japan running news

The 66th Karatsu Road Race took place Feb. 8 in Karatsu, Saga. In his first time running the men's 10 mile, Taisei Kiyono (Chugoku Denryoku) ran 47:12 to win. The race came down to a 4-way sprint finish, with Kiyono pulling away on the track to beat 2nd place by just 1 second. 2nd on the 12.3 km opening leg at the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden , Kiyono already had proven ability. "I was pretty confident of my chances if it came down to a kick," he said. "I didn't think there was any way I was going to lose on the track." Kiyono was making his debut over 10 miles in windy conditions. "I couldn't tell what the pace was, so it se long," he said. "Winning it was a great experience." After this Kiyono will shift focus to outdoor track season. "I want to make the 5000 m and 10000 m at the National Championships," he said. In the women's 10 km, Miu Saito (Panasonic), who represented Japan in the 3000 mSC at last fall's Tokyo Wo...

At the 65th Karatsu 10-Mile Road Race Sunday in Karatsu, Saga, Shota Nakano (Honda) won in 47:30. Nakano graduated from Hiroshima's Sera H.S. before joining Chuo University . He ran the Hakone Ekiden three years in a row beginning his 2nd year at Chuo, winning the Third Stage his 3rd year. After graduating last spring he joined Honda, where he set a 1500 m PB of 3:41.47 at September's National Corporate Track and Field Championships. His other PBs include 13:24.11 for 5000 m, 28:00.86 for 10000 m and 1:02:49 for the half marathon. This was his first time racing the 10-mile distance. Yushin Akatsu (Komori Corp.) was 2 seconds behind Nakano in 47:32, with Daiki Nomimura (NTT Nishi Nihon) 3rd in 47:33 and veteran Keita Shitara (Nishitetsu) 4th in 47:35. Chikako Mori (Sekisui Kagaku) took the women's 10 km in 34:12 and Shiena Kanamori (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) the high school girls' 5 km in 16:22. Taiyo Iwasa (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) won the high school boys' 10 km ...

Amid the continued spread of the coronavirus, the 61st edition of the Karatsu 10-Mile Road Race , scheduled for Feb. 14 next year in Saga prefecture, has been canceled. According to city officials it is the first time the race has ever been canceled. The event's organizing committee met on Aug. 11 to discuss the possibility of staging the race but decided that with a large number of runners coming from across the country and the risk of spreading the virus among locals watching along the course it would not be advisable to move forward. Known for its start and finish at the municipal track and field grounds and for passing through nationally-recognized scenic areas, the Karatsu 10-Miler attracts top corporate league and collegiate runners every year. A record 1035 people entered last February's 60th anniversary edition. Translator's note: Karatsu joins the Marugame Half, Ome 30 km, Kumanichi 30 km, and nine large marathons among major events in the first quarter of 20...

The National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships were the biggest Japanese race of the weekend, but there was a lot more going on across the country. At the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon , local Ryoichi Matsuo (Asahi Kasei) dropped teammate Taiki Yoshimura with a surge at the 40 km mark to become the first runner in Nobeoka's 58-year history to win it three times. His winning time of 2:12:02 was also a PB and put him 7 seconds up on Yoshimura. Shota Miyagami (Kyudenko) was 3rd in 2:12:26. Complete results . The Ehime Marathon also had its 58th running. Haruki Okayama (Comody Iida) won the men's race in 2:14:53, with Yoshiki Nakamura (Ehime Ginko) and Takaki Mori (Mont Blanc) running 2:17:04 and 2:18:39 for 2nd and 3rd, Nakamura hanging on after a hard fall just before 29 km. Two weeks after running 2:32:48 in Osaka , Miharu Shimokado (Brooks) ran 1:35 under the old course record to win the women's race in a new record of 2:33:57. No other women clea...

Everything right now in Japanese distance is about qualifying for September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials. On the men's side Toyota  currently leads the way, Yuma Hattori running 2:07:27, Taku Fujimoto 2:07:57 and Chihiro Miyawaki 2:08:45 last year to qualify. Five more Toyota runners ran big today to set up some exciting last-shot bids at qualifying in Tokyo and Lake Biwa. The National Corporate Half Marathon men's race went out relatively conservatively with a pack of 30 rolling through 10 km in 29:28. A series of runners including 35-year-old full-time-working amateur Takahiro Nakamura (Kyocera Kagoshima) took turns trying to get it moving before Amos Kurgat (Chudenko) took off for good to win unchallenged in 1:01:06. Along with Kenyans Paul Kuira (Konica Minolta) and Patrick Muendo Mwaka (Aisan Kogyo) Toyota's trio of Hideyuki Tanaka , Tsubasa Hayakawa and Minato Oishi emerged at the front of a chase group of 14. As the pace picked up over ...

