japan running news

http://www.sanyo.oni.co.jp/feature/sports/other/2013/11/30/20131130225458.html translated and edited by Brett Larner The invited athlete list for Japan's last major road race of the year, the 32nd Sanyo Women's Road Race on Dec. 23 in Okayama, was released by race organisers on Nov. 30. Coinciding with main sponsor Sanyo Newspapers' 135th anniversary, the Yuko Arimori Cup half marathon division at the Sanyo Women's Road Race will for the first time be a selection race for the World Half Marathon Championships national team, with next year's World Half due to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark next March. Targeting the first three-peat in Sanyo history, 2013 National Corporate Half Marathon champion Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) heads the invited field along with 2013 Hokkaido Marathon winner Yuko Watanabe  (Team Edion) and, from overseas, London Olympian Desiree Davila  (U.S.A.).  Others in the half  marathon include past World Championships marathoners Mai I...

by Brett Larner The 61st National Corporate Track and Field Championships got underway the evening of Sept. 20 in Kumagaya, Saitama with five rounds of 10000 m.  Moscow World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Paul Tanui  (Team Kyudenko) outran fellow Japan-based Kenyan Edward Waweru  (Team NTN) for the A-heat win in 27:26.43 to 27:30.51, pushing the pace relentlessly to make it a two-man race before kicking away over the final lap.  Ethiopian Mulaku Abera  (Team Kurosaki Harima) went sub-28 for the first time, running a solo 27:54.74 for 3rd.  2012 national corporate half marathon champion Chihiro Miyawaki  (Team Toyota), relatively flat this year since a strong 30 km debut in February, was the top Japanese finisher, 4th inonly 28:06.52. In the women's A-heat, longtime Japan resident Doricah Obare  (Team Hitachi) got the better of Moscow 7th-place finisher Sally Chepyego  (Team Kyudenko), pulling away to win in 32:02.78 over the last ...

by Brett Larner photo by Kazuyuki Sugimatsu 2013 World Cross-Country Championships junior silver medalist Leonard Barsoton (Kenya/Team Nissin Shokuhin) made a solid debut over 10000 m on June 29 at the Hokuren Distance Challenge Fukagawa meet, narrowly winning the A-heat in 27:33.13 after leading much of the race. Less than a stride behind, former Sera H.S. star Jeremiah Karemi (Team Toyota Kyushu) took nearly a minute off his best as he finished in 27:33.38.  Now coached by Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita , Karemi is one of two Kenyans to pick where late Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru left off at the Toyota Kyushu team. 21-year-old Chihiro Miyawaki  (Team Toyota), in the all-time Japanese top ten over both 10000 m and half marathon, was 7th in 28:02.36 to lead the Japanese contingent in the unusually deep heat, where 26 men broke 29 minutes.  Miyawaki raised eyebrows by announcing post-race that he plans ...

by Brett Larner Four major races this weekend mark the end of Japan's winter road season, two domestic and two foreign.  On the home front, the National Corporate Half Marathon Championships lead the way.  2008 Kenyan national XC champion Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) is the favorite, followed closely by last year's runner-up Jacob Wanjuki (Team Aichi Seiko) and, making a return to the half following a long injury, 2010 World Half Marathon Championships 9th-place Tomoya Onishi  (Team Asahi Kasei).  Ten other men have PBs under 62 minutes, making for a thick front pack.  Notable debuts will come from track champions Yuichiro Ueno  (Team S&B) and Taku Fujimoto  (Team Toyota). Course record holder Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) is the favorite in the women's race as she tunes up for next month's London Marathon.  She faces young competition from Sakiko Matsumi  (Team Daiichi Seimei) and Yuka Tokuda  (Team Starts), with...

by Brett Larner The last national championship women's ekiden of the season takes place this Sunday, Jan. 15 in Kyoto.  The National Interprefectural Women's Ekiden Championships have one of the most interesting formats on the circuit, with teams of nine women ranging from junior high schoolers to pros running for teams representing Japan's 47 prefectures.  The open stages are one of the few chances to see the best high school, university and pro women battle it out, while the stages reserved for junior high and high school runners often feature breakout performances by unknowns.  The commercial-free national broadcast and outstanding online coverage begins on NHK at 12:15 p.m.  Overseas viewers should be able to watch live online via Keyhole TV using the password NHK, with English-language commentary available once again via Twitter  @JRNLive . Final start lists at the men's and women's National Interprefectural Ekidens are notoriously unpredictable comp...

