japan running news

A record-breaking number of participants ran the Fukuoka Marathon yesterday. In its 12th edition, the mass-participation race welcomed 15,102 participants, the most in its history, and included a 42.195 km full marathon, 5.2 km fun run and 5.2 km wheelchair race. The race started at 8:20 a.m. at Tenjin in central Fukuoka. Following a seaside course out of downtown Fukuoka it finished at Koryu Plaza in Itoshima. Despite wet conditions 96.3% of starters finished the race. Kentaro Nakamoto , head coach of the Fukuoka-based Yasukawa Denki corporate team and a 2012 Olympian, won the men's race in 2:23:21. Amateur Kanami Shigemoto won the women's race in 2:55:47, with Koki Takemura taking the wheelchair title in 11:32. source articles: https://www.nishinippon.co.jp/item/1421322/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZknZZD16kE translated and edited by Brett Larner

The Yasukawa Denki men's corporate team has announced that four of its members including 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics marathoner Hisanori Kitajima , 38, are retiring. Kitajima won the Hakone Ekiden's Eighth Stage his fourth year at Toyo University . He finished 2nd as the top Japanese man at the 2016 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon to qualify for the Rio Olympics, where he placed 94th. In comments Kitajima said, "The last few years I've felt my body deteriorating day by day, and it was frustrating not to be able to do the kind of training and aggressive racing I used to. But that made me change the way I approached racing, and to approach it with more thought and craft. I learned new things and changed my way of thinking, and as I got older I found a new kind of enjoyment and satisfaction in racing. Part of that was being called a veteran, which felt like some kind of persona. It made me want to compete with the 'veterans' from other teams, and that came to be a m...

The men's marathon wrapped up athletics competition at the Tokyo Olympics , with heavy hopes of a medal made all the heavier by a DNF in the men's 4x100 m relay final. When Colombian Jeison Alexander Suarez  took the race out harder than expected Japanese marathon trials winner Shogo Nakamura held back from going with the front group, setbacks in his training over the last year giving him reason for caution. 2018 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Yuma Hattori  and 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako went with it, Hattori lasting through 20 km before dropping and Osako until just after 30 km when eventual winner Eliud Kipchoge  dropped a 14:28 split for the next 5 km. Osako worked his way into 6th and looked briefly like he might catch back up to the main chase group of four, but once he got within 15 seconds of them he stalled and simply held position. Kipchoge took his second-straight Olympic gold in 2:08:38. Somali-born Abdi Nageeya  and Bashir Abdi ...

It's a fast new world in Japanese men's marathoning, and one of its exciting new stars comes to it straight out of Kyushu. His name is Kyohei Hosoya  (25, Kurosaki Harima). In just his second marathon he ran 2:06:35 for 3rd at February's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon , ranking him at all-time Japanese #6. In college he was mostly sidelined with injury, but since joining the corporate leagues his abilities have come into full flower. Now, with the 2024 Paris Olympics in his sights, he's poised to make another great leap forward. When the race in Lake Biwa began Hosoya was just an unknown 25-year-old, but when he hit the finish line he'd inked his name on the list of top candidates for the Paris Olympics. What once was just a dream is now a realistic goal. "I'd had some vague hopes before about representing Japan," he said, "but now that feeling is burning bright."  Someone who has been involved with Hosoya's athletic career had often told hi...

an editorial by Serika Ito As the figure on the screen grew larger, I could feel myself unintentionally getting energy from it. Just past 31 km, the oldest man in the race, 36-year-old Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki) took the lead in the chase pack behind breakaway frontrunner Yuta Shitara (Honda). It was one of the memorable scenes in last September's Marathon Grand Championship (MGC) Tokyo Olympics marathon trial race. At one point Nakamoto was more than 20 seconds behind the chase group, but he had already proven himself in heat and excelled at race tactics and catching up. "Maybe there's going to be a Tokyo Olympics for him," I thought. I couldn't help starting to get excited. Nakamoto was 6th in the 2012 London Olympics marathon and made three World Championships teams in the marathon, finishing as high as 5th and always in the top 10. I interviewed him many times over the years as he quietly build a track record of anonymous quality. Although he ...

