japan running news

by Brett Larner Rio de Janeiro Olympics 3000 m steeplechase runner  Anju Takamizawa , the first Japanese university woman to ever make an Olympic team in a distance event, led Matsuyama University to take down five-time defending national champion Ritsumeikan University and become the first school from the Chugoku-Shikoku Region to ever win the National University Women's Ekiden Championships title Sunday in Sendai. 【杜の都駅伝】 松山大学初優勝です！ pic.twitter.com/ftXf43wke1 — 日本学生陸上競技連合 (@iuauj) October 30, 2016 3rd last year, Matsuyama lined up against Ritsumeikan, Kanto Region champ and 2015 runner-up Daito Bunka University  and 23 other teams at the Morinomiyako Ekiden , as Nationals are popularly called.  Ritsumeikan got off to a rocky start, its lead runner Nanako Kanno  eight seconds behind 1500 m national university champion Natsu Hashimoto (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) in 6th, but for Matsuyama and Daito Bunka the First Stage was a disaster. Matsuyama senior Ayumi U...

30th Zevenheuvelenloop 15 km Road Race Nijmegen, Netherlands, 11/17/13 click here for complete results Women 1. Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) - 48:43 2. Berhane Adere (Ethiopia) - 50:59 3. Ayame Takagi (Japan/Meijo Univ.) - 51:08 4. Honoka Yuzawa (Japan/Meijo Univ.) - 51:27 5. Miranda Boonstra (Netherlands) - 51:41 6. Kim Dillen (Netherlands) - 51:53 7. Mio Muraoka (Japan/Meijo Univ.) - 51:56 8. Yurina Yokoyama (Japan/Meijo Univ.) - 52:38 Men 1. Leonard Komon (Kenya) - 42:15 2. Nicholas Kipkemboi (Kenya) - 42:32 3. Daniel Chaves da Silva (Brazil) - 43:49 4. Jesper van der Wielen (Netherlands) - 44:33 5. Tom Wiggers (Netherlands) - 44:42 © 2013 Brett Larner all rights reserved

by Brett Larner Two major women's ekidens took place Nov. 11 on opposite coasts of Japan.  For the second year in a row, the Kanagawa Prefecture  team set a course record to outrun Nagano Prefecture  for the win at the 28th running of Fukushima's East Japan Women's Ekiden, an event featuring teams made up of runners from junior high to pro from eighteen regions in eastern Japan.  Kanagawa's Rui Aoyama  led off with a win by a hair over last year's stage winner Yuko Shimizu  of Nagano after a brutal head-to-head battle of surges on the 6.0 km First Stage.  Nagano's second runner Honoka Yuzawa  took over the lead, a position Nagano occupied for three stages before losing it for good to Kanagawa on the Fifth Stage.  Kanagawa covered the nine-stage, 42.195 course in 2:16:16 to break its own course record set last year, with Nagano ultimately finishing nearly two minutes back in 2:18:12. The Tokyo  team, only 6th last year, had a str...

by Brett Larner   High school track continued along the road to next month's National Championships with a nationwide round of regional championships this weekend.  Thirty-three girls across the country broke the 9:30 mark over 3000 m, with the fastest time of the weekend going to Kenyan Mary Waithira  (Sendai Ikuei H.S.), who set an impressive meet record of 9:00.85 at the Tohoku Regionals meet over Kenyan rival Rosemary Wanjiru  (Aomori Yamada H.S.), who ran 9:07.44.  The fastest performance by a Japanese girl came at the South Kanto Regionals meet, where Maki Izumida  (Hakuoh Joshi H.S.) won in 9:17.74.  All but three regions featured winning times under 9:30. Boys' performances were less noteworthy, but in the Tokai Region 5000 m Kenyan Jeremiah Karemi  (Toyokawa H.S.) set a meet record of 13:52.51.   Charles Ndungu (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) also set a meet record in the Hokkaido Region 5000 m, running 13:57.81.  Both boys' a...