by Brett Larner Beyond all the road action in Fukuoka and Kosa, this weekend saw the last two big track time trial meets before the national championship ekidens.  High schoolers made most of the noteworthy news at both meets.  On the first day of the Nittai Time Trials in Yokohama, Ken Yokote  (Sakushin Gakuin H.S.) ran 28:57.31 to place 3rd in the men's 10000 m B-heat behind pros Jun Shinoto  (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) and Kazuki Onishi  (Team Kanebo).  Led by World XC silver medalist Paul Tanui  (Team Kyudenko) Africans took the top 10 places in Sunday's men's 5000 m, but close behind in 13:55.91 and 13:57.30 were the aptly-named Kenya Sonota  (Aomori Yamada H.S.) and Soma Ishikawa  (Sano Nichidai Prep H.S.).  Ishikawa's time was the 3rd-best ever by a Japanese high school junior.  The high school girls also ran well at Nittai, with outstanding first-year Rosemary Wanjiru  (Aomori Yamada H.S.) running 15:26.07 in one of th...

by Brett Larner The Japanese team at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Lille, France by and large performed well on the first day of competition, with 15 of the 21 athletes competing in heats and qualification rounds advancing to the next stage.  Particularly strong were hurdler  Shota Madokoro , who won his heat of the boys' 400 mH in a PB of 53.46 and sprinters Anna Doi , Kazuma Oseto  and Kazuma Tsukamoto , all of whom won their 100 m heats.  Hurdlers Takahiro Matsumoto  and Ikumi Iida  also clocked new PBs to advance in their events. In the only final of the day to feature Japanese athletes, top high school runners Katsuki Suga  and Tomoka Kimura  turned in strong performances but were unable to break into the medals.  Kimura dictated the early pace, leading the race through a quick 2:58.83 first kilometer before team tactics led to a slow 3:07 second km.  In the blazing 2:51 final kilometer both Japanese runners lost touch a...

by Brett Larner click here to watch the IAAF World Youth Championships live online The IAAF World Youth Championships get underway tomorrow, July 6, in Lille, France. As is to be expected, Japan's best medal chances among its team of 37 come in the sprints and long distances. Kazuma Oseto (Ogura Higashi H.S.) comes to the boys' 100 m as the #1 seed, his PB of 10.39 leading the field. His teammates Kazuya Tsukamoto (Heisei H.S.) and Tatsuro Suwa (Yotsukaichi Kogyo H.S.) are also in the top eight on the entry list by PB, making the chances of at least one medal very good. All three runners are also on the list for the sprint medley relay, where the Japanese team is ranked 4th by a slim margin behind South Africa. Akiyuki Hashimoto (Sensatsu Seishukan H.S.) is ranked 3rd in the men's 200 m with a best of 20.91, Oseto and Suwa entered to double with marks not far off Hashimoto's. In the girls' 100 m Anna Doi (Saitama Sakae H.S.) is ranked 3rd by PB, 11.6...

by Brett Larner The regional qualifier meets for next month's National High School Track and Field Championships took place across Japan between June 17 and 20. Of particular note as an illustration of the depth and development of Japanese distance running at the high school level, the girls' 3000 m event featured thirty Japanese and three Kenyan girls under 9:30 between nine regional meets over the weekend. By contrast, according to the ARRS database only four American high school girls broke 9:30 for 3000 m in all of 2010, with three so far this season. Kenyan Susan Wylim of Sera H.S. was the top of the crowd with a meet record 9:03.89 at the Chugoku regional meet. Sera's Charles Ndirangu also won the boys' 5000 m with a meet record of 13:44.61. Sera H.S. is most well-known for producing Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Team S&B), who earlier this season won Stanford Univesity's Cardinal Invitational 10000 m in stunning style. Three other girls, all Japanese, broke...

by Brett Larner As track season rolled on with the Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima and the Nobeoka Spring Time Trials Meet in Nobeoka on April 29, the biggest news came in the Oda women's 5000 m. Kenyan ace Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko), the 2001 World Junior Championships gold medalist over 3000 m, set her third PB of the month with a new clocking of 15:13.09, a meet record. Just behind her and also under the hold meet record, Hitomi Niiya , the 2007 Tokyo Marathon winner at age 18, came in with a 6-second PB of 15:17.84, 0.02 seconds faster than national record holder Kayoko Fukushi's best time of 2010 and the leading time by a Japanese woman thus far in the build-up to August's World Championships. What made Niiya's run big news was that she appeared running for Chiba Prefecture rather than for her sponsor since graduating from high school, 2008 national champion Team Toyota Jidoshokki. Late last month Toyota Jidoshokki announced that it was leaving its base in C...