Two of Japan's main fall amateur marathons are stepping up their game this year with their best-ever elite fields. Looking to upgrade its IAAF label from bronze to silver, the Nov. 17 Kobe Marathon has an elite field with three women under 2:30 and three men under 2:11 in the last three years. Kaori Yoshida (Team RxL) and Betty Jepleting (Kenya) lead the women, with Eliud Barngetuny (Kenya) and Weldu Negash Gebretsadik (Norway) fronting the men. The men's race will almost definitely see an international winner, with veteran Chiharu Takada (JR Higashi Nihon) the top Japanese man at 2:11:25 on the Gold Coast two years ago, but the women's race has a good chance of seeing a Japanese winner. Along with Yoshida, it has sub-2:30 woman Yurie Doi (Tos Planning) and amateur duo Haruka Yamaguchi (AC Kita) and Shiho Kaneshige (GRlab Kanto), both with low-2:33 PBs earlier this fall and keen to join the sub-2:30 club. With a field of 30,000 the Osaka Marathon is one of...

Kentaro Nakamoto age: 36 sponsor: Yasukawa Denki graduated from: Nishiichi H.S., Takushoku University best time inside MGC window:  2:11:34, 2nd, 2019 Krakow Marathon PB: 2:08:35, 2nd, 2013 Beppu-Oita Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 14:04.31 (2011) 10000 m: 28:54.59 (2012) half marathon: 1:02:12 (2018) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019): 2nd, 2019 Krakow Marathon, 2:11:34 DNF, 2018 Fukuoka International Marathon 5th, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:12:54 DNS, 2018 Boston Marathon 10th, 2017 London World Championships Marathon, 2:12:41 other major results: 20th, 2019 Hakodate Half Marathon, 1:04:32 11th, 2019 Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:03:27 10th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Fifth Stage (15.8 km), 47:11 2nd, 2018 Osaka Half Marathon, 1:02:12 – PB 1st, 2017 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:09:32 5th, 2013 Moscow World Championships Marathon, 2:10:50 2nd, 2013 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:08:35 – PB 6th, 2012 London Olympics Marathon, 2:11:16 4t...

Tomohiro Tanigawa age: 30 sponsor: Konica Minolta graduated from: Kumamoto Kogyo H.S., Takushoku University best time inside MGC window: 2:12:02, 3rd, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon PB: 2:11:39, 2nd, 2015 Nagano Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 13:51.09 (2013) 10000 m: 28:24.31 (2013) half marathon: 1:02:18 (2013) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019): 3rd, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:12:02 28th, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:18:33 other major results: 5th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Seventh Stage (15.5 km), 46:28 4th, 2018 East Japan Corporate Ekiden Seventh Stage (12.9 km), 38:12 1st, 2016 Sydney Marathon, 2:12:13 Tanigawa is the only athlete male or female in the MGC Race to have never broken the 2020 Olympics marathon qualifying time standard. He did win the gold label Sydney Marathon in 2016, equivalent to having cleared the standard, but his PB of 2:11:39 from 2015 is just shy of the 2:11:30 time standard. Tanigawa graduated from Takushoku University,...

15 Japanese men and 6 Japanese women lined up at overseas marathons Sunday to try one last time to qualify for the MGC Race, Japan's new 2020 Olympic trials marathon event, ahead of its Apr. 30 deadline, or to try to get under the Olympic standard before the Sept. 15 MGC Race. For men the needed marks were 2:08:30 or two races inside the qualifying window averaging 2:11:00 or better. For women, 2:24:00 and 2:28:00. Already in, Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki) ran the Krakow Marathon in hopes of clearing the 2:11:30 men's standard. Running steadily and under control on 2:10:20 pace, Nakamoto lasted until a final move by eventual winner Cyprian Kotut (Kenya) around 37 km put him away. As Kotut took off to win in 2:09:18, Nakamoto began to fade, holding on the 2nd place but just missing the Olympic standard in 2:11:34. The Hamburg Marathon saw the largest number of Japanese athletes, with 4 women and 13 men. Among the women Yuka Takashima (Shiseido) had the easiest task,...

Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon and Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon pretty much wrapped up qualification for the Sept. 15 MGC Race , Japan's new 2020 Olympic trials in the marathon. There's still a chance for people who haven't qualified yet to get in if they can clear the wildcard standards, 2:24:00 or a two-race 2:28:00 average for women and 2:08:30 or a 2:11:00 average for men, by the end of April. At least two men with good chances of making it, Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) and Asuka Tanaka (Hiramatsu Byoin), are planning to race again in April to try to go that route, and there will probably be others. But realistically the numbers of qualifiers probably won't change too much from what they are now. As of the end of Sunday's races, 14 women and 30 men have qualified. On the women's side, the Tenmaya corporate team, the most successful at putting women on national teams in the marathon, has produced the most qualifiers with three, Honami Maeda...

A veteran and a first-timer made the headlines from the opposite ends of the spectrum at Sunday's Hokkaido Marathon in Sapporo, Hokkaido, the first race in the second season of qualifying for the MGC Race, Japan's new 2020 Olympic trials race to be held in September next year. A passing typhoon brought cooler than usual weather to Hokkaido and a better-than-usual chance of hitting the sub-2:13 and sub-2:30 qualifying marks most Olympic aspirants would have to clear. The men's race was simply a race of attrition, with no dramatic changes in pace or sudden moves, just a large pack of motivated people going out mid-2:11 pace in a race where only two men have ever cleared 2:12, neither of them Japanese. In the pack, 59:47 Kenyan Paul Kuira (Konica Minolta), the promising young Shohei Otsuka (Kyedenko), championships marathoner extraordinaire Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki),2016 Sydney Marathon winner Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta), luckless veteran Naoki Okamoto ...

Marathon season kicks off this weekend with three races featuring elite-level Japanese marathoners. Saturday morning the athletics segment of the Jakarta Asian Games gets rolling with the men's marathon. With a 2:06:54 best from February's Tokyo Marathon Japan's Hiroto Inoue is the heavy favorite if he can handle the heat. His nearest competition, Ethiopian Bahraini Abdi Abdo , ran 2:08:32 in Rome this year, and Inoue's teammate Hayato Sonoda is the only other man in the field to have broken 2:10. With Bahrain's second man, the Moroccan El Hassan El Abbassi , ranked 4th at 2:10:57 it's pretty much a Japan-Bahrain dual on the men's side. Should Inoue succeed he'll be the first Japanese man to win Asian Games gold since Takeyuki Nakayama set the still-standing championships record of 2:08:21 at the 1986 Seoul Games. It's unusual to see an A-lister like Inoue run the Asian Games, but considering the weather conditions he'll face if he makes ...

Last year the Hokkaido Marathon saw the first pair of Japanese athletes qualify for the new MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials event , with winners Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) and Akinobu Murasawa (Nissin Shokuhin) winning under the time standards they needed for MGC qualification. Since then the numbers have grown to 13 men and 6 women on the qualifier list with another 16 women and 34 men halfway there thanks to an option for qualifying via a two-race average time standard. As an August event Hokkaido is always on the hot side, but success there might predict success in Tokyo 2020 and easier time standards than any of the other domestic options for MGC qualification there's no shortage of top-level Japanese talent lining up to give it a go this year. The winning Japanese woman in Hokkaido will qualify for the MGC race if under 2:32:00, with up to 5 more qualifying if under 2:30:00. London World Championships team member Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) leads the women's...

The withdrawal of Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki), Japan's best championship marathoner of the modern era, from the Boston Marathon field with a stress fracture is a blow to what would have been the best Japanese contingent in Boston in decades. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) leads the way, arriving in Boston off wins in his last four marathons: 2:10:03, Hofu Yomiuri Marathon, 12/17/17 2:18:59 CR, Marshfield New Year's Day Marathon, 1/1/18 2:11:46 CR, Kitakyushu Marathon, 2/18/18 2:14:12, Wan Jin Shi Marathon, 3/18/18 Kawauchi hopes to at least equal Suguru Osako 's top 3 placing in last year's Boston, his optimism growing as the weather forecast gets worse. Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) runs for what was once Japan's most successful corporate team in the marathon, his best of 2:12:31 coming 6 years ago at Lake Biwa and his fastest recent time a 2:13:33 in Tokyo last year. Okamoto earned a place in Boston by winning February...

