japan running news

  Following 400 m hurdler Masaki Toyoda 's suspension for a violation of anti-doping regulations , the Fujitsu corporate team published a statement on its website, including comments from Toyoda's legal team , explaining the ruling and the circumstances surrounding the case. Toyoda was a member of the 2019 Doha World Championships team and holds a best of 48.87. Early in the morning of May 19, 2022, the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) conducted a doping test of Toyoda. The prohibited substance trenbolone was detected in urine taken during the test, resulting in a two-year suspension that began May 21, 2022. He did not compete at the National Track and Field Championships the next month. The amount of trenbolone detected in Toyoda's urine sample was 1.4 ng/ml, well below the minimum analytical precision of 2.5 ng/ml required by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for analytical equipment. As a general rule, if a non-specified prohibited substance such as trenbolone is dete...

  On April 8 the Japan Sports Arbitration Agency upheld a two-year doping suspension against 2019 Doha World Championships team member Masaki Toyoda , 26, of the Fujitsu corporate team, rejecting an appeal from the Japan Anti-Doping Agency for a stricter sentence. Metabolites of the prohibited substance trenbolone were detected in a urine sample taken from Toyoda during a drug test in May, 2022. After a hearing, on Jan. 5 this year the Japan Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel determined that Toyoda would be given a two-year suspension back-dated to start on May 21, 2022.  JADA filed a complaint with the JSAA arguing that Toyoda's use of prohibited substance had been intentional and that a four-year suspension beginning on June 21, 2022 would be appropriate. In response, the JSAA ruled that since trenbolone would be of no benefit to a 400 m hurdler Toyoda's intake of the substance had been unintentional, and upheld the original two-year suspension. source article: https://www.jiji...

On Feb. 15 JADA announced that Soka University 3rd-year Leakaey Kamina of Kenya has been given a 3-year suspension for a doping violation. His period of suspension will date from Oct. 12, 2023, the day he was notified of the test result, and competition results including his performance at the Oct. 9 Izumo Ekiden have been annulled. As a result, Soka will lose its best-ever 2nd-place team result at Izumo, with 3rd-place Josai University and below being elevated one position. According to JADA, Kamina was tested after winning the National University Track and Field Championships 5000 m on Sept. 16 , and his urine sample was found to contain the steroid nandrolone. That performance has also been annulled. A Soka University spokesperson said that Kamina had been back in Kenya from late July until early September immediately before the National University Championships. Kamina told them that he got sick while there and asked a friend to buy medicine for him. He said that he took the me...

A training session took place July 29 in Tokyo to train doping inspectors for use in international athletics and weightlifting competitions in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The lack of qualified anti-doping staff in Japan necessary to carry our a large number of drug tests in a short period at the 2020 Tokyo Games has been identified as a problem , and with the support of the national government the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) has begun recruiting and training new personnel. With a scenario set in the sample collection room of a stadium, the staff involved in the session featured people playing the roles of athletes, including foreign athletes. 66 people took part in the session, gaining a sense of the tension of the real testing environment. To increase the realism of the session TV screens showed competition results and audio of a crowd cheering was played. Participants practiced tasks including athlete notification, guidance, and sample collect...

For more background on this story read previous story #1 , story #2 , and story #3 . Case Number: 2017-005 Athlete Name: Moeno Nakamura Sport: Athletics Based on the decision of the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) Hearing Panel, the Disciplinary Panel has made the following ruling in the case described below. Hearing Panel Decision  The JADA Hearing Panel is comprised of members selected by the Disciplinary Panel chairperson in accordance with JADA Rule 8.3.2. In the case in question, the Hearing Panel made the recommendations below based on a hearing session held on May 30, 2018, and on supplementary evidentiary documentation received thereafter. Decision A violation of Rule 2.1 was found to have occurred. In accordance with Rules 9 and 10.8, all individual results from the period covering the date the testing sample was taken and the beginning of the provisional suspension period, including those at the 37th National Corporate Women's Ekiden, will be annull...

A statement by Koichiro Nishikawa , chairperson of the Japan Industrial Track and Field Association At the 37th National Corporate Women's Ekiden organized by the Japan Industrial Track and Field Association (JITA), a prohibited substance was detected in a sample taken from Moeno Nakamura , at the time a member of the Universal Entertainment team, in an in-competition drug test. After receiving notification of this result, in accordance with the recommendations of the Japan Anti-Doping Agency disciplinary panel, Nakamura was suspended for one year and three months beginning Nov. 26, 2017. As the JITA not only do we hold anti-doping education sessions for athletes and coaches in partnership with the Japan Association of Athletics Federations and clearly specify that our events must be carried out in strict accordance with anti-doping regulations, but as the JITA chairperson I have personally given strong emphasis to the importance of "Clean Sport." In spite of these...

