japan running news

by Brett Larner videos by naoki620 and toyosina2008 Stanford University's Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational, home of both the Japanese men's and women's 10000 m national records, once again delivered big times.  In the men's 10000 m,  Suguru Osako  (Waseda Univ.) and Yuki Sato  (Team Nissin Shokuhin), both graduates of Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. and perpetual rivals over the last two years, each got under the Moscow World Championships A-standard but came up just short of the 27:35.09 NR, Osako taking 2nd in 27:38.31 and Sato 3rd in 27:39.50.  Osako's time was the fastest ever by a Japanese collegiate and good for all-time Japanese #4 a fraction of a second behind Sato's all-time #3 mark of 27:38.25.   Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) also got under 28 but was a distant afterthought in 27:55.27, while last year's top two 10000 m runner Chihiro Miyawaki  (Team Toyota) and Daisuke Shimizu  (Team Kanebo) both struggled.  Af...

by Brett Larner Enjoying ideal weather conditions along with most of the rest of the country, the 34th Kanagawa Half Marathon saw one of the fastest winning times in its history.  Running alone through much of the race, sophomore Ikki Takeuchi  rode the momentum of Aoyama Gakuin University 's best-ever 5th-place finish at last month's Hakone Ekiden to win by a margin of 40 seconds  in 1:03:25, one of the fastest winning times in Kanagawa history and nearly a  minute faster than team ace Takehiro Deki 's winning time last year.   Senshu University 's Shunsuke Miyasaka  won out in a tightly-grouped pack race for 2nd in 1:04:05, with Takeuchi's teammate Yuki Kawasaki  3rd in 1:04:12. In the men's 10 km, Shoin University  leader Aritaka Kajiwara  won in a relatively conservative 30:10 over Kokugakuin University 's Fumihiro Miyake . 2012 Kanagawa Half Marathon Yokohama, 2/5/12 Men's Half Marathon 1. Ikki Takeuchi (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) -...

by Brett Larner A summary of Japanese results from the final day of the Asian Junior Athletics Championship 2010 in Hanoi, Vietnam: Seiya Kato won the gold medal in the boys' 400 m hurdles in 50.83, with teammate Yuichi Nagano scoring bronze in 51.21. Mahiro Akamatsu likewise won gold in the girls' 3000 m, running 9:36.47, while teammate Naoko Koizumi was only 5th. Ikuto Yufu and Ikki Takeuchi took silver and bronze in the boys' 5000 m, Yufu losing by less than one second to Kenyan-born Bahraini Edwin Chebii Kimurer . Manabu Aoki took the silver medal in the boys' 10000 m race walk in 45:01.73. Taishi Nakayama won bronze in the boys' 200 m in 21.05 after winning his semi-final. Winner Chimdee Suppachai of Thailand set a new Games record of 20.80. Naohiro Yokoyama was eliminated at the semi-final stage. The boys' 4x400 m relay team won silver in 3:12.14, while the boys' 4x100 m relay team won bronze in 40.64. Sho Kawamoto was 5th in the boys' 8...

by Brett Larner The 15th National Interprefectural Men's Ekiden takes place this Sunday, Jan. 24 in Hiroshima. A seven-stage, 48 km race between teams from each of Japan's 47 prefectures, like last weekend's Interprefectural Women's Ekiden the Men's Ekiden features an interesting format in that each team is made up of top runners of all levels from junior high school to seasoned pro. It's one of the only opportunities to see the university-aged Hakone Ekiden stars go up against the top pros, and the junior high school and high school stages frequently provide the first glimpse of future stars. This is the race where Ryuji Kashiwabara first made his name in 2008 as a high school student by taking down national champion Yuki Yagi, and the one where Akinobu Murasawa came to attention last year by setting a stage record of 23:55 for 8.5 km. Murasawa's native Nagano Prefecture is the undisputed king of the hill, with five wins in the last six years including ...

by Brett Larner Check JRNLive for the detailed play-by-play. Sera H.S. wins the 2009 National High School Boys' Ekiden Championships. Click photo for video highlights. Toyokawa H.S. and Sera H.S. lived up to pre-race predictions, taking the win in the girls' and boys' races respectively at the 2009 National High School Ekiden Championships Dec. 20 in Kyoto. After an almost brutal first stage which saw three separate falls, Toyokawa, the defending champion in the girls' race, scored only its second-ever victory as it covered the five-stage, half-marathon distance in 1:08:27. With defending boys' champion Saku Chosei H.S. in a rebuilding year, Sera stepped up thanks in large part to Kenyan ace Bitan Karoki to take the seven-stage, marathon distance boys' race in 2:04:09. It was Sera's sixth victory in the ekiden's 60 year history and its first since 2006. Sera's strategy was relatively simple: its first two runners would just keep a decent positio...