japan running news

http://sports.jp.fujitsu.com/cs/news/detail/160723010226/1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner click here for more information on Maina's passing Fujitsu men's long distance team member Johana Maina complained of not feeling well while on vacation back in his home country Kenya.  He was taken to a hospital but passed away suddenly on July 21, 2016.  We are deeply grateful for the kindness he showed in life and wish here to humbly pay our respects to his accomplishments. Johana Maina , athlete Dec. 24 1990 - July 21, 2016 Personal Bests 5000 m: 13:25.24 (2015)     10000 m: 27:26.92 (2015)     half marathon: 1:01:19 (2016) Major Accomplishments 2012: 1st, Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:01:34 2014: 1st, Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:01:43           2nd, Kumanchi 30 km Road Race, 1:29:55 2015: 1st, Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:02:33           2nd, Hachioji Long D...

by Brett Larner video by Ekiden News Fourteen and a half years is a long time to wait. Everything was aligned. The field. The weather.  The loom of impending Olympic glory.  The sheer vibe.  Hachioji .   Thousands of fans packed around a home soil track tucked in the mountainous foothills of suburban western Tokyo knowing they were going to see something special, that, after the 5000 meter-wide leak sprung mid-summer by the Salazar-powered Suguru Osako , the sheer mass of young talent building in Japan was finally going to break through the dam holding them back. All credit due to Kenyan William Malel (Honda), who went out at 10000 m world record pace and led completely alone start to finish, withering on the vine with 1000 to go but pulling down a PB of 27:22.12 for the win, and to Johana Maina (Fujitsu) who almost ran him down.  But the race was not their story. From the start Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei), once the fastest-ever Japanese co...

http://www.kahoku.co.jp/tohokunews/201505/20150511_14015.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Breaking the event's old record by 349 people, a record-setting 13,932 participants took part in the 25th running of the Sendai International Half Marathon on May 10 in central Sendai, Miyagi. In the day's main event, the JAAF-certified half marathon division starting and ending at the municipal track and field grounds on the city's south side, defending champion Johana Maina (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) ran 1:02:33 to win the men's race again, his second-straight and third overall Sendai title.  His teammate and 2014 World Half Marathon Championships Japanese national team member Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu) was 3rd in 1:03:11, while 2015 World Championships marathoner Masakazu Fujiwara took 6th in 1:03:51.  2014 Asian Games marathon bronze medalist Yuki Kawauchi was 30th. In the women's race, 2015 World Championships marathoner Sairi Maeda (Team Daihatsu) opened ...

http://www.kahoku.co.jp/tohokunews/201504/20150414_14009.html translated by Brett Larner On April 13 the organizers of the May 10 Sendai International Half Marathon announced that the elite field of four specially invited athletes for this year's 25th anniversary edition will be led by civil servant runner Yuki Kawauchi (28, Saitama Pref. Gov't), with Athens Olympics women's marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi (36, Team Sysmex) among five additional special guests for the 25th running. In last fall's Incheon Asian Games men's marathon Kawauchi won the bronze medal.  This year will his fifth time and fourth-straight year running the Sendai International Half Marathon.  Last year he placed 4th in 1:03:23, and this year he is again targeting the podium.  Other domestic invited elites include 2015 Beijing World Championships men's marathon team member Masakazu Fujiwara (34, Team Honda) and women's marathon team members Risa Shigetomo (27, Team Tenma...

by Brett Larner 2012 Sendai International Half Marathon  winner Johana Maina  (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) returned to the top at this year's race, outrunning last year's winner Mekubo Mogusu  (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) and all Japanese competition for a second Sendai title.  Mogusu took the race out hard, leading Maina through 5 km before losing touch.  From there it was a one-man show as Maina soloed his way to the win in 1:01:43.  2013 Nobeoka Nishi Nihon Marathon winner Hiroaki Sano  (Team Honda), the lone Japanese man to go in pursuit of the two Kenyans, ran down Mogusu for 2nd in 1:02:40, a PB by nearly 45 seconds. Mogusu barely held on to 3rd in 1:03:19, with Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't) in close pursuit on the final lap of the track.  Kawauchi, running just a week after his 2:09:36 season best at the Hamburg Marathon, did his best to catch Mogusu but came up just short in 1:03:23 for 4th, the fastest of his eight half marat...

by Brett Larner 19-year-old Nittai University second-year Hideto Yamanaka  lived up to his superb 2014 Hakone Ekiden First Stage win today in Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park, taking nearly five minutes off his half marathon best to win the National University Half Marathon Championships in a course record 1:02:09.  Despite cold temperatures and on-and-off rain, Yamanaka led aggressively from the start before getting away in the final kilometers to win by more than twenty seconds over Waseda University's Daiki Taguchi  and Koki Ido  and Komazawa University's Yoshihiro Nishizawa  and Shota Baba . The momentum of Yamanaka and the others in the front pack pulled the entire field along, all of the top ten going sub-63, nine of them in PB times.  For the first time in history more than 200 men cleared 66 minutes in a single half marathon, a new world record  which confirmed the upward trend in Japanese university men's performances that has only increased s...

