japan running news

by Brett Larner The Dec. 6 Fukuoka International Marathon , not to be confused with the mass-participation Fukuoka Marathon four weeks earlier despite its URL, has wheeled out the elite field for this year's race, the first Japanese trials race for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic team.  World record holder Dennis Kimetto (Kenya) will be in town for a late-season payday after dropping out of this summer's Beijing World Championships, facing sub-2:06 men Bernard Koech (Kenya) and Getu Feleke (Ethiopia) and Fukuoka's last three winners Patrick Makau (Kenya), Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel). Running five weeks after his third shot at the TCS New York City Marathon, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) leads the Japanese field along with fellow 2:08 runner Koji Kobayashi (Team Subaru) and 2:09 former National Team member Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei).  Sub-2:06:30 is the time the JAAF is dictating for auto selecti...

by Brett Larner It's another big weekend of elite racing in Japan as everyone from junior high school students through the pros gets ready for the mid-December through mid-January national championship ekiden season.  The only serious women's racing to be found comes at the last full Nittai University Time Trials track meet of the year, where small contingents from top high school, university and corporate teams tune up for the roads over 3000 m and 5000 m.  Two weeks after winning silver at the 100 km World Championships in Doha, Qatar, Chiyuki Mochizuki (Canon AC Kyushu) features in the 3000 m along with Kenyan Ann Ngatuny (Sendai Ikuei H.S.).  Bigger names in the 5000 m include Doricah Obare (Team Hitachi), Monica Margaret (Aomori Yamada H.S.) and Yuka Hakoyama (Team Wacoal). Coming just a week after 11 men broke 28 minutes at the Hachioji Long Distance 10000 m time trial meet , the all-Kenyan men's 5000 m Heat 26 is the main event at Nittai, with World XC ju...

by Brett Larner For its first running following the launch of the new mass-participation Fukuoka Marathon on Nov. 9, the hallowed Fukuoka International Marathon has pulled in former world record holder Patrick Makau (Kenya) to make a go at a comeback against 2013 winner Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and surprise 2012 winner Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) in its 68th edition on Dec. 7.  Until this summer Makau hadn't run at quality over any distance since 2012, but a sub-28 road 10k in the U.S.A. in August suggests he has been getting back toward full fitness, something he'll need to bring to compete against Mathathi and Gitau.  2:06:24 Ethiopian Raji Assefa is a potential darkhorse, #2 on paper but without a good marathon to his name since running his PB in 2012. Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki), 6th in the London Olympics and 5th in the Moscow World Championships, leads the domestic hopes alongside 2:08 Moscow teammate Masakazu Fujiwara (T...

by Brett Larner Despite weeks of heavy rains that brought fatal landslides across the Hiroshima region, the 2014 Hiroshima Cross-Country Meet went ahead as planned under relatively good conditions.  Charles Ndirangu (Team JFE Steel), a graduate of the local Sera H.S. ekiden program that previously produced the likes of sub-27 man Bedan Karoki (DeNA RC) and 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau (Team JFE Steel), had an easy time adding a win to his resume, finishing more than 30 seconds up on the rest of the men's 8 km field in 24:24.  Little-known Shogo Kanezane (Team Chugoku Denryoku) outran the rest of the Japanese field for 2nd, at 24:55 the only Japanese man to go under 25 minutes. His teammate Kaido Kita filled out the podium in 25:01.  The top man from the third corporate team at the meet, Chudenko's Naoya Hashimoto , was 6th in 25:16 in the midst of the chase pack's blanket finish. 2014 Hiroshima XC Meet Men's 8 km Hiroshima, 8/23/14 ...

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2014021300784 http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20140213-OYT1T01083.htm http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2014/02/13/kiji/K20140213007581080.html http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/p-sp-tp0-20140214-1257340.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Feb. 13 the organizers of the Mar. 2 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon announced the sixteen invited elites for this year's 69th running.  Defending champion Vincent Kipruto (Kenya) returns, with his toughest overseas competition coming from 2:05:25 man Bazu Worku (Ethiopia) and 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel). 3rd at the most recent Fukuoka, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) leads the Japanese field along with his 2011 Daegu World Championships marathon teammate Yoshinori Oda  (Team Toyota). Lake Biwa is a selection race for the Japanese national team for this fall's Asian Games marathon in South Korea.  ...

by Brett Larner National championship ekiden season may be through, but across the country smaller regional and local ekidens continue.  Biggest among the dozen or so noteworthy ekidens this weekend was the 77th running of the Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden .  A moderate-length event at 7 stages and 84.4 km, Chugoku Yamaguchi featured six top corporate league teams from the central Japan region along with local universities and clubs.  Despite a one-two punch of 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau  (Kenya) and former Sera H.S. star Charles Ndirangu  (Kenya) the JFE Steel  team could not hold off rivals Mazda , the lead turning over twice during the course of the race before Mazda anchor Kenji Yamamoto , a member of Toyo University 's 2012 Hakone Ekiden course record-setting team, ran down JFE Steel's Yuki Moriwaki  to give Mazda the win by 20 seconds in 4:08:54.   Chugoku Denryoku , the top-ranked team in the region after finishi...

by Brett Larner photos courtesy Dr. Helmut Winter click here for more photos and splits via broadcaster KBC After giving up late in the game last year, 2007 Osaka World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Martin Mathathi  (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) got it right Dec. 1 at the 67th Fukuoka International Marathon , going to the front at the turnaround near 31.5 km and never looking back as he took the win in 2:07:16.  Defending champion Joseph Gitau  (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) tried to go with him but faded  in the final 5 km to finish 2nd in 2:09:00.  After a stunning mid-race move in his tenth marathon so far this year, Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't) became the first Japanese man ever to break 2:10 three times in the same year and the sixth to break 2:10 five times in his career as he took 3rd, bearing down on Gitau in the last km but coming up just short of catching him in 2:09:05. Aussie pacers Collis Birmingham  and Ben St. Lawrence ...

