japan running news

On a day that saw the fastest Boston Marathon men's winning time in 8 years and one of the deepest races in history with ten men under 2:10 including two Americans, the strongest-ever Japanese men's contingent at Boston couldn't live up to the level of the day. 2018 Jakarta Asian Games gold medalist Hiroto Inoue lasted the longest, running solidly in the lead pack well into the Newton hills and looking comfortable until he didn't. Inoue ended up 12th in 2:11:53, just missing a top 10 placing that would have put him clear of the 2020 Olympic qualifying standards ahead of September's MGC Race Olympic trials. Defending champ Yuki Kawauchi fell off early, dropping at one point to 5th among the five elite Japanese men in the field but rallying late in the race to take 17th in 2:15:29, 29 seconds faster than his winning time last year. Kawauchi ran down Hayato Sonoda in the home straight, Sonoda next across the line behind him in 2:15:58. Masao Kizu was a...

It's a week until the Boston Marathon . After decades of its best giving it a miss Boston is coming back into fashion among Japan's elite marathoners. With top three finishes in the men's race the last two years we just might see three in a row for the first time since the golden years back in 1965-1967. A brief introduction to who'll be on the starting line this year: Nami Hashimoto PB/SB: 2:33:22 (Nagoya 2019) Hashimoto has been on a roll so far this year, winning her debut at the Jan. 27 Katsuta Marathon in 2:34:18, running a PB of 1:46:30 three weeks later for 2nd at the Ome 30 km, then bettering her Katsuta time another three weeks later with a 2:33:22 at the Nagoya Women's Marathon. Both Katsuta and Ome send top-placing finishers to Boston, making this Hashimoto's international debut. Hiroto Inoue PB/SB: 2:06:54 (Tokyo 2018) Generally considered to have the best chance of making Japan's 2020 Olympic marathon team, Inoue had a stellar 20...

Every year it seems like the question is how much further can Ageo go? The answer still seems to be more. More further. The Ageo City Half Marathon is the world's greatest half marathon, the place where Hakone Ekiden-bound universities line up most of their rosters to help coaches whittle down the contenders for the final sixteen-man Hakone lineup. Perfect conditions at this year's race meant something special. Four runners from Chuo Gakuin University led by Takumi Yokokawa took it out hard, splitting 5:47 at 2 km, 1:01:00 pace, well ahead of last year's CR with the entire field in tow. A field that included national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda), Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't), Hakone uphill hero Daichi Kamino (New Balance), 2017 London World Championships marathoner David Nilsson (Sweden), Kenyans Michael Githae (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), Vincent Laimoi (Kokushikan Univ.) and Paul Gitonga (Kokushikan Univ.) and Ethiopian Wor...

As championship ekiden season wraps up Japan’s athletes have started the transition to the winter road season, with four decently competitive half marathons highlighting the first half of January. At the hilly Okukuma Half Marathon , locally-based Africans Jeremiah Thuku Karemi (Toyota Kyushu) and Melaku Abera (Kurosaki Harima) duked it out one-on-one, Karemi through in a series of surges in the last 5 km before breaking away decisively with 1 km to go. Crossing the finish line in 1:01:48, Karemi took nearly two minutes off the course record with Abera just under 62 for 2nd. 2nd on the Hakone Ekiden’s Seventh Stage less than two weeks ago, Masanori Sumida (Nittai Univ.) outran corporate league competition Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) and Shohei Kurata (GMO) to take the top Japanese spot at 4th in 1:03:11. Spending most of the race behind a pack led by 2015 National Univeristy Half Marathon champion Tadashi Isshiki (GMO) and 2:07:39 marathoner Masato Imai (Toyota Kyushu), Yuki Ka...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160210-00000045-sph-spo translated by Brett Larner On Feb. 10 the Ome Road Race organizing committee announced the elite field and guest starters for its 50th anniversary running on Feb. 21.  The fastest man ever over the historic Ome course, marathon great and DeNA corporate team executive head coach Toshihiko Seko will serve as starter in the 30 km, with former marathon world record holder and Sydney Olympics marathon gold medalist Naoko Takahashi starting the 10 km.  A $30,000 bonus will be offered to any runner who can beat Seko's 1981 winning time of 1:29:32, with $20,000 offered for breaking the all-time second-fastest winning time in Ome history, 1:30:21 by Masaki Ito (Konica Minolta) in 2013. 50th Ome Road Race Elite Field Ome, Tokyo, 2/21/16 Men's 30 km Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) - 1:29:31 (2013 Kumanichi 30 km) Yared Asmerom (Eritrea) - 1:30:16 (2008 Biwako Mainichi Marathon) Shota Yamaguchi (Fujitsu) -...