On July 19 the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) announced that distance runner Moeno Nakamura , 28, a former member of the Universal Entertainment women's ekiden team, had tested positive for the muscle tone-improving steroid metenolone during in-competition testing at last November's National Corporate Women's Ekiden, which Universal Entertainment won. As a result of the positive test Nakamura, who has already left the team, will be suspended for one year and three months and have her result at the ekiden annulled. According to the JADA announcement, two months before the ekiden Nakamura underwent surgical treatment for a gynecological condition. Subsequent injections she received included the prohibited substance. JADA accepted her explanation that these were for post-operative therapeutic purposes but ruled her negligent in not having told her doctor that she was an athlete and in not confirming the contents of the injections. In a statement released through Univer...

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1056069/tokyo-2020-sign-agreement-with-japan-anti-doping-agency-for-drug-testing-at-olympic-and-paralympics Note: The article overlooks marathoner Kaori Yoshida 's suspension for EPO after finishing 4th at the 2012 Honolulu Marathon . More on the JSA report on insufficient JADA testing staff can be found here .

http://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1032954/japanese-government-considering-adopting-anti-doping-law-ahead-of-tokyo-2020

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2015/11/14/kiji/K20151114011507760.html translated and edited by Brett Larner The civil servant runner has spoken out.  In an interview on Nov. 14 following his appearance at a talk show event ahead of the Nov. 15 Saitama International Women's Marathon, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) addressed the problem of systematic doping in the Russian athletics world.  "All of the strict drug testing we have to go through, and now this?  It's really unpleasant news," he said. For elite athletes drug testing is rigorous and strict.  Since his breakthrough to the top level of the sport in Japan at the 2011 Tokyo Marathon Kawauchi has been tested over 30 times.  He and other athletes must report their daily whereabouts to the JADA in conjunction with WADA and are subjected to surprise, unannounced testing.  Kawauchi has been woken up for testing at 6:00 a.m. in the days before major races and while relaxing at home at 9:0...

http://www.jiji.com/jc/zc?k=201508/2015080300858&g=spo translated by Brett Larner With regard to foreign media's allegations of suspicion of doping among a large umber of Olympics and World Championships track and field medalists, on Aug. 3 Japan Anti-Doping Agency ( JADA ) executive director Shin Asakawa commented, "I do not know specifically what abnormal values (that would suggest doping) there may be.  The risk is that by looking at them too hastily things may be judged to be violations just because they are unusual," recognizing that there should be no rush to judgment without understanding of the detailed data. British and German media reported that in the Olympic Games and World Championships from 2001 to 2012, the winners of 146 medals in endurance events had values that indicated a suspicion of doping, with test results indicating that 5% of Japanese athletes also returned abnormal values.  "We do not know what the reaction of the body may be with...

A JADA-sponsored conference taking place tomorrow in Tokyo:  http://cleansport-conf-wada-jada.org

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20131106-OYT1T01090.htm translated by Brett Larner The Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) announced Nov. 6 that with support from the JAAF it will introduce a biological passport system, which records blood data and other biological information to help reveal use of banned drugs and the like, at the country's major races by the end of the year.  It was not announced which races those would be. The biological passport stores information about biological markers such as the composition of an athlete's blood over time to help detect abnormal changes that indicate possible use of unfair artificial advantages.  JADA has already introduced the biological passport system in some sports other than track and field this year and plans to continue to expand its scale in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to allow a complete anti-doping system to be in place in time for the Games.

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2013/08/21/kiji/K20130821006458170.html translated by Brett Larner The Japan Sports Arbitration Agency announced on August 20 that it had approved an appeal from the Japan Anti-Doping Agency (JADA) to increase the suspension of marathoner Kaori Yoshida , 32, for a positive drug test at last December's Honolulu Marathon from one year to two years.  It is the first time arbitration of a case involving a doping violation has resulted in more severe punishment for the athlete.  Testing indicated that Yoshida had taken the banned substance erythropoietin (EPO) which acts to increase stamina, but accepting her explanation that the drug had unknowingly been part of a medicine she had been prescribed to treat anemia, the sentencing panel entrusted with handling JADA's findings gave her a shorter than usual suspension of only one year.  JADA appealed the sentence on the grounds that Yoshida did not exercise sufficient caution about what...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2013/05/24/more-sports/marathon-runner-yoshida-gets-one-year-doping-ban/#.UadN_xyRMYE Thank you to reader Robert McKenzie for bringing this unfortunate article, which I missed while in Manchester last weekend, to my attention.  Very sad news of a positive EPO test by  Kaori Yoshida  (Puma RC) at last December's Honolulu Marathon.  As far as I am aware this is the first time an elite-level Japanese marathoner has had a positive test.  Anyone with knowledge of any previous Japanese positive tests please feel free to post factual details in the comments section. Yoshida won the 2006 Hokkaido Marathon, 2008 Casablanca Marathon and 2012 Gold Coast Marathon, setting her 2:29:45 PB at the 2010 Chicago Marathon. photo (c) 2010 Dr. Helmut Winter all rights reserved