by Brett Larner Despite nearly half its team hailing from earthquake and tsunami-hit areas, the Japanese squad was missing only two members of its senior men's team at the 2011 World Cross-Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain. The junior women were the stars of the day, taking a team bronze medal thanks in part to 12th and 13th place finishes from ace Katsuki Suga (Kojokan H.S.) and Tomoka Kimura (Chikuyo Joshi Gakuen H.S.). Hailing from the hard-hit city of Sendai, Natsuki Yoshida (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) was last on the team but still turned in a credible performance all things considered, 34th in 21:00. Her team medal will no doubt be a boost to the spirits of those back in Sendai dealing with the post-tsunami devastation. The senior women's and junior men's teams both placed 7th, the top individual performance on either team being a 26th-place run by women's team leader Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshoki), whose home base of Sakura, Chiba was badly shaken...

http://ameblo.jp/gogoyuki1126/ translated by Brett Larner This is a post Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) made on his blog on Mar. 15. Because of the recent major earthquake in northeastern Japan I've decided not to run in the World Cross Country Championships in Spain. Japan will be sending a team to the championships but they've left it up to us to decide individually whether or not we run. I just don't feel like I want to, and my legs are not 100%, so taking it all into account I've decided to scrap the idea of going. I wanted to go and run a race that would give the people back home at least a little good news, but in my current condition I don't think that's the kind of race it would end up as. My goal now is to do the work I can to heal my spirit so that in my next race I can give everyone my share of the good news they need. Translator's note: Junior team members Yuma Hattori and Natsumi Yoshida are both students at Sendai Ikuei H.S. in one of the...

click here for complete listing Senior Men's 12 km Tsubasa Hayakawa (Tokai Univ.) Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) Yusuke Takabayashi (Team Toyota) Hirotaka Tamura (Nihon Univ.) Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Meiji Univ.) Senior Women's 8 km Ai Igarashi (Team Sysmex) Nanae Kuwashiro (Team Sysmex) Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshoki) Korei Omata (Team Sekisui Kagaku) Yuko Shimizu (Team Sekisui Kagaku) Hanae Tanaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.) Junior Men's 8 km Yuki Arimura (Kagoshima Jitsugyo H.S.) Yuma Hattori (Sendai Ikuei H.S.) Takashi Ichida (Kagoshima Jitsugyo H.S.) Kazuma Kubota (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) Genki Yagisawa (Nasu Takuyo H.S.) Ken Yokote (Sakushin Gakuin H.S.) Junior Women's 6 km Tomoka Kimura (Chikuyo Joshi Gakuen H.S.) Yuriko Kosaki (Narita H.S.) Risa Shibuya (Hanawa H.S.) Katsuki Suga (Kojokan H.S.) Risa Yokoe (Suma Gakuen H.S.) Natsumi Yoshida (Sendai Ikuei H.S.)

by Brett Larner The winners of three of the four main races at the Feb. 13 Chiba International Cross Country Meet repeated two weeks later at the 25th Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet of Feb. 27 with dominant performances under sunny skies. The final of the domestic selection races for next month's World Cross Country Championships in Spain, Fukuoka settled the list of contenders for the Japanese Worlds team. In the senior men's 10 km, Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Team S&B) was in another league from the rest of the field, running a sensational course record 27:52 to win by 58 seconds over countryman Nicholas Makau (Kenya/Team Yachiyo Kogyo). Karoki became the first runner to clear 28 minutes on the Fukuoka course, clearing the old record by 26 seconds. Makau finished in the lead spot among a tight-knit pack of four followers, outkicking Jakob Wanjuki (Kenya/Team Aichi Seiko) for 2nd in 28:50. Tokai University sophomore Akinobu Murasawa , the top non-African at last year...

by Brett Larner After two days of snow and rain the day dawned with perfect weather conditions for the 2011 Chiba International XC Meet , Feb. 13 in Chiba. For domestic Japanese runner spots on the Japanese national team for next month's World XC Championships in Spain were at stake. The times were accordingly fast on the hilly and muddier than optimal Chiba course. One of the two big runs of the day came from 2007 Tokyo Marathon women's winner Hitomi Niiya (Team Toyota Jidoshoki). In Chiba's first edition since 2003 as an 8000 m race for senior women rather than 6000 m Niiya blew the field apart, running 25:53 to win by a margin of 40 seconds over Hanae Tanaka (Ritsumeikan Univ.), who won the first stage at last month's National Women's Interprefectural Ekiden. Nanae Kuwashiro (Team Sysmex), a teammate of marathon national record holder Mizuki Noguchi , was 3rd in 26:41. Niiya's time was the second-best ever run at Chiba, just 10 seconds off Australian Benit...

