japan running news

Covering a course from Lake Towada to Hachimantai, the Towada Hachimantai Ekiden returned Sunday for the first time in 3 years. 19 men's team and 3 women's teams took part in the classic elite race, this year celebrating its 75th anniversary. The East Japan Corporate Federation team won the 71.4 km men's race finishing at Hachimantai Onuma, with Nitori winning the 28.3 km women's race ending at Hachimantai Chuzaijo. East Japan runners broke the stage records for the Fourth and Fifth Stages, Nitori's Esther Muthoni also breaking the women's Fourth Stage record. The race will be broadcast Aug. 27 on Akita TV. 75th Towada Hachimantai Ekiden Kazuno, Akita, 7 Aug. 2022 men: 19 teams, 5 stages, 71.4 km complete men's results women: 3 teams, 5 stages, 28.3 km complete women's results Top Men's Team Results 1. East Japan Corporate Federation - 3:46:24 2. Comodi Iida - 3:48:10 3. Tokyo Police Department - 3:51:47 4. Komori Corporation - 3:54:20 5. Fukush...

by Brett Larner video by Ekiden News Two-time World Junior Championships 3000 mSC gold medalist Jonathan Ndiku (Kenya/Team Hitachi Butsuryu) led the weekend's track results, running just off his six-year-old 5000 m PB to win Tokyo's Setagaya Time Trials 5000 m A-heat by a wide margin in 13:13.16.  Ndiku outran all competition by more than 13 seconds, leading 22 men under 14 minutes including 7 other Japan-based Africans.  22-year-old Shota Shinjo (Team Honda) was the top Japanese man at 9th in 13:45.45, like Ndiku just missing his PB. Southwest of Tokyo at the 70th anniversary National Sports Festival in Wakayama, this year's 10000 m national champion Kasumi Nishihara (Team Yamada Denki) won a close race over 5000 m national champion Misaki Onishi (Team Sekisui Kagaku) and top collegiate Rina Nabeshima (Kanoya Taiiku Univ.), outkicking them by 0.7 seconds to take the national title in 15:33.51.  Onishi held off Nabeshima in a photo finish for 2nd, 15:34.21 to 1...

by Brett Larner videos by Ekiden News and 01moroya Over the last ten days high schools across Japan having been gearing up for next month's National High School Track and Field Championships at ten major regional meets.  Many saw meet records fall in middle and long distances, with the boys' 1500 m in particular seeing an uptick in quality.  Takumi Yokokawa (Nakanojo H.S.) set a 3:48.74 meet record at the North Kanto Region meet, one of two regional winners to break 3:50 along with the Kinki Region's Yuya Nakamura (Osaka Toin H.S.), who ran 3:49.01.  Records also fell in the Chugoku Region, where Kakeru Nakamura (Saikyo H.S.) ran 3:50.58, and the Shikoku Region, where Taku Tomihara (Jinsei Gakuen H.S.) ran 3:51.01.  Results compared well to the weekend's top national-level U.S.A high school meets, where the winning boys' mile times, 4:07.97 by Paul Ryan (Logos Christian School) at the Brooks PR meet and 4:09.23 by Matthew Novak (Deep Run H.S.) at the Ne...

by Brett Larner video by naoki620 全日本予選会 関東は中央学院大がトップ通過。 最終組では潰滝が28:31！ pic.twitter.com/mkfy7SpL1i — EKIDEN_MANIA (@ekiden_mania) June 20, 2015 Saturday saw the first event on the university men's ekiden circuit with regional qualifier action for November's National University Men's Ekiden .  Universities across the country that finished outside the seeded top six at last November's Nationals competed on the track in their regions, eight runners from each school split into four heats and their team score determined by the combined times of all eight. The biggest event, needless to say, was in the Tokyo-area Kanto Region , home of the Hakone Ekiden, where twenty schools competed for nine places at Nationals.  Led by senior Hironori Tsuetaki , the double 5000 m and 10000 m D2 champ at last month's Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships, Chiba's Chuo Gakuin University came out on top as the only school to clear 3:59, its eight runners tot...