It's a relatively quiet weekend ahead in the middle of Japan's busiest road racing season, but there are still four important races going on in the southern part of the country. The biggest is the National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships in Yamaguchi.  Men's national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) is entered in what would be his first race since catching the flu post-Fukuoka and leads the domestic component of a field that includes nine men with recent sub-1:02 times and a million more right on the cusp. If he runs his main competition is sub-60 man Paul Kuira (Konica Minolta). 61:30ish runners Keisuke Nakatani (Nissin Shokuhin) and Kengo Suzuki (Fujitsu) will be looking to make comebacks after long periods of injury. The women's field is split between the half marathon and 10 km . Only three women in the half have broken 70 minutes before, Miho Shimizu (Hokuren) doing it the most recently with a 1:09:27 at Nationals in 2016. Shiori Yano...

Ikuto Yufu was one of the stars of Komazawa University 's strongest lineup ever, helping lead the team to top 3 finishes in 11 of the 12 Big Three University Ekidens he ran his 4 years at Komazawa including 3-straight National University Ekiden Championships titles from 2011 to 2013 and overall course records at both Nationals and the Izumo Ekiden. He was undefeated on the Nationals Third Stage, winning it all 4 years and breaking its stage record twice. He showed exceptional range outside the ekiden, winning the National University Track and Field Championships 1500 m title in 2013 and setting Komazawa records for 1500 m, 5000 m, and 10000 m. In his final university race JRN took Yufu to the 2014 NYC Half , where he outkicked the great Meb Keflezighi to finish 9th in 1:02:51. After graduating in 2014 he joined the Fujitsu corporate team but immediately began to have Achilles tendon trouble. His first two corporate league seasons were mostly a wash, one brief bright spot ...

Snow and cold impacted road races across Japan over the weekend, but at the top level almost every event went off as planned. In his marathon debut, Shota Yamazaki (Yakult) downed two-time defending champ Ryoichi Matsuo and debuting training partner Takumi Honda of the locally-based New Year Ekiden national champion Asahi Kasei corporate team to take the top spot at the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon in a three-way sprint finish. Shaking off first-timer Keisuke Tanaka (Fujitsu) late in the race, Yamazaki did all the work in the lead trio with the Asahi Kasei duo hanging off both of his shoulders. Hitting a bridge with 750 m to go Honda surged into the lead with Matsuo following. Yamazaki fell back, looking behind him with 500 m to go and seeming to have settled for 3rd. At 400 m to go Matsuo went to the front and looked to be on track to become only the second man to win Nobeoka three times, but as the pair rounded the final corner Yamazaki came back with a kick that left both...

At least five major races fill the calendar this weekend across Japan. Potentially the biggest is the Karatsu 10-Miler , where half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda) is slated to run in what many hope will be a shot at the antique national record. Over 30 seconds faster than the American national record, Hisatoshi Shintaku 's 45:40,has stood since 1984 and survived  over three decades of assaults including Shitara's 45:58 at December's Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler. It translates to 42:34 for 15 km; at last weekend's Marugame Half Shitara went through 15 km in 42:39. Just two weeks out from a shot at the Japanese national record for the marathon will Shitara try to add another national record to his resume en route to Tokyo? Many of his corporate league brethren and sistren will be lining up at the National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships. Historically the world's deepest competitive men's half marathon and second-deepest women...

by Brett Larner Alongside Sunday's record-breaking marathon action , the weekend featured three high-level road races across the country.  In Yamaguchi, Ethiopian Abiyot Abinet (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) made a strong half marathon debut to win the National Corporate Half Marathon Championships men's title. Emerging from a lead pack of seven including Kenyans Macharia Ndirangu (Team Aichi Seiko), Charles Ndirangu (Team JFE Steel) and Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Team Kanebo) plus Japanese men Taku Fujimoto (Team Toyota), Ken Yokote (Team Fujitsu) and Hiroyuki Ishikawa (Team Aisan Kogyo), Abinet ran the last two-thirds of the race alone to win in 1:01:21.  Fujimoto took 4th overall in 1:01:53 in the top Japanese position.  Kitonyi, Yokote and Ishikawa faded in the second half and were run down by 2014 National University Half Marathon champion Hideto Yamanaka (Team Honda) and Komazawa University graduate Shun Inoura (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) who set new PBs of 1:02:00 and 1:02:...

