japan running news

On June 19 the KGRR , organizers of the Hakone Ekiden , published a press release on the new criteria for making the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team for the prestigious race. The new process will assign a single place on the team to 10 different universities, with an additional 6 spots for individuals. The Kanto Region Student Alliance team is intended to broaden the opportunities for schools to participate in Hakone, making it possible for traditionally strong schools that failed to qualify to still be represented and for new programs to be able to take part for the first time. It was first created in 2003 for the 79th Hakone Ekiden under the name Kanto Region Select Team. From 2007 to 2013 its team results counted in overall placing, but after being eliminated in 2014 it was brought back a year later in a non-scoring capacity under its new name and has been a part of the event ever since with the exception of Hakone's 100th running in 2024. Nomination to the Student All...

  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 Nov. 20 Yuji Kawasaki , head coach at Chuo Gakuin University and acting coach of the Kanto Region Student Alliance team for the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden, announced that team members would be allowed to choose which stage they will run, with first pick given to the highest-placing finisher at October's Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifier half marathon and going down the team's roster in finishing order. "They made this team by running the Yosenkai, so they'll get to pick their stage in the order in which they finished there," he said. "Whatever stage the top finisher wants to run, that's what he'll run." Top placer Hayate Nitta , a 4th-year at Ikuei University and 33rd at the Yosenkai in 1:03:28, chose the First Stage. Ryutsu Keizai University 2nd-year Ryu Hasegawa , 34th in 1:03:32, opted for either the Second or Third Stage. Akio Hashimoto , a 3rd-year at Shibaura Kogyo University and 36th in 1:03:37, picked the famous uphill Fifth Stage. ...

At the May 12 Sendai International Half Marathon , Akito Terui (25, ND Software) finished 6th overall in 1:03:01. As a member of the Kanto Student Alliance team Terui ran the fastest time on the anchor stage at the 2017 Hakone Ekiden. Running for the Nanyo, Yamagata-based ND Software team, Terui embraces the slogan 'From the Northeast to the World.' In Sendai he beat a number of athletes who have qualified for September's MGC Race, the new trials event that will determine the marathon team for the Tokyo Olympics, marking him as a potential contender for future Olympic teams. In one of the nation's leading half marathons Terui made his presence felt among the elite competitors. Starting off in the third group, mid-race he began to move up through the field to finish as the 4th Japanese man. Three runners he beat in the final stages, 7th-place Daichi Kamino (New Balance), 8th-place Yoshiki Takenouchi (NTT Nishi Nihon) and 10th-place Masato Imai (Toyota Kyushu), w...

The Inter-University Athletic Union of Kanto   (KGRR) , organizers of the Hakone Ekiden , have announced that its Representative Committee, the highest voting body in its organization, has made the decision to change the qualification system for the Kanto Student Alliance select team made up of runners from universities that fail to qualify as a team for Hakone at October's Yosenkai qualifier. In its current incarnation the select team accepted athletes who had taken part in Hakone, including registration as an alternate, a maximum of once, but beginning with Hakone's 94th edition in 2018 it will be limited to only athletes who have never run in the actual race before. In essence, the Kanto Student Alliance will now be made up entirely of rookies. A KGRR spokesperson explained, "We have made this decision after careful consideration of the Select Team's original purpose of sharing the Hakone experience with as wide a range of students and universities as possible....

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1760571.html http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1760572.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 日刊スポーツ(1/4)裏一面から。 pic.twitter.com/na0k7P7ghq — ゆう・Ｔ (@aquamarine4320) January 4, 2017 Anchoring the Hakone Ekiden's Tenth Stage for the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team, Tokyo Kokusai University fourth-year Akito Terui scored what quickly came to be called the "Phantom Stage Win."  As a member of the Kanto Alliance team Terui's time did not count in official results, but his 1:10:58 beat the 1:11:00 time of official stage winner Naoya Sakuda of Juntendo University by two seconds. Two years ago Terui trained with top-level Hakone schools Aoyama Gakuin University and Toyo University.  Putting the lessons he learned to work, last year he finished 13th on the Third Stage in Tokyo Kokusai's Hakone debut before running the fastest anchor time this year.  "It was a miracle,"...