kengo Suzuki (Japan) - 44:18 11. Homare Morita (Japan) - 45:24 14. Yuki Nakamura (Japan) - 46:10 15. Akira Tomiyasu (Japan) - 46:14 20. Shiki Shinsako (Japan) - 47:38