japan running news

Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR have announced details for the qualifying half marathon for next year's 103rd Hakone Ekiden. The Yosenkai qualifying race will be held Oct. 17 in Tachikawa, Tokyo. The combined times of the 10 fastest finishers from each participating team will be used for team scoring, with the 10 fastest teams going on the the main event next January and top-placing individuals from teams that do not qualify being names to the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team. One change from previous years is that the number of runners each school can enter has been increased from 14 to 16. Teams will still only be allowed to have from 10 to 12 athletes on the starting line, but the move gives coaches greater flexibility in making the final decision on their starting rosters. No changes have been made to the qualifying times of 34:00 for 10000 m or 1:13:00 for the half marathon, and the new earlier starting time of 8:30 a.m. introduced last year in an effort to mitigate ...

The 105th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships will be held May 21-24 in Tochigi's Kanseki Stadium. Featuring World Championships national team members and Hakone Ekiden stars, it is the first time the meet is being held in Tochigi prefecture. The Kanto Regionals meet is open to member universities of the KGRR , with individual performances scoring points that determine the overall champion university program. The meet's history is even longer than that of the KGRR's flagship event, the Hakone Ekiden. All 22 events on the meet program except the men's half marathon, which was held separately on April 5 as part of the Yaizu Minato Half Marathon , will be held at Kanseki Stadium and the neighboring multipurpose field for throwing events. The entry list published on May 12 features Tokyo World Championships relay team member Arie Aoki (Nittai Univ.) in the 400 m. The men's 5000 m includes both Hakone Ekiden uphill Fifth Stage star Shinsaku Kudo (Was...

Hakone Ekiden organizers KGRR announced May 18 that the Yosenkai qualifying race for next year's 103rd Hakone Ekiden will be held Oct. 17 on its usual 21.0975 km half marathon course starting at the Tachikawa Air SDF Base in western Tokyo and finishing next door at Showa Kinen Park. The top 10 teams at the 102nd Hakone Ekiden this past January including winner Aoyama Gakuin University auto-qualified for the 103rd Hakone. All other schools in the Kanto Region must run the Yosenkai to qualify, fielding up to 12 athletes with their first 10 finishers scored on aggregate time. The 10 fastest teams will go on to the main event next January. The field this time is expected to include Toyo University , which finished 14th at the 102nd Hakone to break a 20-year+ streak of top 10 finishes, 15th-place Nittai University which will be looking to make Hakone for the 79th year in a row, and the debuting Shibaura Kogyo University . It's an exciting mix of traditional powerhouses and up-and...

The Kanto Regional University Track and Field Association ( KGRR ) has announced that it has added scholarship bonuses to the Hakone Ekiden, Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships and Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden. Scholarship bonuses are already awarded at the Twilight Games, Kanto Region University Newcomers and Kanto Region 10000 m Time Trials track meets, but at a board meeting in March the KGRR made the decision to add the additional events to the list for the 2025-2026 academic year which began in April. At the May 8-11 Kanto Regionals meet, men's and women's D1 top 3 placers earned ¥30,000, ¥20,000 and ¥10,000 scholarships [~$210, $140 and $70 USD]. D2 athletes earned ¥20,000, ¥10,000 and ¥5000 [~$140, $70 and $35]. Men's and women's MVP earned ¥50,000 [~$350] in the D1 division and ¥30,000 in D2 [~$210]. The overall winning teams earned ¥100,000 [~$700] in D1 and ¥70,000 [~$500] in D2. At the Hakone and Kanto Women's ekidens, winn...

On Mar. 25 the KGRR , organizers of the Hakone Ekiden, announced the start time for mid-October's 102nd Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying half marathon in Tachikawa, Tokyo will be changed from its traditional starting time of 9:35 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. as a measure against rising temperatures. The KGRR explained, "We have explored what options we have to maximize the safety of our athletes from the effects of global warming. With that in mind we have decided to move the start time earlier to reduce the risk from heat." At the Yosenkai half marathon schools may run up to 12 team members, with their first 10 finishers scoring based on their combined finish times. With places at the world's biggest road race on the line competition is fierce and the young student athletes push their bodies and minds to their absolute limits. Last year's race on Oct. 19 had unseasonably hot weather that turned into a battle of attrition. At the 9:35 a.m. start it was 23.2˚, rising to summ...

The Kanto Student Athletics Federation (KGRR), organizers of the Hakone Ekiden, announced this week that as of April 1 they have changed their legal status from a volunteer organization to an incorporated foundation. Having served as the KGRR's chairperson for eight years since his appointment in 2016, Masahiro Ariyoshi , 76, has stepped down to be replaced by Yasushi Ueda , 68, a 1984 Olympian in the men's triple jump. Former Yamanashi Gakuin University  head coach  Masahito Ueda , 65, stepped down as chair of the KGRR ekiden committee after serving for ten years. Susumu Hara , 57, head coach of course record-breaking 2024 Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University , was named KGRR executive director and will succeed Ueda as ekiden committee chair. Tokai University  head coach Hayashi Morozumi , 57, will serve as ekiden committee vice-chair. Other committee members include Seiji Kushibe  (Josai University, 52), Toshiyuki Sakai  (Toyo University, 47), Tomoo ...