by Brett Larner Japan’s last top-level marathon of the year takes place this Sunday with the 67th running of the historic Fukuoka International Marathon . In recent weeks Fukuoka has been hit by some high-level withdrawals including 2010 New York City Marathon winner Gebre Gebremariam (Ethiopia), last year’s Fukuoka runner-up Hiroyuki Horibata (Team Asahi Kasei) and 2008 Tokyo Marathon winner Viktor Rothlin (Switzerland), but with four of last year's top six returning it looks set to be a very close-matched and exciting race up front. Defending champion Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) returns as the fastest man in the field with the 2:06:58 time he set last year. In his only recent race, the Oct. 27 Hiroshima Corporate Ekiden, Gitau ran 19:21 for 6.60 km to finish only 4th on the stage nearly a minute behind the winner, and with little else to go on he has to be viewed as a question mark coming in to Fukuoka. His strongest competition should be 2007 World Champions...

by Brett Larner The Fukuoka International Marathon has released the entry list for its 67th running on Dec. 1 and it's a familiar story line: one marquee African athlete and a half-dozen other foreign athletes in range of the best Japanese men on the list.  Even more so this year, with its top-end list of seven names identical to last year's field save for the substitution of Ethiopian great Gebre Gebremariam  for Ethiopian greater Haile Gebreselassie .  Gebremariam gets the official number one seed from Fukuoka organizers due to his heavily aided 2:04:53 from the 2011 Boston Marathon with no note on the entry list of that time being aided, but with a legitimate best of only 2:08:00 from the 2011 New York City Marathon he has just the sixth-fastest PB in the field.  The true top seed goes to bib #21, defending champion Joseph Gitau  (Kenya/Team JFE Steel), the only man in the field with a genuine sub-2:07 to his name.  Joining him again are last year's 3...

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 Ekiden News is scheduled to live stream the Golden Games in Nobeoka Meet, with the major events beginning at 7:00 p.m. Japan time on May 11. Watch live here. This weekend marks the start of three straight weeks of regional championship track action in the lead-up to the June 7-9 National Championships.  The biggest meet of the weekend is Saturday's Golden Games in Nobeoka , where the focus will be on the men's 10000 m.  2007 Osaka World Championships bronze medalist Martin Mathathi (Kenya/ Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) leads a field of thirteen, many collegiate men, looking to get under 28 and hopefully closer to joining Suguru Osako  (Waseda Univ.) and Yuki Sato  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) under the Moscow World Championships A-standard of 27:40.00.  From Hakone Ekiden course record holder Toyo University  are Keita  and Yuta Shitara , looking to become the first Japanese twins to both go sub-28, and from National University Ekiden cour...

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...

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/News/Tn201301280004.html http://www.komaspo.com/4210 http://mainichi.jp/area/saitama/news/20130128ddlk11050143000c.html http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20130127-1077441.html http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20130127-OHT1T00214.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner Three late-season ekidens took place this weekend.  Amid light snow in Yamaguchi, 48 teams took part in the 76th running of the Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden on a 7-stage, 84.4 km course from Ube City Hall to Shunan City Hall.  In the elite division, after an exciting Sixth Stage that saw 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) cover the 15.9 km stage in 46:11 to move his team up into 1st, Team Chugoku Denryoku retook the lead on the anchor stage and claimed its eleventh Chugoku Yamaguchi title and first in two years in a time of 4:06:44.   Saikyo High School 's A team won the high school division in ...

JRN's most-read articles of 2012 by month: January Toyo University takes eight minutes off Hakone Ekiden course record in historic win. -  Jan. 3 Russian Tatyana Aryasova stripped of 2011 Tokyo Marathon title after testing positive for masking agent. - Jan. 24 February Kisorio wins deepest-ever Marugame International Half-Marathon. - Feb. 5 2012 Tokyo Marathon preview.   - Feb. 23 Kipyego, Habtumu win Tokyo Marathon, Fujiwara back with 2:07:48. - Feb. 26 Kawauchi, 14th in 2:12:52: "I do not think I will be picked" for Olympics; shaves head. - Feb. 27 Gebrselassie gives words of support to Kawauchi. - Feb. 28 Fujiwara's high school coach, hometown supporters delighted with Tokyo performance. - Feb. 28 March Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon preview. - Mar. 2 Takehiro Deki ahead of Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon debut: "That's where my talent is." - Mar. 2 Ndungu wins debut at Lake Biwa, Szost 2:07:39 sets Polish NR, Yamamoto takes probabl...

translated and edited by Brett Larner source articles at bottom of page Joseph Gitau  (24, Team JFE Steel) won the Dec. 2 Fukuoka International Marathon in a superb 2:06:58 with a hard surge after 33 km.  "Before the race I hadn't even thought about the possibility of winning," Gitau told the media.  "My marathons before this had both turned out badly.  I just went into this thinking that it was time to give it another try."  Gitau made his marathon debut in Fukuoka in 2009 but dropped out partway.  He finished his second marathon in Hokkaido two years ago but ran only 2:21:54.  A graduate of Hiroshima's Sera H.S., where he made an impact on the ekiden circuit, Gitau is a product of Japan's corporate team system.  In fluent Japanese he said, "I'm accustomed to the environment in Japan and that has made it easier for me to run."  Four-time Fukuoka winner Toshihiko Seko  commented, "Gitau has bests of only 13:43, 27:58 and 1:01:19. ...