by Brett Larner Strong winds made for tough conditions and slow times at most of the weekend's main races.  The newly-formatted X-Run Chiba , a retooling of the longstanding Chiba International Cross-Country Meet, saw Yusuke Nishiyama (Komazawa Univ.) emerge on top of the day's longest race, the university men's 12 km.  Nishiyama outkicked Kenta Ueda , son of Yamanashi Gakuin University head coach Masahito Ueda , by 5 seconds to take the win in 37:48.  Maki Izumida (Rikkyo Univ.) had an even closer win in the university women's 6 km, running 20:54 to beat Ai Hosoda (Nittai Univ.) by just 3 seconds.  Rodgers Chumo Kwemoi (Kenya/Team Aisan Kogyo) won the men's 8 km by nearly a minute in 25:05, Yuki Kanehira (Team Sysmex) joining him at the top of the women's 8 km podium in 29:04.  With the junior high school races now serving as the National Junior High School Cross-Country Championships Maebashi Fujimi J.H.S. easily dominated, taking both the boys' and...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nsp/local_other/article/144411 translated by Brett Larner The 55th Karatsu Road Race took place Feb. 8, starting and finishing at Karatsu Municipal Field in Saga.  Marathon national team member Satoru Sasaki (Team Asahi Kasei) took his first Karatsu win in the men's 10 miles division in 47:12, outkicking Masatoshi Kikuchi (Team Fujitsu) and Naoki Kudo (1st yr., Komazawa Univ.).  Yuka Takashima (Team Denso) won the women's 10 km divison in 32:33, likewise her first Karatsu title.  Kiyoshi Koga (3rd yr., Tosu Kogyo H.S.) won the high school boys' 10 km in 29:48, while Yuki Yokoishi (3rd yr., Shiraishi H.S.) set a course record 16:48 in the high school girls' 5 km. The win gave Sasaki momentum in his bid for the Beijing World Championships men's marathon team.  Sasaki ran mid-pack in the lead group until late in the race, unconcerned when other runners started throwing in surges with 2 km to go.  His own move to the front ca...

by Brett Larner February is one of those months with more events crammed in than it's possible to cover.  This weekend features at least three good quality marathons, a 10-miler, another late-season ekiden, and half of the elite Japanese cross country season. That XC happens east of Tokyo in Chiba at the Chiba International XC Meet, along with the Feb. 21 Fukuoka International XC Meet one of the two races that decide the Japanese team for next month's World XC Championships in China.  Marugame Half Marathon remnants Samuel Tsegaye (Eritrea) and Juan Luis Barrios (Mexico) make up the major share of the international component in the senior men's 12 km where they face the likes of 2015 Hakone Ekiden course record setter Aoyama Gakuin University 's Kazuma Kubota , Daito Bunka University wonder twins Hiroshi and Takashi Ichida and many more.  The Japanese junior teams usually represent well at worlds, and most of the country's best up-and-coming talent will be ...

by Brett Larner photo courtesy marumaruko1201 Record-breaking snowfall in eastern Japan all day Saturday meant the cancellation of virtually every Sunday race in the area, including the elite-level Chiba International Cross-Country Meet , and kept many Tokyo-region runners bound for races in the west at home. Of the races that did go off, in his marathon debut 2008 Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20 km winner Kazuki Tomaru  (Team Toyota) was the star of the day's most important race, the 52nd running of the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon . With impeccable pacing from former Waseda University standout Yuki Yagi  (Team Asahi Kasei), who split 15:27, 15:26 and 15:26 for the first three 5 km segments, a large pack ran at around 2:10:30 pace, 45 seconds ahead of the event's course record.  The pace slowed slightly from 15 km to Yagi's departure at 25 km, but Tomaru quickly got to work with another 15:26 to get rid of the field.  Only Ryo Ishita  (SDF Academy) went aft...

by Brett Larner With heavy snow scheduled to hit most of the country on Saturday four races fill Sunday's calendar.   Chief among them is the 52nd edition of the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon , a developmental race that has seen the debuts of the likes of Moscow World Championships marathon 5th-placer Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki) and Hiroaki Sano  (Team Honda), the top Japanese man at last year's Chicago Marathon.   Sho Matsumoto  (Nikkei Business) leads the way with a 2:13:38 best from last year's Nobeoka, but look for challenges from debuting Hakone Ekiden Sixth Stage course record holder Kenta Chiba (Team Fujitsu) and Team Otsuka Seiyaku's ace rookie Yudai Yamakawa . Click here for a field listing and more info . The 54th Karatsu 10-miler sees Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't) taking on sub-60 minute half marathoner Mekubo Mogusu  (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin), Hiroyuki Uno  formerly of Hakone Ekiden course record sette...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20130210/ath13021015250001-n1.html http://www.saga-s.co.jp/news/saga_sports.0.2395607.article.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 2009 double 1500 m and 5000 m national champion Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) easily won the Feb. 10 Karatsu 10-Mile Road Race in Karatsu, Saga, beating Kenyan sub-60 half marathoner Mekubo Mogusu (Team Nissin Shokuhin) while looking relaxed and fresh. Indifferently evaluating his winning time of 46:56, Ueno said, "I just ran at the pace I had planned." A member of the historic S&B corporate team set to disband at the end of March, Ueno will run his final race in the S&B uniform at the Mar. 17 National Corporate Half Marathon Championships in Yamaguchi. He called his performance in Karatsu "just a training run" for the half, looking confident as he said, "I'm in the middle of doing really hard training, so the time I ran today says I should do great in the half too....