by Brett Larner Switching last year to a mass-participation format and billing itself as the world's largest women-only marathon, the Nagoya Women's Marathon returns this year as the final domestic selection race for the Moscow World Championships team.  Relative to its male counterpart, last weekend's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, Nagoya's domestic field is somewhat impoverished, all the more so with the regrettably foreseeable withdrawal of 2012 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Risa Shigetomo  (Team Tenmaya) with injury, and with all but one of the Japanese women in the field coming in at the 2:26 level or above it is hard to see there being a serious bid for the Federation's 2:23:59 time requirement for automatic nomination to the Moscow team. That one person is of course national record holder and Athens Olympics gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi  (Team Sysmex), who for the second year in a row pulled out of Osaka in January and refocused on Nagoya...

by Brett Larner The Japanese selection races for the country's marathon teams for the London Olympics wrap up this Sunday with the new-and-improved Nagoya Women's Marathon .  Modernizing from a small, elite-only race to the world's largest women-only mass participation field of 15000 and an accompanying co-ed half-marathon, Nagoya retains its elite history with what may be the closest thing the country has seen to a straight-up single-race Olympic trial.  Fifteen elite Japanese women will be going for what are generally believed to be the two remaining Olympic team places, at least eight of them with a realistic chance of making the team.  Fuji TV will be broadcasting the race live nationwide starting at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, Mar. 11, and overseas viewers should be able to watch online for free via the lo-res splendor of Keyhole TV .  Twitter coverage via @JRNLive will unfortunately not be available for this race. Races need an international field of at least fiv...

by Brett Larner The organizers of the 2012 Tokyo Marathon have announced the elite men's and women's fields for the Feb. 26 Olympic-year race, and on both sides the fields are the best since the Tokyo Marathon began in 2007.  Former world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) lines up alongside last year's winner Hailu Mekonnen (Ethiopia), 2010 winner Masakazu Fujiwara  (Team Honda), 2008 winner Viktor Rothlin  (Switzerland), 2:05 man Jafred Chirchir Kipchumba  (Kenya), 2:06 runners  Gilbert Kipruto Kirwa  (Kenya) and Michael Kipkorir  (Kenya), top-ranked Japanese man Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref.) and more.  For the Japanese men a spot or two on the London Olympic team is at stake, and vying for an Olympic ticket along with past winner Fujiwara and fan favorite Kawauchi are last year's 4th-placer Yoshinori Oda  (Team Toyota), two-time Tokyo runner-up Arata Fujiwara  (Tokyo T&F Assoc.), 2009 3rd-placer Kazuhiro Maeda ...

http://www.iaaf.org/LRR11/news/newsid=62785.html

by Brett Larner Intense humidity after a day of rain heavy enough to postpone the men's pole vault final at the 2011 Asian Athletics Championships meant that the anticipated fast times in the 10000 m were off the table, but both the men's and women's races featured dramatic action and exciting finishes.  African-born Bahrainis turned the race for gold and silver into Kenya vs. Ethiopia intramural competitions in both races, with defending champion Kenyan Mahboob Ali Hasan Mahboob beating Ethiopian Bilisuma Shugi Gelasa  in the men's race and Ethiopian 2010 Asian Games 10000 m bronze medalist  Shitaye Eshete Habtegebrel outkicking Kenyan  Kareema Jasim Saleh to take the women's race. The Asians in the Asian Athletics Championships were left to compete for bronze.  The men's race saw a nearly constant turnover in the lead position, with Mahboob taking the field through a 2:46 first kilometer off a quick opening lap by Tokai University junior Akinobu Murasa...

