japan running news

With temps in the high teens the Nagoya Women's Marathon was warmer than ideal, but that didn't stop the expected protagonists from dominating, and in fast times. 2022 winner Ruth Chepngetich soloed the race the entire way, going ahead of the pacers in the first kilometer and splitting between 16:14 and 16:19 for five of the six 5 km splits up to 30 km. She couldn't quite hold it together enough over the last 10 km to give her 2:17:18 CR from last year a serious go, fading from 1:08:47 at halfway to a 2:18:08 for 1st. But that was still enough for her to win by over a kilometer and take home another $250,000. The main chase group of over a dozen skimmed just under 17 minutes per 5 km through a 1:11:20 half split before top-ranked Japan woman Ayuko Suzuki took off when the last pacer stopped. Deshun Zhang and Mao Uesugi initially went with her but soon lost touch, leaving Suzuki to drop an impressive 48-second negative split for a 2:21:52 PB, 10 seconds better than her ...

Japan's two major April marathons returned Sunday for the first time since pre-pandemic, both smaller than usual but a welcome step forward even as other races this summer and beyond continue to cancel. The Nagano Marathon saw an exciting men's race with local amateur Junichi Ushiyama surging hard with 5 km to go to break Akihiro Kaneko and Yuya Yamashita and win in a PB 2:14:42. Kaneko and Yamashita, who run for rival northern Tokyo supermarket chains Comodi Iida and Sunbelx , were head-to-head almost to the end before Kaneko broke free, taking 2nd in 2:15:22 to Yamashita's 2:15:26. The top nine men all went sub-2:20. Yamashita's teammate Akane Sekino led solo in the women's race , running 2:41:20 to win by almost three minutes over corporate leaguer Kasumi Yoshida of the Aichi Denki team, 2nd in 2:44:19. Tokyo-based club runner Asami Morino was 3rd in 2:44:35 with the top five women all sub-2:50. At the Kasumigaura Marathon , Kotaro Motonaga , a 4th-year...

Although the official new coronavirus case count 7-day average for the entire country of Japan has dropped below 200, about 1/5 that of New York City which hosted its marathon this past weekend , marathons as far away as the Mar. 13, 2022 Shizuoka Marathon are still citing pandemic risks and announcing fresh cancelations. Despite that, some of Japan's marathons have bucked the trend of timidity and are bringing large-scale races back. The Oct. 31 Kanazawa Marathon was the first, with 9,457 finishers and winning times of 2:17:03 by Junichi Ushiyama  and an excellent 2:35:52 PB by 47-year-old Mai Fujisawa .  On the Nov. 3 public holiday, the Gunma Marathon in Maebashi returned for its 31st running. 3,408 people finished, Taku Fujiwara  winning the men's race in 2:23:14 and Tomomi Sawahata  winning for the fifth time in a course record 2:37:02. The same day as New York, 8,880 people finished the 6th edition of the Toyama Marathon within its 7-hour limit. Hiroki Suga...

After being canceled last year, the Kanazawa Marathon returned Oct. 31 for its seventh edition, with 9.843 participants from across the country running down the autumn streets of Kanazawa. It was Japan's first full-size mass-participation marathon since February, 2020. Nagano's Junichi Ushiyama  won the men's race in 2:17:03 after frontrunning most of the race, with Mai Fujisawa  of Hokkaido scoring a commanding win by almost ten minutes in the women's race in 2:35:52. As part of the event's coronavirus strategy the start was divided into two waves of about 5,000 people each, the first wave starting at 8:35 from a start in front of Ishikawa Geihinkan and the second at 8:45 from in front of City Hall. Runners passed many of the city's historic temples and gardens en route to finishing at Seibu Ryokuchi Park Stadium. The Kanazawa Marathon is a joint project of the city and prefectural governments, and the Hokukoku Newspaper. source articles: https://www.hokkoku....

On Aug. 11 Mizuno issued corrections to  a press release originally dated July 1 announcing that its all-white prototype model containing the new Mizuno Enerzy foam was being released under the name Wave Duel Neo. On its third page the updated press release corrected specifications for the shoes' sole thickness. The company apologized for any inconvenience caused by inaccurate specifications in the previous versions of the release. On July 28, World Athletics announced new regulations governing the sole thickness of shoes used in track and field competition. The new rules specified the method by which sole thickness was to be measured. Previously, sole thickness was measured from the outsole to the midsole. The new World Athletics regulations specified that in addition to the outsole and midsole, the inner sole and insert were also to be included in measurements of thickness. In accordance with the new regulations, Mizuno amended the specifications of both the Wave Duel Neo...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/dosports/running/20150617-OHT1T50097.html translated and edited by Brett Larner In thin air between 1500 m and 1700 m, the Kawauchi brothers ran together over tough challenging hills of Nagano.  With their mother Mika Kawauchi , 51, watching, her oldest son Yuki , 28, won the June 14 Venus Half Marathon in 1:10:39.  A day earlier on the 13th, Yuki and the older of his two younger brothers, Yoshiki , 24, ran the neighboring Megamiko Cup Ekiden, a warmup for the Venus Half, together with friends as part of the four-member "Team Kawamoto," raising the excitement level at the race with a come-from-behind win. The Kawauchi brothers ran the ekiden together with two friends, brothers Ryusuke and Yuta Sakamoto , 35 and 28, respectively, combining their family names to create the Team Kawamoto name.  With each member running the same 2.3 km loop, Yoshiki started the second stage in 5th, running 6:58 and passing four people to take the lead befo...