japan running news

Workenesh Edesa and Honami Maeda made history at the Osaka International Women's Marathon , both going under 2:19 and Maeda breaking the 2005-era Japanese women's national record. Five pacers took the lead group of Edesa, Maeda, Stella Chesang , Mizuki Matsuda and Sayaka Sato through halfway in 1:09:46, well under pace for the 2:21:41 time the top Japanese woman would need to replace Olympic marathon trials 3rd-placer Ai Hosoda on the Paris team but 10 seconds behind pace to hit Mizuki Noguchi 's 2:19:12 NR from the 2005 Berlin Marathon when the three Japanese women up front were still in elementary school. Right at halfway Maeda, the 30 km NR holder, threw in a brash 3:11 km to open up on the pacers and rest of the pack, and it was pretty clear she had something special in mind. As the rest of the pack tried to change gears and catch back up Matsuda lost touch. Maeda went through 25 km with a projected finish time of 2:19:08, but the pack still regained ground. Then ...

Championship ekiden season wrapped last weekend, but there's still a lot going on this weekend. First up, Keita Sato (Komazawa Univ.), who holds five U20 national records from 1500 m through 10000 m and ran a 59:22 half marathon equivalent at the Hakone Ekiden just over 3 weeks ago, tunes up for February's Millrose Games 2-mile with an indoor 5000 m at the Boston University Terrier Classic Friday night in his first race since turning 20. Sato has only run one indoor race before, a 3000 m silver medal at last year's Asian Indoor Championships, but the indoor NR of 13:27.81 is sure to be a target. The quick transition from Hakone isn't easy, but based on his 27:28.50 10000 m in November, the Asian indoor AR of 13:08.41 could be in range too. Three big road races dominate the horizon on Sunday. First up is the Katsuta Marathon in Ibaraki. Now in its 71st year, Katsuta has a mass participation field of 10000 with another 5000 m in its 10 km. Although it's got a hilly...

On Mar. 8 the organizers of Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon announced that American Olympic medalist Molly Seidel and German Katharina Steinruck have withdrawn from the race. According to the organizers, Seidel has sustained an injury to her right hip while Steinruck was described as suffering from acute sinusitis. More here . © 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

https://www.podiumrunner.com/events/olympics/the-2021-olympic-marathon-course-everything-you-need-to-know/ An article I wrote for Podium Runner about the move of the Tokyo Olympics marathon course to Sapporo, its design process, and the layout of the new course. Features interviews with course designer and measurer David Katz , Olympic test event podium placers Hillary Kipkoech and Katharina Steinruck , and four-time Olympian Rob de Castella .