by Brett Larner Update: Start lists for the first day of competition are available here .  National champion Yuki Sato is not running the 10000 m but is still entered for the 5000 m. The 2011 Asian Athletics Championships run July 7-10 in Kobe, Hyogo, the last major competition for many of the athletes before next month's World Championships in Daegu, Korea. Much of the domestic Japanese attention will be on one of the very first events of the Asian Championships, the men's 10000 m. Two of the top three from this year's Japanese National Championships men's 10000 m,  Akinobu Murasawa (Tokai Univ.) and Tsuyoshi Ugachi (Team Konica Minolta) are on the entry list and hunting for a World Championships qualifying mark, Ugachi to improve his 27:41.97 B-standard mark to the A level and Murasawa to at least get under 28 for the first time. The absence of a Kenyan distance squad from Qatar means that the mostly-Ethiopian team running for Bahrain will be the Japanese me...

by Brett Larner On June 15 Rikuren released the lineup of the Japanese team for next month's Asian Athletics Championships , to be held July 7-10 in Kobe. The long distance squads are overall strong, with the men's team in particular featuring the top three Japanese men from both the 5000 m and 10000 m at last weekend's National Championships. The women's team includes the 2nd through 4th place women from the National Championships 5000 m, missing just winner Megumi Kinukawa (Team Mizuno), but is weaker in the 10000 m as only the 4th and 5th-place finishers from Nationals are on the list. A conspicuous absence from both Nationals and the Asian Championships team is top-ranked Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal). 2011 Asian Athletics Championships - Japanese National Team July 7-10, Kobe, Hyogo click here for complete Japanese team lineup Men's Long Distance Kazuya Watanabe (Team Shikoku Denryoku) Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.) Akinobu...

by Brett Larner photos by Mika Tokairin Running in near-perfect conditions on a flatter new course, 2009 World Championships marathon silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei) ran a race record 2:23:56 to win the 2011 Yokohama International Women's Marathon and become the first Japanese woman to secure a guaranteed spot on the team for this summer's World Championships. Ozaki said before the race that her goal was only to win, not to run a fast time, but her mark was the fastest by a Japanese woman in over 2 years and close to her PB. Top two Nakazato and Ozaki. Pacemaker Shoko Mori (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) took the race out faster than planned with a 3:19 first km, but things soon settled down to 16:59 for the first 5 km. Despite being right on target pace the pack began to fracture, with debutante Yuka Izumi (Team Tenmaya) then 2:29 women Mayumi Fujita (Team Juhachi Ginko) and Kaori Yoshida (Amino Vital AC) losing touch. The pack continued to splinter as the pac...

by Brett Larner The second running of the elite Yokohama International Women's Marathon takes place this Sunday, Feb. 20. Intended as a continuation of the legacy of the Tokyo International Women's Marathon, which fell under the wheels of the mixed elite and mass-participation Tokyo Marathon in 2008. Conceived of as a speed race with a spectator-friendly circuit course designed to help athletes qualify and prepare for world-level championship marathons held on similar loops, Yokohama has struggled to get off the ground thus far. It was bumped from its original Nov. 23 date last year by the APEC conference held in Yokohama, its hillier-than-promised course changed from a three-circuit loop through downtown Yokohama to a two-circuit loop this year with much of the race taking place on an out-and-back along the industrial waterfront south of the city, and relatively weak fields compared to those pulled in by Tokyo. This year will see two Yokohamas as it is scheduled to return to ...