japan running news

by Brett Larner In addition to the big Golden Games in Nobeoka and the Kanto and Kansai Regional University Track & Field Championships, several regional corporate championship meets also saw noteworthy results over the weekend. At the Chugoku Jitsugyodan Championships in Hiroshima, former Sera H.S. ace Charles Ndirangu  (Team JFE Steel) continued his unbeaten streak in his second pro race, scoring his tenth-straight win by winning the 5000 m in 13:42.00 by a margin of over 18 seconds.  Team Tenmaya runners made up the majority of the field in the women's 5000 m, with young Akari Ota  winning in 16:05.99.  Tenmaya's former great Yurika Nakamura continued her apparent downward spiral, 15th in 17:47.93. Almost on a par with Ndirangu's performance was that of year-leading half-marathoner Chihiro Miyawaki  (Team Toyota), who beat a pack of Kenyans including 2011 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Samuel Ndungu  (Team Aichi Seiko) to set a meet rec...

Ecopa Stadium, Shizuoka, 5/3/12 click here for complete results Men's 5000 m 1. Paul Tanui (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) - 13:19.18 2. Patrick Mutunga (Kenya/Team Toyota Boshoku) - 13:21.22 3. John Thuo (Kenya/Team Toyota) - 13:23.41 4. Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 13:27.06 5. Edward Waweru (Kenya/Team NTN) - 13:41.56 6. Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) - 13:46.35 7. Kazuharu Takai (Team Kyudenko) - 14:00.31 8. Hayato Saito (Team Honda) - 14:05.13 9. Yusei Nakao (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 14:08.95 10. Wataru Ueno (Komazawa Univ.) - 14:18.77 Women's 5000 m 1. Yuriko Kobayashi (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) - 15:30.95 2. Ai Igarashi - 15:31.72 (Team Sysmex) - 15:31.72 3. Susan Wairimu (Kenya) - 15:31.74 4. Grace Kimanzi (Kenya/Team Starts) - 15:32.23 5. Yurie Doi (Team Starts) - 15:37.32 6. Megumi Kinukawa (Mizuno) - 15:40.73 7. Doricah Obare (Kenya/Team Hitachi) - 15:43.95 8. Mai Ishibashi (Team Denso) - 15:45.25 9. Felista Wanjugu (Kenya/Team Univ. Ent.) - 1...

by Brett Larner Along with Kanagawa and Nagano's great course record battle at the East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima , this weekend saw four other significant ekidens around the country.  Like the East Japan race, the six-stage, 30 km Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden saw its 27th running.  An interesting format with 48 universities, corporate teams and running clubs all competing together, Fukui this year was largely a rematch between this year's national university champion Ritsumeikan University  and 2010 champion Bukkyo University .  Bukkyo fielded all its key runners, including ace Hikari Yoshimoto , while Ritsumeikan was down its leading pair Risa Takenaka  and Hanae Tanaka .  After an early lead Bukkyo dropped to 3rd behind Ritsumeikan and Meijo University , but in the second half it worked its way back up to 2nd just 12 seconds behind Ritsumeikan.  Anchor Yoshimoto, the 10000 m collegiate record holder, then ran 41 seconds faster than anyone els...

by Brett Larner Another weekend, another round of massive track time trials.  The Shizuoka Long-Distance Time Trials meet, always the site of the fastest 10000 m of the fall season, had a tight race up front as Edward Waweru  (Kenya/Team NTN) outkicked John Thuo  (Kenya/Team Toyota) for the win, 27:23.82 to 27:24.41.   Patrick Muwaka  (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) also cleared the 27:45 Olympic A-standard, 3rd in 27:33.14. A large selection of top young Japanese talent ran the same heat to shoot for the A-standard, but the only new athlete to achieve an Olympic mark was 20-year-old Chihiro Miyawaki  (Team Toyota) who ran a PB of 28:01.00, the tenth Japanese man this year to clear the London A- or B-standard.  Only five days after a disastrous university debut at the Izumo Ekiden where he was 13th on his stage, 18-year old Komazawa University first-year Kenta Murayama  was the second Japanese finisher, outkicking pro Takuya Fukatsu  (Team Asahi...

by Brett Larner Fall track season continued over the National Sports Day long weekend with three large meets.  The National Sports Festival in Yamaguchi produced a women's 5000 m Olympic B-standard PB from this year's national corporate 10000 m champion Kasumi Nishihara  (Team Yamada Denki), who ran 15:23.80 to win by six seconds.  The junior women's 3000 m saw the top four high schoolers break 9:10, with Tomoka Kimura  (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) winning in 9:05.81 over rival Miki Sakakibara  (Hamakita Nishi H.S.) after losing to Sakakibara in the heats. The Niigata Time Trials meet also produced two Olympic B-standard performances.  2010 national 5000 m champion Yuki Matsuoka  (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) ran a PB 28:03.46 to win the 10000 m and clear the London B-standard.  Five-time national 1500 m champion Mika Yoshikawa  (Team Panasonic) continued her successful transition to longer distances this year by breaking 32 in a virtually solo 1...