by Brett Larner You can't keep a great champion down. Mostly absent from competition with injuries and motivation issues for the two years since winning the 2009 Osaka International Women's Marathon, 10000 m national record holder Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) looked well on her way to staging the nth comeback of a career full of ups and downs Jan. 23 at the Kita-Kyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden , the last major women's ekiden of the season. Starting the 11.7 km anchor leg 47 seconds back from leader Yurika Nakamura of 2010 National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden winners Team Tenmaya, Shibui virtually singlehandedly won the race as she finished the stage 48 seconds ahead in 1st. Although she was far from the stage record, Shibui also took the best time on the stage by 15 seconds over 2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon winner Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC), clocking 37:12. Before Shibui's outstanding performance Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo was ...

by Brett Larner Click photo for video highlights. Thanks in part to outstanding performances from the identical twin Akamatsu sisters on the final two stages, Kojokan H.S. took its second-ever national title at the 2010 National High School Girls Ekiden , holding off two-time defending champion Toyokawa H.S. by 16 seconds after battling the strong Suma Gakuen H.S . throughout the ekiden. Kojokan's Katsuki Suga got the team off to a good start, winning the 6 km First Stage by a margin of 6 seconds. Suma Gakuen's Risa Yokoe caught up on the Second Stage, running a stage best to finish the leg dead even with Kojokan's Miyuki Oka . Suma Gakuen's Third Stage runner Mika Kobayashi likewise turned in a stage best, giving the school an 8 second lead after Kojokan's Manami Takehisa finished only 9th on the stage. Everything turned around on the 3.0 km Fourth Stage. Kojokan's Hiroka Akamatsu , the lesser-known of its star Akamatsu twins, seized back the lead, taking...

by Brett Larner Ahead of this month's IAAF World Junior Championships, the 14th Asian Junior Athletics Championships got underway July 1 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Among the Japanese results on the meet's first day: Hiroaki Koike won the boys' 3000 m steeplechase in 9:10.66, beating Kenyan-born Bahraini runner-up Isaac Kemboi Chelimo by over 20 seconds. Katsuki Suga was 2nd in the girls' 5000 m in 16:31.22, less than 10 seconds behind Ethiopian-born Bahraini winner Tejitu Daba Chalchissa . Eri Tayama finished 5th. Kazuki Baba and Farouq Ishimoto went 3-4 in the boys' 100 m, clocking 10.86 and 10.91. Mizuki Ito finished last in the girls' 100 m final, running 12.64. Both Japanese runners in the boys' 400 m qualified for the final, Kengo Yamasaki winning Heat 1 in 48.11 and Suguru Ito coming in 2nd in Heat 2 in 49.00. For complete results from the first day of competition, click here . (c) 2010 Brett Larner all rights reserved

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20100125k0000m050090000c.html translated by Brett Larner At the last major women's ekiden of the season, the 21st Kita-Kyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden on Jan. 24 in Kita-Kyushu, Team Tenmaya won the five-stage, 32.8 km open division for the first time in 15 years. Top-ranked Kojokan H.S. took its first win the six-stage, 32.8 km high school division. Both teams hail from Okayama Prefecture and carried over the momentum from Okayama's win at last week's National Interprefectural Women's Ekiden. Tenmaya's Second Stage runner Yuka Izumi took the lead which Third and Fourth Stage runners Yoshie Kurisu and Kaori Urata lengthened with stage best runs. Tenmaya's anchor, Beijing Olympian Yurika Nakamura , was never seriously threatened as she cruised home for the win. Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo took 2nd after advancing in the later stages, while early leader Team Juhachi Ginko fell to 3rd. Team Acom, which w...

by Brett Larner click here for JRNLive's detailed race commentary Yurika Nakamura scores Okayama Prefecture's first win at the National Interprefectural Women's Ekiden Jan. 17 in Kyoto. Click photo for video highlights. An Okayama Prefecture team made up primarily of members of the pro Team Tenmaya and the elite Kojokan H.S. derailed hometown hosts Kyoto Prefecture's bid for a sixth-straight National Interprefectural Women's Ekiden win on Jan. 17. Okayama took its first-ever national title, winning the nine-stage, 42.195 km event in 2:16:24 thanks to stage best runs by members Kaori Urata and Katsuki Suga and a new stage record by Kojokan H.S. first-year Mahiro Akamatsu. Okayama's anchor, Olympic marathoner and World Championships track runner Yurika Nakamura, was only 8th on stage time but had a big enough lead to hold off Chiba Prefecture anchor Hitomi Niiya by 15 seconds. Chiba's best-ever 2nd place showing was a surprise and came thanks in large part t...