by Brett Larner Five races fill a busy long weekend in Japan.  First and foremost is the 51st running of the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon in Kyushu .  A developmental race at the 2:11-2:15 level, Nobeoka has in the past produced athletes such as Koji Kobayashi  (Team Subaru), who debuted there in 2:12:52 last year before going on to run the fastest time of 2012 by a Japanese man overseas, 2:10:40 at the Chicago Marathon.  This year's field includes 2010 Asian Games silver medalist Yukihiro Kitaoka  (Team NTN), 2011 Nobeoka winner Kenji Takeuchi  (Team Toyota Kyushu) and the promising Etsu Miyata  (Team Fujitsu).  A large number of athletes will be making their marathon debuts, most noteworthy among them being defending 5000 m national champion  Kazuya Deguchi (Team Asahi Kasei) and sub-63 man Ayumu Sato  (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki).  2009 Ome 30 km winner Hirokatsu Kurosaki  (Team Konica Minolta) will also make a long-...

http://www.47news.jp/CN/201102/CN2011021301000297.html http://www.saga-s.co.jp/news/saga.0.1825468.article.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At the 51st Karatsu 10 Mile Road Race , Feb. 13 in Karatsu, Saga, Yuki Iwamoto (Team Mazda) ran 47:20 to take his first win at the race. Known as the "God of the Mountain" during his Hakone Ekiden days at Juntendo University, Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) was 3rd, while 2004 Athens Olympics 10000 m runner and 2008 Karatsu winner Ryuji Ono (Team Asahi Kasei) finished only 26th. In the women's 10 km, Fumiko Hashimoto (Team Shimamura) won in 33:18, while Athens Olympics marathon 7th placer Naoko Sakamoto (Team Tenmaya) finished 18th. Akira Iwasaki (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) won the high school boys' 10 km in a PB of 30:04, while Sayaka Nishimura (Kawatana H.S.) won the high school girls' 5 km in 17:18. 2011 Karatsu 10-Mile Road Race click here for complete results Men's 10 Miles 1. Yuki Iwamoto (Team Mazda) - 47:20...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/100214/spg1002141840005-n1.htm translated by Brett Larner At the 50th anniversary Karatsu 10-Mile Road Race on Feb. 14, 2008 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon winner Tomoya Adachi (Team Asahi Kasei) took 1st in an excellent time of 47:01. Re-entering the track in a tight pack for a final lap at the end of the race, Adachi outkicked last year's runner-up Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable) and Akihiko Tsumurai (Team Mazda) for his first Karatsu win. First-time winner Adachi commented, "I ran with a margin to spare. 47 minutes was my target time," indicating that the run had gone according to plan. In the early stages Adachi was relaxed, looking around at the others up front. With 3 km to go he took charge, leading the pack all the way back to the track for the finish. Adachi plans to run the Feb. 28 Tokyo Marathon and ran Karatsu as a final tune-up. But even though it was a tune-up, Adachi says, "If I had a chance to win I wanted to go ...

http://www.saga-s.co.jp/view.php?pageId=1036&mode=0&classId=0&blockId=1172497&newsMode=article translated and edited by Brett Larner Two-time World Champioinships track runner Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu) won the Karatsu 10 Mile Road Race on Feb. 8 in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture. Mitsuya ran 47:04 to take his first-ever win in Karatsu. In two weeks he will run the Kumanichi 30 km Road Race as part of his preparations for a marathon debut later in the year. Noritaka Fujiyama (Team Sumco Techxiv) was the top Saga Prefecture native, finishing 3rd overall. Hiroko Miyauchi (Team Oki) also scored her first Karatsu win, taking the women's 10 km event in 32:38. Yuya Konishi (Tosu Kogyo H.S.) won the high school boys' 10 km race in 30:12, giving Saga Prefecture its first high school division win in 3 years. Konishi's teammate Satoru Hori was 4th overall.