by Brett Larner A busy long weekend of distance action kicked off Sept. 23 with the National Jitsugyodan Track & Field Championships 10000 m in Tokushima, Shikoku.  Having run last month's World Championships 10000 m as a last-minute replacement,  Paul Tanui  (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) had a narrow win in the men's race, 27:37.67 over runner-up Edward Waweru  (Kenya/Team NTN) and 3rd-place John Thuo  (Kenya/Team Toyota). After a slow first km Tanui took the lead pack of seven Kenyans and four Japanese up to 2:46/km, where the race remained until final km.   Hisanori Kitajima  (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Chihiro Miyawaki  (Team Toyota) could not keep up with the sub-28 pace, leaving former Komazawa University teammate Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Konica Minolta) and Takuya Fukatsu  (Team Asahi Kasei) as the only Japanese athletes in contention.  Both lost touch after 6000 m, Alex Mwangi (Kenya/Team YKK) following suit 2000 m later. ...

by Brett Larner Ten days after staging a big comeback with a 15:09.96 national 5000 m title, the all-time sixth-best by a Japanese woman, Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno) did it again, running a solo 31:10.02 at the June 22 Hokuren Distance Challenge Abashiri Meet 10000 m to become the all-time fourth-fastest Japanese woman over the distance. More impressive than her time, which cleared the World Championships A-standard by over 30 seconds and makes a double in Daegu very likely, was the way she paced the race. After a 15:45 first half Kinukawa gradually ratcheted up her pace, negative splitting with a 15:25 second half which included 9:09 for the final 3000 m and a superb 2:58 final km. Although rain shortly before the race helped to lower temperatures, conditions at the finish were still a less-than-ideal 20 degrees with 81% humidity. In light of this and her conservative first half it's exciting to consider what might be in store for Kinukawa against a more competitive, aggre...

by Brett Larner The Japanese track season continued the May 7-8 weekend with the first of three straight weekends of regional corporate championships. The Chugoku Regional Championships held its 5000 m the night of May 7, with Yuko Watanabe (Team Endion) and Hironori Arai (Team Chugoku Denryoku) having surprise wins in 16:08.48 and 13:58.65 over top-ranked woman Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya) and Kenyan Joseph Gitau (Team JFE Steel). The rest of the meet including the 10000 m will be held this coming weekend of the 14th-15th. The Chubu region held its entire championships on the 7th and 8th, meaning many runners doubled at 5000 m and 10000 m in less than 24 hours. Kenyan John Thuo (Team Toyota), who ran a then-world-leading 10000 m last month at the Hyogo Relay Carnival meet, had the best run of the weekend, taking the men's 10000 m in 27:52.86. His teammate Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota) was the top Japanese finisher, 5th in 29:10.06 with a 57-second last lap. Kenyan Samuel...

by Brett Larner Junior 10-mile world record holder Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) became the first man to break the 45 minute barrier three times at the Dec. 5 Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, taking his fifth win with a time of 44:59. His nearest competitor, John Thuo (Kenya/Team Toyota) was a fair way back in 45:47. Among Japanese competitors, who have a separate start from foreign runners, Ryuji Watanabe (Team Toyota Kyushu) was the top finisher in 47:21, the promised field of top-ranked young elites being entirely absent. All told 37 men broke 49 minutes. 2010 Kumamoto Kosa 10-Mile Road Race click here for complete results International Men's 10-Miler 1. Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 44:59 2. John Thuo (Kenya/Team Toyota) - 45:47 3. Micah Njeru (Kenya/Team Toyota Boshoku) - 46:45 4. Alex Mwangi (Kenya/Team YKK) - 47:48 Japanese Men's 10-Miler 1. Ryuji Watanabe (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 47:21 2. Daisuke Matsufuji (Team Kanebo) - 47:37 3. Yuya Konishi (Tea...

by Brett Larner This weekend saw eight major meets across Japan, two university regionals and six corporate team regionals. With too many results to list in detail JRN gives you a quick review of the major performances starting with the university meets. Click each meet or event for complete results. Kanto Regional University Championships , Tokyo: Detailed in a separate article with video links , Kenyans Benjamin Gando (Nihon Univ.) and Duncan Mozay (Takushoku Univ.) took both windy men's 10000 m heats, Gando in 28:27.18 and Mozay in 29:15.43. The top seven in the A-heat broke 29 minutes, including two Waseda University frosh, Suguru Osako and Fuminori Shikata . Both 18 year-olds now have PBs in the 28:30's, boding well for Waseda's chances this year. Osako lost out in a three-way sprint finish against Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.) and Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.) who finished 2-3 with Yoroizaka taking 21 seconds off his PB to clock 28:34.12. The women's 1000...

