japan running news

by Brett Larner Defending national champion Ritsumeikan University  added an eighth title to its legacy Oct. 27 in Sendai, winning the 31st National University Women's Ekiden Championships after leading start to finish.  First Stage runner Natsuki Omori  got things off by winning the 6.4 km opening leg by a second over Ayumi Uehara  of Matsuyama University despite a fall midway through the stage, and from there the Ritsumeikan women never looked back.  Ritsumeikan runners won five of the day's six stages, only Juntendo University 's Nanaka Izawa spoiling their day with a win on the 9.2 km Fifth Stage. With the Kansai region typically seen as the center of collegiate women's distance running, four of this year's top ten schools were from the Kanto region, better known for the strength of its men's programs.   Daito Bunka University  was the top Kanto school, 2nd overall on the strength of quality runs from its identical twins Eri  and Mari T...

by Brett Larner At the Jan. 20 Kita-Kyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden , 2012 National High School Ekiden champions   Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. outran all competition to break the existing 32.8 km course record by 41 seconds.  Kita-Kyushu features an interesting format that sees top high school team running against pro teams with the open division's 11.7 km final stage divided into two for the younger high school division teams. Locals  Team Kyudenko led through the first three stages, with Kenyan ace Sally Chepyego  scoring a course record 18:11 for the 5.9 km Second Stage.  2012 National Corporate Ekiden champions Team Universal Entertainment  and Ritsumeikan Uji just a second behind dueled for 2nd before the high school champions pulled ahead on the Third Stage thanks to a stage win by the team's star Nanako Kanno .  Ritsumeikan Uji's fourth runner Mai Hirota  delivered another stage win to bring the team even with Kyudenko at the handoff t...

by Brett Larner It was a relatively quiet long weekend across Japan, with a smattering of prefectural track championships across the country in the hot sun ahead of an approaching typhoon.  At the Kyoto Prefecture Championships, Bukkyo University-related runners cleaned up, taking the top five spots in the women's 5000 m led by recent graduate Kasumi Nishihara 's meet record 15:39.28.  An impressive mark considering that it was run in temperatures in the mid-30's with high humidity.    Fresh from being named to the Japanese 10000 m squad for next month's World Championships, Bukkyo's top current runner Hikari Yoshimoto  won the women's 3000 m in 9:14.75, her first win after a few relatively flat months. Bukkyo's major rival Ritsumeikan University mostly gave the Kyoto meet a miss, opting instead for the West Japan University Championships in Gifu.  There team leader Risa Takenaka  also set a meet record in the 5000 m, running 15:59.07 in even hotte...