It's been a month since the 94th Hakone Ekiden wrapped up . Every university is busy piecing together its new team. After making the seeded top ten for the first time in four years, Takushoku University , alma mater of Olympic marathoners Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki) and Arata Fujiwara (Arata Project) has named third-year Derese Workneh its team captain for the 2018-19 season. Under the leadership of this exceptional foreign student athlete the team aims to beat its best-ever Hakone placing, 7th. The clock is already ticking to the 95th running. Veteran head coach Masahiro Okada , 72, is confident in his choice of captain. "The only one who can lead the new Takushoku is Derese," said Okada. He informed the team of his decision at its first meeting on Jan. 4, a day after Takushoku returned to the seeded bracket with an 8th place finish at this year's Hakone. 【箱根への道】異例！新主将は留学生　拓大・デレセ、言葉より「ハートで引っ張る」 https://t.co/swq5EpuPID #スポーツ新聞 pic.twitter.com/GmCqAD...

Held alongside the Osaka International Women's Marathon , the Osaka Half Marathon has continued to grow at the elite level into one of the post-ekiden season's top-tier Japanese half marathons. On the women's side, Maki Ashi (Kyudenko) was just off her best as she won in 1:11:26, opening a lead of over 20 seconds in the first 5 km and going the rest of the way alone. Ayaka Yokose (Yamada Denki) was the only other woman to crack 1:12, 2nd in 1:11:58. Taiwanese national record holder Chien-ho Hsieh spent most of the race in 3rd, but despite getting caught by Madoka Nakano (Noritz) with just over 5 km to go Hsieh pushed on to take almost three minutes off her own national record, landing 4th in 1:12:19. The men's race saw a deep pack go through halfway on sub-1:02 pace, things slowing slightly before 15 km but no real carnage happening until the final stages. With seven still in contention with just over a kilometer to go it came down to a sprint finish on the tra...

Sunday's Osaka International Women's Marathon leads the way in Japanese road action this weekend. With qualification spots in the MGC Race 2020 Olympic Trials at stake for the home field there are three main questions: Can straight-arm specialist Yuka Ando (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) duplicate her 2:21:36 debut in Nagoya last year after running badly at the London World Championships? Can Honami Maeda (Tenmaya), the only Japanese woman to have qualified for the MGC Race so far, run a fast marathon for real after conquering the heat to win August's Hokkaido Marathon in 2:28:48? What can last year's 10000 m national champion Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) do in her debut? Eunice Jeptoo (Kenya) tops the international list with a 2:26:13 in Eindhoven last year, with the debuting Gotytom Gebreslase (Ethiopia) the wildcard, her best mark at distance a 49:56 at last year's Utica Boilermaker 15 km.  Osaka will be broadcast live Sunday by Fuji TV starting at noon ...

Japan's Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Kentaro Nakamoto  (Yasukawa Denki) will run the 2018 Boston Marathon as part of the John Hancock Elite Athlete Team. Kawauchi holds world records for everything from most career sub-2:12 marathons to most sub-2:20, while Nakamoto is Japan's best championships marathoner of modern times with four top 10 finishes at the Olympics and World Championships. Longtime rivals, their duel at the 2013 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon was one of the classics of Japanese marathoning, both running sub-2:09 PBs as Kawauchi set a still-standing course record of 2:08:15. The pair has a 3-3 record in the marathon so far, their most recent meeting coming at last summer's London World Championships where Kawauchi ran Nakamoto down in the last kilometer to take 9th. Boston will be their 7th and likely final face-off. Our 2018 #BostonMarathon International Elite Field includes 46 of the world’s best marathoners from 13 countries. Watch...

2017 saw Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) saw him extending his range at both ends of his spectrum with two sub-2:10s, breaking Ethiopian great Abebe Mekonnen 's world record for most career sub-2:12 marathons, and, in his final race of the year, tying American Doug Kurtis ' sub-2:20 world record. Along the way he set at least 10 course records, won 5 marathons, and took the top Japanese spot at 9th in the London World Championships, altogether making for one of the better years he's had so far. Based on the assumption that his performance at the 2016 Fukuoka Marathon, the " Miracle in Fukuoka ," was going to be enough to get him on the London team Kawauchi spent the New Year running on the London course and in preparation for August's World Championshps planned to run one overseas marathon a month starting in April. He tuned up at February's amateur-level Ehime Marathon, where an unexpectedly aggressive debut by local boy Yohei Suzuki (Wased...