by Brett Larner Alongside sprinter Chisato Fukushima 's new women's 200 m national record at the May 3 Shizuoka International Track and Field Meet , Josephat Ndambiri (Kenya/Team Komori Corp.) was in a familiar position in the men's 5000 m, one step ahead of countryman Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) with a meet record and world-leading 13:09.19 win. Mathathi, just six days from his half-marathon debut at Sunday's Sendai International Half Marathon, was also under the old meet record as he finished 2nd in 13:10.94. 3rd placer Jonathan Ndiku (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) set the 3rd-fastest time so far this year, 13:19.84, while 4th place John Thuo set a slim PB of 13:21.02. 5000 m Japanese national champion Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) had a surprise win over Saku Chosei high school teammate Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) with the fastest time this year by a Japanese man, 13:24.75. The next five Japanese after Sato all set PBs, among them Tokai Universi...

by Brett Larner In the grand prix events on day two of the 2010 Hyogo Relay Carnival , Bukkyo Univ. third-year Hikari Yoshimoto showed that her anchor stage win at last November's International Chiba Ekiden was no fluke as she nearly ran down winner Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) in the women's 10000 m and set a new national university record in the process. Fukushi, the 3000 m, 5000 m and half marathon national record holder, won in a solid 31:29.03. Yoshimoto, in her first track 10000 m, was just steps behind in 31:30.92, a time which broke the 15 year-old Japanese university record and which would have put her in the top 20 worldwide last year. The pair outran top-ranked Kenyan Doricah Obare (Team Hitachi), who was 3rd in a PB of 31:37.07. The trio's times were the 2nd, 3rd and 4th-fastest in the world so far this year and no other women broke 32:15, making Yoshimoto's debut all the more impressive. In the men's 10000 m John Thuo (Kenya/Team Toyota) outkicked J...

by Brett Larner Lost in the shuffle following Tsegaye Kebede's record-breaking run at today's Fukuoka International Marathon, the world's most competitive 10-miler took place across Kyushu at the 2009 Kumamoto Kosa 10 Mile Road Race . A total of 90 men broke 50 minutes at the race, a tune-up for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national corporate championships. In the "International Division," made up of Japan-based foreigners who run for Japanese corporate teams and are given an inscrutable one-minute headstart, 2007 World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Martin Mathathi (Team Suzuki) won in 44:52, just one second off his course and world junior record of 44:51. In the Japanese Division, former Juntendo University Hakone Ekiden "God of the Mountain" 5th Stage record breaker Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) scored the first big result of his pro career with a 46:40 win by one second over university-era Hakone 5th stage rival Satoru Kitamura (Team Nissin S...

by Brett Larner Two weeks after becoming the first man to break 27 minutes for 10000 m on Japanese soil at the May 3 Shizuoka International meet, Kenyan Josephat Ndambiri (Team Komori Corp.) repeated the feat in gusty winds on the first day of the East Japan Jitsugyodan Track and Field Meet in Yamagata Prefecture, clocking a meet record of 26:58.40. Ndambiri now holds the two fastest times in the world so far this year for 10000 m. Runner-up Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) just missed out on breaking 27 minutes, running a 10 second PB of 27:01.83 and likewise going under the meet record. Ngatuny faced tougher conditions of rain and wind the next day in the 5000 m and again came up 2nd in 13:19.41. He was beaten out by Ethiopian Yacob Jarso (Team Honda), whose winning time of 13:19.20 was both a PB and a new meet record. As in the 10000 m Ngatuny had the consolation of also being under the previous meet record. His new teammate Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin), just back from ...

by Brett Larner Team S&B rookie Aruto Anzai just missed Fumikazu Kobayashi`s men`s 1000 m national record of 2:19.65 at the Hokuren Distance Challenge Abashiri Meet on July 9th. Anzai ran a duel with Team Fujitsu`s Hiroshi Ino, leaving the rest of the field behind and winning in 2:20.43 with Ino 2nd in 2:21.89. Athens Olympics men`s 10000 m team member Ryuji Ono of Team Asahi Kasei likewise came up short in the 5000 m, landing 2nd behind Kenyan winner John Thuo of Team Toyota Jidosha in 13:32.67. Ono`s mark was well off the Olympic A-standard he needs to have in order to become a last-minute addition to the Beijing Olympic team. His last chance will come in the 10000 m at the Hokuren Distance Challenge Kushiro Meet on July 16. The Abashiri Meet also included rarely-contested men`s and women`s 600 m races. Ayako Jinnouchi of Saga University won the women`s competition in 1:28.41, while Takeshi Kuchino of Nittai University took the men`s race in 1:16.74. The Hokuren Distance Challeng...