by Brett Larner photos by t_tsuki While Tokyo's Ome 30 km fell victim to the major snowstorm that hit the north half of Japan on Friday, the Kumanichi 30 km near the southernmost tip of the southern island of Kyushu picked up another piece of history on Sunday. After a spectacular four-way battle last year saw a new course record of 1:29:31 from Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and a university national record of 1:29:55 by Toyo University 's Keita Shitara , this year's race was billed as a shot at Shitara's national record.  Over a half dozen of Japan's top collegiates, including 2014 Hakone Ekiden champion Toyo's Yuma Hattori  and Ryu Takaku , 2013 National University Half Marathon champion Shogo Nakamura  and outgoing team captain Shinobu Kubota  of 2013 National University Ekiden champion Komazawa University , 2012 National University Half Marathon champion Toshikatsu Ebina  (Teikyo Univ.) and ace Takumi Honda  of 2012 Hakone winner Nit...

by Brett Larner Past greats returned to the top of the 23rd Sendai International Half Marathon on May 11, as Moscow World Championships marathon team member Mizuki Noguchi  (Team Sysmex) won the women's race in a virtually solo 1:10:36 and sub-60 Kenyan Mekubo Mogusu (Team Nissin Shokuhin) took a hard-earned 1:01:54 win over 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau  (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) and defending Sendai champion Johana Maina  (Kenya/Team Fujitsu). Noguchi easily outdistanced 2011 Tokyo Marathon winner Noriko Higuchi  (Team Wacoal) for her third Sendai title and first win since 2008, one of her last races before the injury that knocked her out of the Beijing Olympics and far beyond.  Coming on the heels of her strong 2:24:05 for 3rd at March's Nagoya Women's Marathon her win suggests that Noguchi is still on the way back up to her former greatness leading on to Moscow. For Mogusu, winner of most of Japan's other top-level half ma...

by Brett Larner In its second edition since being cancelled after the 2011 tsunami, the May 12  Sendai International Half Marathon plays host to Moscow World Championships marathon team members Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Mizuki Noguchi  (Team Sysmex). Having moved to a mass-participation format with a scaled-back elite field that has largely moved to the new Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon a week later, Sendai nevertheless still presents Kawauchi with tough competition.  Defending champion Johana Maina (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) returns after improving his PB at Feburary's Marugame International Half Marathon.   Mekubo Mogusu  (Kenya) has run sub-60 to win the Marugame, Sapporo International and Ichinoseki half marathons but has never finished better than 2nd in Sendai and will be looking to remedy that situation.  2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau  (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) and Mogusu's college-era rival Daniel Gita...

by Brett Larner Course record holder Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) ran 1:08:59 to claim her second National Corporate Half Marathon Championships  victory Mar. 17 in Yamaguchi. With the first sub-1:09 by a Japanese woman since her 1:08:11 course record in 2008 Akaba outran ekiden star Hanae Tanaka  (Team Daiichi Seimei), who made a solid debut in 1:09:18. Having faltered in recent seasons and missing the London Olympics, Akaba will run next month's London Marathon, the site of her best marathon to date, in a bid to make the Moscow World Championships team.   Riko Matsuzaki  (Team Sekisui Kagaku) won the women's 10 km in 32:48 by a margin of 7 seconds. In the men's race 22-year-old  Fumihiro Maruyama  (Team Asahi Kasei), 2nd behind Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't) at last month's Kumanichi 30 km, won in a PB 1:01:15, outrunning Kenyans Johana Maina  (Team Fujitsu) and, in his last run in Japan,  Gideon Ngatuny  (Team Nissin ...

by Brett Larner Two weeks out from the 2012 National Track and Field Championships in Osaka, the second-to-last Nittai University Time Trials meet of the season was relatively quiet.  Olympic track favorites Yuki Sato  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) and Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Konica Minolta) faced off against African newcomers Demmababa Bikila  (Team Kanebo), Hassan Agatoyashin  (Team Chuo Hatsujo) and Johana Maina  (Team Fujitsu) over 5000 m with a challenge from Toyo University ace Yuta Shitara .  All six took their turns leading, but Sato and Ugachi pulled away over a faster second half to turn the race into a duel, Sato taking the win by three seconds in 13:43.01.  Seven men altogether cleared 14 minutes, Shitara recording a new PB of 13:51.16. But the big result of the meet came in the men's 800 m A-heat, where national high school record holder Sho Kawamoto  (Nihon Univ.), who hails from the distance-running Mecca of Saku, Nagano,...

by Brett Larner Cancelled following last year's disasters, the Sendai International Half Marathon returned May 13 in a new format putting more emphasis on mass participation and less on the elite race with a notable absence of any foreign competition based outside Japan. The women's division suffered when former national record holder Mizuki Noguchi  (Team Sysmex) scratched earlier this week, but in her place the young Asami Kato  (Team Panasonic) came through with a PB of 1:11:21 for the win over Hiroko Miyauchi  (Team Kyocera), dropping her late in the race after dueling much of the way.   Misato Horie  (Team Noritz) was a distant 3rd in 1:13:21. In the men's race, Kenyan newcomer Johana Maina  (Team Fujitsu) easily won in 1:01:34, going out in front of elder teammate Daniel Gitau  (Team Fujitsu) and gradually ratcheting up his pace.  The popular Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref.) tried to run with Gitau but soon faded back into the all-...