japan running news

by Brett Larner With temperatures suddenly jumping ten degrees to the mid-20s former Tokyo Kokusai University star Leul Gebresilase (Ethiopia) proved the toughest in hot and sunny conditions as he won Saturday's Ottawa 10K  with a long kick from a kilometer and a half out. Back from a nearly two-year layoff due to illness, 2015 Ottawa winner Nicholas Bor (Kenya) did the early heavy lifting, shaking the lead pack down to himself, Gebresilase, Japan's Kenta Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei), Martin Hehir (U.S.A.) and Taher Belkorchi (Morocco) by 3 km. Shortly after that Murayama, running with support from JRN, started to feel dizzy and began to drift back from the pack. Belkorchi was the next to fade, leaving Gebresilase, Hehir and Bor up front by halfway. Little changed for the next few kilometers, but between 7 and 8 km Bor abruptly faltered and dropped back. Newcomer Hehir gave it what he had, but on a sharp left turn across a bridge before 9 km Gebresilase surged and had...

by Brett Larner 2015 winner Nicholas Bor (Kenya), former Tokyo Kokusai University runner Leul Gebresilase (Ethiopia) and the 2017 New Year Ekiden champion team Asahi Kasei's star twin Kenta Murayama (Japan) lead the elite men's field for Saturday's Ottawa 10K, part of the Tamarack Homes Ottawa Race Weekend . Out of competition for almost two years with injury, Bor indicated at the pre-race press conference that his training had been good. Winner of Nigeria's Okpekpe 10 km two weeks ago, Gebresilase was confident of his chances. Murayama, 5th in March's NYC Half in 1:00:57, said that he planned to play an active role in the race and hoped to even the score against Gebresilase, who beat him in both of their meetings on the track in Japan. Speaking to Japanese media prior to his departure for Ottawa, Murayama said that in terms of time he will be going for the 28:05 Japanese national record for road 10 km currently held by Atsushi Sato . If he succeeds he wi...

#GGN 男子10000m 旭化成 村山謙太さん② pic.twitter.com/SleKF2NvJm — りほ@陸上垢 (@ykr_10v) May 8, 2017 Kenta Murayama  of the 2017 New Year Ekiden national champion Asahi Kasei team is among the top entrants in the May 27 Ottawa 10K men's race.  5th in March's United Airlines NYC Half in 1:00:57, Murayama is the twin brother of track 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei). Murayama will be running in Canada for the first time with support from JRN. Also on the entry list is former Tokyo Kokusai University runner Leul Gebresilase (Ethiopia), who had several memorable races against Murayama's brother Kota at the Hakone Ekiden Qualifier 20 km. Ottawa will be Kenta and Leul's first time to meet each other on the raods.  Click here for a complete elite field listing .

http://mainichi.jp/area/saitama/news/20131203ddlk11040228000c.html translated by Brett Larner video courtesy of Ekiden News With Kawagoe's Tokyo Kokusai University set to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016 its ekiden team, founded in just 2011, hopes to qualify for the Hakone Ekiden for the first time that year.  The driving force behind the team's rapid development is Ethiopian Leul Gebresilasie , 20.  Since arriving at the school's Sakado Campus in April last year, each morning he has arisen early in the team dormitory to head out for morning training. Morning practice kicks off each day at 5:30 a.m.  Gebresilasie does light warmups together with the other 45 members of the ekiden team before leaving to run 10-15 km at a varying pace.  In his specialty distane, the 5000 m he had a best of 14:06 before coming to Japan, but not long after arriving he showed that he possesses extraordinary talent when he improved this to 13:31.52.  His coach Shuji O...

by Brett Larner Japan's biggest sporting event of the year is the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden, a ten-stage university men's road relay which each runner covering roughly a half marathon distance in front of a live nationwide TV audience of 40 million and millions more cheering courseside.  Each year the top ten of the twenty teams in the Hakone field are seeded to run again the next year, also running October's Izumo Ekiden.  The remaining schools are sent back to run the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai , a 20 km road race qualifier in Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park, along with dozens of other schools from around the Kanto Region hopeful of earning the honor of a place on the starting line at Hakone come Jan. 2. Monday's Izumo Ekiden saw an overall course record for the third time in the last four years , with individual stage records on three of its six legs.  In a sign of the continued explosively rapid rate of growth in Japanese men's collegiate athletics, Saturday's Y...

by Brett Larner This weekend is the first of two successive weekends featuring regional track championships and an elite half marathon.  The Kansai Regional University T&F Championships , the most competitive university women's region in the country, starts things off May 10 and runs through the 13th, the first major meet following the graduation of Bukkyo University's collegiate 10000 m record holder  Hikari Yoshimoto  (Team Yamada Denki).  Entry list standouts include Chinami Mori  (Bukkyo Univ.), Sayuri Oka  (Osaka Taiku Univ.) and Eriko Kushima  (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.). The Kanto Region University T&F Championships , the center of university men's running and typically a higher-level meet than the National University Championships, is split between this weekend and next.  Women's competition is thinner than in Kansai, but the meet will see talented twins Haruka  and Moe Kyuma  making their Regionals debut for Tsukuba Univ...