japan running news

by Brett Larner Compressed from its usual two-weekend format to one this year, the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships started May 14 at Yokohama's Nissan Stadium.  In the day's main event, Yamanashi Gakuin University debuted its new Kenyan first-year Dominic Nyairo in the D1 10000 m.  Nyairo and two-time National University 10000 m champion Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Nihon Univ.) led throughout the race, pursued by a large Japanese chase pack that shook down to just one runner, 2014 National University Half Marathon champion Hideto Yamanaka (Nittai Univ.).  Yamanaka, who sat out his entire junior year last year with injury, was hesitant to lead, but when he did make a move he and Nyairo shook off Muiva, turning the race into a head-to-head duel over the last lap.  Nyairo pulled away with a brilliant last 200 m to win by two seconds, but shortly after the race it was announced that he had been disqualified for stepping over the outer/inner start div...

by Brett Larner As the world's best university distance runners start their buildup to the main event of their year, the Kanto Region's Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden, and the U.S.A.'s NCAA holds its national cross country championships, their counterparts further west ran their season-ender Saturday at the 76th Kansai Region University Men's Ekiden Championships . On a new course in Tango, Kyoto last year Kyoto Sangyo University beat crosstown rival Ritsumeikan University in a photo finish, both schools clocking 4:10:50 for the 8-stage, 81.2 km distance.  This year both were back up front on a slightly longer 81.4 km version of the Tango course, but instead of a two-school show both got a serious challenge from last year's 4th-placer Kwansei Gakuin University . KSU started in 2nd with Ritsumeikan and KGU further back as most other schools put their best runners on the First Stage.  After a stage win by second man Yohei Koyama KGU was up to 2nd, and by the end of t...

by Brett Larner Monday's International Chiba Ekiden leads Japan's weekend action, with 13 teams from 11 countries competing over a 6-stage, 42.195 course that alternates men's and women's stages.  Defending champion Kenya returns with a surprisingly weak team of relative unknowns led by Matthew Kisorio in his first race wearing the Kenyan national vest since his drug suspension and, on its women's side, Mercy Kibarus .  On paper at least 7 teams have a shot at beating the 3-straight winners, but Kenya has come to Chiba with uncredentialed teams that have mopped the roads with the competition before and can't be ignored. The last team to beat them was the Japanese University Team in 2010, and this year's JUT is just as strong.  Meiji University 's Ken Yokote broke a stage record at the National University Ekiden Championships 3 weeks ago and, with support from Aoyama Gakuin University stars Yusuke Ogura and Tadashi Isshiki, Kyoto University ...

http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASG693FG1G69PTQP003.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At the June 8 Kansai Region National University Men's Ekiden Championships Qualifier at Kyoto's Nishi Kyogo Sogo Sports Park Field, academic powerhouse Kyoto University  finished 5th to qualify for the National Championship race for the first time since its fourth running in January, 1973 and only the second time in school history.   Ritsumeikan University  won the regional qualifier for the Nov. 2 National Championships, to be run on a 106.8 km course between Atsuta Shrine in Aichi prefecture and Ise Shrine in Mie prefecture. With a grab-bag team ranging from its star first-year recruit, 2013 World Youth Championships 10000 m racewalk gold medalist Toshikazu Yamanishi , to graduate student runners, the Kyoto team's efforts   just barely paid off.  Over four heats of 10000 m with two runners from each school per heat it came down to Kansai Regional Track and Field...

http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/sports/article/20130422000135 translated and edited by Brett Larner On Apr. 22 the organizers of the Biwako University Ekiden , held each November between Nagahama and Otsu along the west coast of Lake Biwa, announced that the event has been suspended.  With Biwako to have served as the 75th anniversary edition of the Kansai Region University Ekiden Championships this year, a move to an alternate course in the Tango peninsula north of Kyoto is being examined. With various locations having staged the Kansai championships over the years, the Biwako University Ekiden became the host event in 2005, expanding the championships' scale by bringing together invited schools from the Tokai, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu regions along with the best of Kansai to battle for the title of #1 in Western Japan. With an eight-year history, last year 21 schools competed over Biwako's eight-stage, 83.6 km course. Following difficulties in achieving the event's or...

89th Kansai Regional University T&F Championships Nagai Stadium, Osaka, May 10-13, 2012 click here for complete results Women's 10000 m 1. Chinami Mori (Bukkyo Univ.) - 33:16.28 2. Chika Ogawa (Bukkyo Univ.) - 33:18.12 3. Ayako Mitsui (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 33:57.40 4. Eriko Kushima (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) - 34:03.48 5. Kanade Iida (Osaka Geidai Univ.) - 34:05.40 6. Aya Goto (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 34:19.36 7. Aiko Sakata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) - 34:43.77 8. Rina Asano (Osaka Gakuin Univ.) - 34:54.86 9. Shiori Hayashida (Osaka Geidai Univ.) - 35:06.84 10. Nanae Fukaumi (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) - 35:07.19 (c) 2012 Brett Larner all rights reserved

by Brett Larner On the first genuinely hot day of the year, 10000 m university national record holder Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo Univ.) took the win in the women's 5000 m at the 2010 Kansai Regional University Track and Field Championships on May 21. Yoshimoto led start to finish with a quick 3:03 first kilometer before settling into a more moderate pace. She finished in only 15:44.57, an indication perhaps of the high temperatures, but still had a lead of over 23 seconds on runner-up Risa Takenaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.). Defending champion Kasumi Nishihara (Bukkyo Univ.), who set the meet record of 15:32.89 at last year's Kansai Regionals, was clearly not on form as she was 6th in only 16:44.46. Both Yoshimoto and Nishihara are scheduled to race the 5000 m and 10000 m at next month's National Track and Field Championships. In the men's 10000 m, Hiroki Mitsuoka (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.), the only man in the field with a PB under 29:30, won in a leisurely 30:07.82. 2010 Kansa...

by Brett Larner While the Tokyo-centered Kanto Region is the undisputed center of Japanese university men's distance running thanks to the prestigious Hakone Ekiden, the Kansai Region features two of the top women's schools, the unbeatable national champion Ritsumeikan University and its perennial rival Bukkyo University. This year's Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships was spread out over three weekends, giving distance athletes the possibility of competing in multiple events from 1500 m to half marathon. The country's top university woman, Ritsumeikan fourth-year Kazue Kojima, scored a matter-of-fact win in the 10000 m on May 8, beating 2008 national university 10000 m champion and second-year teammate Michi Numata by nearly 40 seconds with a 32:55.64 clocking. The real show, however, came in the women's 5000 m on May 16. Bukkyo third-year Kasumi Nishihara, fresh from an impressive 32:29.59 PB win against Numata and a host of professional and un...

http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/article.php?mid=P2009043000234&genre=L1&area=K00 translated by Brett Larner On the first day of western Japan's Kansai University Track and Field Championships in Osaka on Apr. 30, Division I runner Tomoya Nishino (Ritsumeikan Univ.) scored his first win in the half marathon. Nishino covered the loop course around Osaka's Nagai Park in 1:06:47 to take the win, with 2nd place finisher Yoshiki Sekitani (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) 19 seconds back in 1:07:06. The 3rd and 4th place finishers were also from Ritsumeikan University, with six of the top eight runners hailing from Kyoto-based schools. Division II Tanzanian exchange student Jackson Kwarai (Nara Sangyo Univ.) was the first finisher overall in 1:06:26. Kwarai was the pivotal figure in the race, with a lead group of five or six taking shape around him. When he sped up at 15 km the other runners dropped off one by one, but Nishino tried to hang on with all his might. Many of the same athletes w...