japan running news

The Kasumigaura Marathon and 10-Miler took place Apr. 16 in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki. In the most competitive race of the day, Yushin Akatsu kept 2023 Hakone Ekiden winner Komazawa University 's streak of road race domination this season going with a win by 15 seconds in 48:07. Komazawa's Shura Miyagi was the second collegiate finisher at 4th overall in 48:45. Considering that neither Akatsu nor Miyagi made Komazawa's entry roster of ten starters and six alternates for Hakone in January, their success at Kasumigaura showed just how hard other schools are going to have to work this fall to stop Komazawa from becoming the first program ever to sweep all three major university ekidens in a single season two years in a row. In the women's 10-miler, Takushoku University took the top two places, Yuko Umeki getting the win in 58:02 and teammate Mayuko Ii 2nd in 58:57. In the men's marathon, former Nihon University Hakone runner Benjamin Ngandu won by nearly 5 minutes ov...

On Nov. 11 the organizers of the Osaka International Women's Marathon announced that the race's 40th anniversary running will take place on Jan. 31, 2021. Along with strict anti-coronavirus health check requirements for all participants, the field size will be limited by tightening Osaka's usual sub-3:10 qualifying standard to sub-2:50. Fans, supporters and locals will also be asked to watch the race on TV instead of turning out to cheer courseside.  A spokesperson for the organizing committee commented, "We expect the sub-2:50 qualifying time to reduce the field size from about 500 to around 100. We had originally planned to have more runners for the race, but we hope that people can understand the necessity of these restrictions. We hope that the race will show greater than ever unity in women's marathoning and its willingness to take on the challenges leading to the Olympics." The domestic invited elite athlete field is scheduled to be announced in late ...

On Aug. 25 the organizing committee of the 31st Kasumigaura Marathon in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki announced that they are planning for the race to take place on its regular weekend date on Apr. 18, 2021. Based on prefectural directives, the race will be held with a limited field size. A final decision as to whether it will go ahead will be made in February based on the coronavirus situation at that point. In its last running in 2019 Kasumigaura had 10,096 finishers, with thousands more in its 10 mile and 5 km divisions. source article: https://mainichi.jp/articles/20200826/ddl/k08/050/099000c translated and edited by Brett Larner

by Brett Larner Two of the three quality Japanese marathons this weekend saw their course records fall, with the third featuring an Eastern European sweep.  At the Nagano Marathon , cross-country great Serhiy Lebid  (Ukraine) staged a head-to-head battle with Japan-based Mongolian national record holder Ser-od Bat-Ochir  (Team NTN), only pulling away in the final two km to get the win in 2:13:56 to Bat-Ochir's 2:14:04. 2:11 man Taiga Ito  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) was 3rd in 2:15:20.  In the women's race Japanese hopeful Rika Shintaku  (Team Shimamura) tried to match Russian Alina Prokopeva  but fell short.  Prokopeva pushed on steadily at 2:30 pace with only Shintaku for company before pulling away early in the second half for the win in 2:30:56.  Shintaku faded badly to 2:36:02, nearly run down by Shoko Shimizu (Team Aichi Denki) who took 3rd in 2:37:21 off a far more conservative first half. Kawauchi's silent one-man show at the Toku...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20120415-934528.html translated and edited by Brett Larner The Kawauchis lead in Kasumigaura. Having missed out on the London Olympics team, Yuki Kawauchi  (25, Saitama Pref.) marked the first win among his twelve marathon starts to date at the Apr. 15 Kasumigaura Marathon , Japan's third-largest marathon returning after post-disaster cancellation last year. Kawauchi ran as a pacer for his younger brother Koki Kawauchi  (19, Takasaki Keizai Univ.), but after 23 km he left his brother behind and ran on his own to the finish, closing with an impressive 6:09 split for the final 2.195 km.  Because the brothers went into the race planning to run around 2:25, even with this closing speed Kawauchi's winning time of 2:22:38 was a personal worst, but his wide margin of victory over 2nd place still showed that he was in a different class from the other runners. "I didn't plan to win today, so I guess I was jus...

by Brett Larner Kawauchi on the podium. Despite windy conditions, times were fast across the board at the  27th Yaizu Minato Half Marathon  in Shizuoka prefecture, a race deep in university competition.  The top three men cracked the fourteen-year-old course record of 1:03:54, two of them in the university division including winner Yusuke Ota (Nittai Univ.) who set a new overall CR of 1:03:42,  Meiji University 's winning team set a record for the combined times of the top two runners from the school in Yaizu's unique National University Pair Marathon Championships division, and just a week after a loss in a 10-miler against Toyo University ace Yuta Shitara , marathoner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) came up 2nd overall again with a new general division course record of 1:03:48. Kawauchi's participation was unannounced, and when he appeared on the start line a murmur among the university runners quickly grew into an ovation from t...