  The Hakone Ekiden will see its 100th running in January. To celebrate this landmark in the event's history, qualification has been opened up to universities from across the country. In June last year the event's organizers the Kanto Region University Sports Association (KGRR) announced that the field would be expanded from the usual 20 schools to 23, but that the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team made up of top individual finishers at October's Yosenkai qualifying race from schools that fail to make the top 23 would not be a part of the 100th running. But that last decision is now being questioned. This spring eight universities led by Tokyo University and Tokyo Kogyo University formed a group to lobby the KGRR to reverse the decision not to include the Student Alliance team. Lobby group member Hiroaki Furukawa , a graduate student at Tokyo University, discussed the situation. Furukawa only learned that the Student Alliance would not be a part of next year...

On Sept. 29 the KGRR released guidelines for cheering at the 99th Hakone Ekiden Qualifying Half Marathon, scheduled for Oct. 15. The race will be put on in compliance with the JAAF's road race guidelines. For the last two years it was held on a closed course around the runway of the SDF Tachikawa Air Base runway in order to keep spectators out and reduce the risk of coronavirus infection. This year it will return to its traditional course starting on the runway, heading out onto the Tachikawa city streets, and finishing in Showa Kinen Park next to the SDF base. But the KGRR guidelines call for spectators to stay away, saying, "Athletes can feel your support even if you're not along the course. We ask all ekidens to watch this year's race on TV." All athletes and team staff, race organizers and other official personnel must file information on their physical condition for the 10 days before the race. Only those categories of people and university cheerleader tea...

At an online executive board meeting on June 30, the KGRR made the decision to open up the October, 2023 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race to universities from across the country in honor of the Hakone Ekiden's 100th running. The decision gives universities from outside the Tokyo-centric Kanto Region the chance to compete in the Hakone Ekiden centennial edition on January 2 and 3, 2024 if they make the cut at the Yosenkai. The Hakone Ekiden is traditionally only open to university men's teams from within Kanto. Teams from other parts of the country will have to meet the same criteria as Kanto Region schools in order to take part in the qualifying race, the minimum of which is currently having at least 10 athletes with 10,000 m bests under 34 minutes at certified competitions. There are precedents for universities from elsewhere in the country to take part. Kansai University competed three times in Hakone's early history, and at the 40th running in 1964 both Ritsumeika...

The KGRR , organizers of the Hakone Ekiden , have announced that the event's World Athletics Heritage Plaque awarded at a ceremony at May's 101st Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships will be on permanent display at the Hakone Ekiden Museum in Kanagawa along with a replica of the statue at the the Hakone Ekiden start and finish point in Otemachi, Tokyo. The items are to be delivered to the museum on June 27, after which they will be incorporated into its exhibits and opened for public viewing.  The Heritage Plaque program , the "World Heritage Site" of athletics, was established by World Athletics in December, 2018. The program recognizes important elements of the sport's heritage in five categories: City  - Awarded to locations that have hosted multiple important international competitions. Competitions  - Awarded to key global events with a long history. Legends  - Awarded to athletes, coaches and officials. Landmarks  - Awarded to stadiums an...

On May 9 the KGRR released the entry lists for this year's Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships to be held May 19-22 at Tokyo's National Stadium. Along with the Hakone Ekiden, the Kanto Regionals meet is one of the two most competitive collegiate competitions in Japan. It was held in the old National Stadium until 2013, and its return to the new version of the stadium this year after 9 years away restores some of its prestige and promises higher levels of excitement than ever before. 7th in the men's 3000 mSC final at last summer's Tokyo Olympics, 3rd-year  Ryuji Miura  (Juntendo Univ.) is skipping his speciality event to run the 5000 m. In past years the 5000 m was held as a straight final, but this year's program will include semis and a final. At last year's Kanto Regionals Miura won the 1500 m and was 2nd in the 5000 m. This year he will seek to overcome tough Kenyan competition to take the 5000 m title for the first time. The top-level co...

a press release from the event organizers, the KGRR As the weather shifts to the pleasantness of early autumn we send you our warmest greetings, and we thank you all for your continued support of the KGRR's activities. After careful discussion with the host city of Inzai, Chiba, we have made the decision to cancel the 27th Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden.  As this race serves to select the greater Tokyo area's representative teams at October's 39th National University Women's Ekiden, we will instead hold a selection event as per the details below, without spectators and following all the COVID-19 protocols outlined in the JAAF's "Guidance for Resuming Athletics Competition." Please be aware that depending on the status of the pandemic this event may also be canceled. We ask for your understanding and cooperation with this decision. Kanto Region Selection Event for 39th National University Women's Ekiden Date:  Saturday, Sept. 29, 2021 Locat...