japan running news

photo © 2025 Victah Sailer/PhotoRun, all rights reserved Last weekend's Sydney Marathon featured one breakthrough performance that was kind of low in the mix. Running his first marathon outside Japan, 25-year-old Masato Arao negative split a 2:07:42 PB, moving up fast over the last 10 km to pass Eliud Kipchoge and finish 6th. With the Sydney course estimated to be about 2 minutes slow with tough hills in the early going, that meant Arao's run was about equal in quality to all-time Japanese #5, the only better marathon by a Japanese man outside Japan being Yohei Ikeda 's 2:05:12 for 6th in Berlin last fall. It was a pretty amazing breakthrough for someone who never made his college team's starting varsity lineup and a year ago was working full-time in his hometown and running for fun. Born and raised way up north in Yamagata, Arao showed a bit of promise at Sakata Minami H.S. , running the First Stage at the National High School Ekiden his first year in 2016 and maki...

  In his debut at the Ome 30 km Road Race Sunday in western Tokyo, Masato Arao (ND Software) won in 1:30:50. En route he split 15:04, 30:10, 45:46 and 1:01:14 while running in the lead pack, but breaking away on a hilly section of the course he was alone by the time he hit 25 km in 1:16:00. Unthreatened the rest of the way, he soloed the last 5 km to take the win. Arao went to Sakata Minami H.S. in Yamagata and Toyo University . After graduating he moved back to Yamagata and started working full-time while continuing to run races as an amateur. In September he ran a PB of 1:02:53 for 2nd at the Ichinoseki International Half Marathon. That attracted the interest of the ND Software corporate team, which he joined on Jan. 1 this year. He ran the anchor stage for the Yamagata team at the National Men's Ekiden on Jan. 19. In 2nd was his ND Software teammate Taiki Suzuki in 1:31:53. Ryo Kuchimachi (Subaru) was 3rd in 1:32:14. Moe Shimizu (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) won the women's ...

The 37th Ichinoseki International Half Marathon took place Sept. 23, starting and finishing outside Ichonoseki Municipal Sports Gymnasium. Ezekiel Cheboitibin (Sunbelx) won the men's division in 1:03:53, while Mirai Waku (Universal Entertainment) took the women's race in 1:15:41. For both athletes it was the first time to win in Ichinoseki. 2:09:21 marathoner Koji Gokaya (JR Higashi Nihon) was the top Japanese man at 2nd in 1:05:54, and Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) finished 7th in 1:07:31. A record total of 3079 people from within the country and without entered the half, 10 km, 5 km and 3 km divisions, with 2916 finishing. Under brilliant blue skies temperatures reached an unseasonably hot 27.2˚C, leaving participants dripping with sweat. Men's half marathon entrant Soya Saito , 28, a resident of Morioka, commented, "It was a lot hotter than most years, but it was really nice to run through the beautiful golden rice fields....

by Brett Larner There is a truckload of action just waiting to dump on fans of Japanese distance around the world this weekend.  Along with the Incheon Asian Games, where athletics kick off Saturday with the women's 10000 m and 3000 mSC and the men's 5000 m , Sunday's Berlin Marathon offers more international exposure to the stealthy Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) in the women's race and the solid trio of 2:08 men Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) and Ryo Yamamoto (Team SGH Group Sagawa) and 2014 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon winner Kazuki Tomaru (Team Toyota). Back home of familiar shores where laundry facilities are guaranteed to be close at hand, fall gets into full swing with the first two significant ekidens of the season, Saturday's Kansai Region University Women's Ekiden and Sunday's Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden.  Both qualify top-placing teams in the two highly competitive regions for October's National University Women's Ek...

2010 Hakodate Half Marathon click here for complete results Women 1. Kaori Yoshida (Amino Vital AC) - 1:12:48 2. Eri Hayakawa (Amino Vital AC) - 1:16:24 3. Erina Muta (Team Noritz) - 1:16:49 Men 1. Yuko Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:04:06 2. Takehiro Arakawa (Asahi Kasei) - 1:04:11 3. Daisuke Matsufuji (Kanebo) - 1:04:13 2010 Ichinoseki International Half Marathon click here for complete results Women 1. Kana Nomura (Team Nihon ChemiCon) - 1:19:31 Men 1. Akinori Iida (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:04:37 2. Masaru Yamaki (Josai Univ.) - 1:04:42 3. Hideaki Tamura (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) - 1:04:44

http://www.iwate-np.co.jp/sports/2009sports/m09/spo0909211.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At the 28th Ichinoseki International Half Marathon on Sept. 20 in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, Josai University senior Yuki Takamiya took the overall win in a time of 1:05:51. Takamiya launched an attack with 1 km to go to hold off junior teammate Ryo Ishita, famous for collapsing on the 8th stage of this year's Hakone Ekiden, by one second. Josai first-year Dai Nakahara came third to complete Josai's sweep. Iwate native Yu Chiba, who ran the 8th stage for this year's Hakone winners Toyo University, was a special invited runner and finished 5th overall in 1:06:33. Fusai Narita (Team NEC Fuchu) won the women's division in a time of 1:24:23.

by Brett Larner photo by http://statuehunter.way-nifty.com/blog/ used with permission Mekubo Mogusu on his way to a course record at the Yosenkai 20 km in Tachikawa, Japan, 10/20/07. The Kenyan men's team for the 2008 World Half Marathon Championships to be held Oct. 12 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is undoubtedly the best in the field, with four of its five members sporting sub-hour marks within the last year. Possibly the least well-known, with only one international race to his name, is Mekubo Mogusu. Paradoxically Mogusu also has probably the largest fan base thanks to his status as a publicly-beloved figure in Japan. Who is this man Mogusu? Mekubo Mogusu calls Kenyan Olympic marathon gold medalist and half marathon world record holder Samuel Wanjiru both his biggest rival and his biggest inspiration. Mogusu was born Dec. 25, 1986 in Kiyomitay, Kenya, six weeks after Wanjiru. Like Wanjiru, Mogusu was selected as an 'exchange student' by one of Japan's powerhouse runnin...

http://www.iwate-np.co.jp/cgi-bin/topnews.cgi?20080929_P http://www.iwate-np.co.jp/sports/2008sports/m09/spo0809291.html tra nslated and edited by Brett Larner The 27th Ichinoseki International Half Marathon took place Sept. 28 in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, starting outside Ichinoseki city hall and covering a 21.0975 km course. Komazawa University senior Yukinori Ota won the men's race in 1:04:26 after breaking from the lead pack with 4 km to go in the race. Komazawa alumnus Akira Fujii, now of Team Aisan, was 2nd in 1:04:52. Kyoko Fukunaga of Amino Vital AC won the women's race in 1:17:15. Leading a pack of four at the 16 km mark, Fujii launched a spurt to break away. Ota commented afterwards that at this point he had thought, "If I fall behind now it's over." He picked up his pace in response to Fujii's move, increasing from 3 min/km to 2:50/km and taking the lead at 17 km. Fujii could not match his speed and finished 26 seconds behind. Ota, who anchored...