http://mainichi.jp/area/ibaraki/news/20120323ddlk08050128000c.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Cancelled last year in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami disasters, the organizers of the 22nd Kasumigaura Marathon announced on Mar. 22 that a record 27,353 people have entered this year's race, scheduled for April 15.  The number makes it the third-largest marathon in Japan after the Tokyo Marathon and Osaka Marathon. 2011 World Championships marathoner Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref.) will appear as an invited athlete, pacing his younger brother Koki Kawauchi  (Takasaki Keizai Univ.) through his marathon debut.  Past Olympic marathon greats Yuko Arimori , Kenji Kimihara , Akio Usami  and Takeyuki Nakayama  will run as guide runners in the International Blind Marathon Championships division. Translator's note: Kasumigaura also features a competitive 10-miler, which Kawauchi won in 2010.  The race course was damaged in last year's d...

http://mainichi.jp/area/ibaraki/news/20110503ddlk08040115000c.html translated by Brett Larner With its 21st running cancelled due to damage from the Mar. 11 earthquake and tsunami disasters, the Kasumigaura Marathon in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, the national blind runners' marathon championships and, with 26,241 entrants, Japan's second-largest marathon, announced that on May 13 it will donate 61,665,313 yen ( ~$770,000 U.S.) in runners' entry fees to the Japan Red Cross' disaster relief fund. Although the organizing committee was quick to announce that it would donate entry fees, the exact disposition of the money was subject to discussion by the executive board. Income for this year's race totalled 157,321,954 yen including 119,269,300 yen in entry fees. Non-recoverable expenditures including timing chips and participants' t-shirts totaled 95,656,641 yen. The balance will be donated to disaster relief along with 4,500 volunteers' hats and 20,000 finishers...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/110322/spg1103221229000-n1.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner The organizers of the Kasumigaura Marathon and 10-Miler, scheduled for April 17 in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, announced on Mar. 22 that this year's race has been cancelled. Officials cited extensive damage to the marathon's course from the recent major earthquake and tsunami which hit northeastern Japan on Mar. 11. With 26,555 entries this year Kasumigaura was set to become Japan's second-largest marathon, following only the Tokyo Marathon. Organizers stated that after deducting necessary expenses they will donate runners' entry fees to relief funds for disaster-stricken areas. Translator's note: Kasumigaura joins a long list of March and April races to be cancelled in the wake of Japan's recent disasters. A decision on whether or not the Nagano Marathon, also scheduled for April 17, will be held is expected later today.

by Brett Larner Along with the cancellation of the elite Nagoya International Women's Marathon and National University Men's Half Marathon Championships (Tachikawa Akishima Half Marathon) last weekend and the National Corporate Half Marathon Championships and National University Women's Half Marathon Championships (Matsue Ladies Half Marathon) this coming weekend following the string of disasters to strike northeastern Japan, several major amateur-level races in eastern Japan have also announced they will cancel this spring's editions. One of Japan's largest marathons, the Itabashi City Marathon (known until this year as the Tokyo Arakawa Shimin Marathon) has cancelled its planned Mar. 20 running, along with the Tamako Ekiden the next day. On Mar. 27 the Sakura Asahi Marathon in Chiba Prefecture and the Kumagaya Sakura Half Marathon in Saitama Prefecture have also announced their cancellations. Yet another is Shizuoka's Yaizu Minato Half Marathon , sch...

http://mainichi.jp/area/ibaraki/news/20090529ddlk08040122000c.html translated by Brett Larner Following their actions is saving the life of a 45 year old runner from Kanagawa Prefecture who had suffered a heart attack during April's Kasumigaura Marathon, race director and Tsuchiura city mayor Kiyoshi Nakagawa gave official letters of thanks to five entrants in the race at a ceremony on May 28. The heart attack victim, who left the hospital on May 9, sent a message to his five saviors thanking them and saying, "I hope to be ready to go back to work sometime in June." The five runners credited with saving the heart attack victim were 30 year old Shigehisa Aoyagi and 43 year old Kenichi Ouchi of Ibaraki Prefecture, Katsunori Sasaki, a 38 year old medical doctor from Kanagawa Prefecture, 54 year old Kenji Hasumi of Saitama Prefecture, and 42 year old Tomoaki Sato of Tokyo. Of the five, Dr. Sasaki and Aoyagi were present at Tsuchiura City Hall to receive the ceremonial letters...