by Brett Larner In a period that sees many of Japan's long-standing small elite races folding or changing to mass-participation formats the Okukuma Road Race, launched in 2013 in one of the most conservative areas of southern Japan, is something of a throwback, a small race of around 100 men with an accompanying high school boys' 10 km and women restricted to 5 km because, well, that's how they roll in Kumamoto. In its third edition, Kyushu-based Kenyan John Kariuki (Daiichi Kogyo Univ.) led the top four at the Okukuma Half Marathon under last year's course record for the win in a new record of 1:03:16.  Essentially unchallenged, Kariuki had a lead of around 10 seconds at 10 km and held that margin to win by 13 seconds over London Olympics marathoner Ryo Yamamoto (SGH Group) with Shun Inoura , an alternate for Komazawa University 's Hakone Ekiden runner-up team, another 3 seconds back in 1:03:32. Still recovering from a sprained ankle a few weeks back, A...

by Brett Larner video highlights courtesy of race broadcaster NHK Hiroshima's Sera H.S. delivered on the promise of its #1 ranking at the 65th National High School Boys Ekiden Championships, running away on the third of the 42.195 km race's seven stages and never looking back.  Sera got off to a slightly shaky start as its top Japanese runner Shiki Shinsako finished only 6th on the First Stage, 11 seconds behind Fuminori Shimo of #5-ranked Iga Hakuho H.S. who ran 29:39 to win the 10.0 km stage off a slow 15:10 first half.  Sera stayed at 6th on the 3.0 km Second Stage, but Kenyan ringer Paul Kamais did his duty on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, easily taking the lead and running a superb 22:58 just shy of the 22:40 course record set 10 years ago by the late great Samuel Wanjiru of Sendai Ikuei H.S. When Kamais was done Sera had gone from 18 seconds behind to a 51-second lead.  Its remaining runners could have played it safe, but both fourth runner Taiji Nakashi...

by Brett Larner Along with weekend's major domestic races, the Ageo City Half Marathon and Yokohama International Women's Marathon, no less than five major ekidens took place across the country. At Saturday's cold and rainy 74th Biwako University Ekiden , the eight stage, 83.6 km year-end championship for men's university teams from western Japan, Kyoto Sangyo University pulled off a third-straight win after a disappointing 2012 season. Never far from the front, Kyoto Sangyo took the lead on the 7.3 km Second Stage, losing it momentarily on the 11.0 km Third Stage to rival Daiichi Kogyo University 's Kenyan ringer John Kariuki but returning on the next leg thanks to a stage win by Naoto Nakai . Kyoto Sangyo's next two runners built the team's lead up to 2:18, but a weak run by seventh man Makoto Kan cut the margin by a minute and left anchor Naoya Yoshioka with 1:16 to try to hold off Ritsumeikan University 's 1500 m specialist Toshiki Imazeki o...

by Brett Larner Paul Kuira continued the legacy of Sendai Ikuei High School, alma mater of Kenyan greats Samuel Wanjiru and Daniel Njenga, by winning the men`s 10000 m at the June 1st Niigata Time Trials track and field meet in a strong 27:51.92, just outside the Olympic A-standard time of 27:50.00. It was the first time under 28 minutes and a PB of over 30 seconds for the 18 year-old native of Nyandarua, Kenya. Samuel Wanjiru, running as pacemaker for teammate Yu Mitsuya as Mitsuya once more tried to make the Olympic A-standard, led for the first 8 km, the two Team Toyota Kyushu runners accompanied by Kuira, Team Asahi Kasei`s Ryuji Ono, Team Toyota`s Takeshi Hamano, and Team Toyota Boshoku`s John Kariuki. When Mitsuya began to flag after 8km, Kuira and Ono quickly pulled away from the pack, Wanjiru remaining behind to help Mitsuya. Ono was unable to match the younger Kuira`s kick, finishing just back in 27:53.19. His time was an improvement of almost 4 seconds over his May 17 perfor...