japan running news

by Brett Larner In its second year on a new course in Sendai, the National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships were again dominated by a team that led wire-to-wire.  #1-seeded Universal Entertainment  of the East Japan region fought off a stomach virus that swept through the team last week and headwinds at times upwards of 50 kph to lead the entire race, winning just off last year's course record in 2:17:35 as three of its six members set new individual stage records.  Central Japan's  Denso  took an expected 2nd place after a sensational stage record run by anchor Mai Ishibashi , while defending champion Daiichi Seimei  overcame the absence of 2009 Berlin World Championships marathon silver medalist  Yoshimi Ozaki  to run down West Japan champ Wacoal  for 3rd on the last lap of the track.  Despite the headwinds on the point-to-point course, five of the six stages saw new records, most with multiple women cracking last year's time...

by Brett Larner 2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon winner Yuri Kano  (Team Shiseido) ran her first race since leaving Second Wind AC  and career-long coach Manabu Kawagoe  at the end of the summer to return to her previous sponsor, Shiseido .  Wearing the new Shiseido uniform for the first time, Kano placed 4th in the women's 5000 m A-heat, at 15:57.80 the fastest Shiseido runner of the night ahead of marathoner Yoshiko Fujinaga  who won the B-heat in 15:59.63.  Kano hopes to make Japan's marathon squad for next summer's London Olympics. National champion Bukkyo University 's Mai Ishibashi  won the A-heat in a solid 15:37.56, with Bukkyo first-year Risa Shibuya  likewise strong as she finished 3rd in 15:46.53.  The team's chances for defending its title at the upcoming National University Women's Ekiden Championships continue to look better and better. In the men's and women's 10000 m A-heats both Tomomi Itakura  (Team Otsu...

by Brett Larner Click photo for video highlights. The double proved difficult for the three women's 10000 m medalists in the 2011 World University Games women's 5000 m.  10000 m 4th-placer Triyaningsih  of Indonesia took the race out conservatively, running 3:14.58 and 3:17.11 for the first 2000 m.  Turkey's Binnaz Uslu  then took over, leading in 3:17.93 and 3:16.31 through 4000 m.  With much of the field still in the race it came down to the fastest closer.  Uslu impressed as she and Portugal's Sara Moreira  broke away from the field.  Uslu cracked Moreira over the bell lap, running 2:45.22 for the last 1000 m to win gold in a PB of 15:41.15.  Moreira split 2:49.90 to finish 2nd in 15:45.83 ahead of Russian Natalia Popkova , 3rd in 15:52.55.  10000 m gold medalist Fadime Suna  dropped out partway, leaving Japan's 10000 m silver medalist Hanae Tanaka  (Bukkyo Univ.) as the top placer in the 5000 m, 6th in 16:04.0...

by Brett Larner Click photo for video highlights. On the first day of the 2011 World University Games in Shenzhen, China, Hanae Tanaka , 21, and Mai Ishibashi , 22, of 2010 national champion Bukkyo University went two-three in the women's 10000 m behind winner Fadime Suna , 25, of Turkey.  Ishibashi led Suna in a one-on-one duel through 6000 m, splitting 3:15.14 at 1000 m and 16:22.17 at halfway before Suna took over.  Ishibashi soon lost touch while Tanaka, who memorably anchored the Japanese university select team to victory at last fall's International Chiba Ekiden, moved up from behind after running more conservatively at the rear of the chase pack.  Tanaka closed the gap to within three seconds but could not match Suna's strong last lap and had to settle for silver.  Ishibashi faded badly but held on for bronze over Indonesia's Triyaningsih , 24, the 4th-placer in the marathon at last fall's Asian Games. Both Tanaka and Ishibashi are schedul...

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 photos by Daniel Seite #2 Kasumi Nishihara, #1 Hikari Yoshimoto and #3 Mai Ishibashi, all of Bukkyo University, with a large lead on the field in women's 5000 m Heat 24. Bukkyo University captain and 2010 National University 5000 m champion Kasumi Nishihara , fresh from a key stage win at last month's International Chiba Ekiden, did it again Dec. 5 at the 213th Nittai University Time Trials meet. Nishihara clocked her second 5000 m PB of the year, 15:25.50, to continue her climb through the ranks of Japanese women's distance running. Her teammate Mai Ishibashi was not far behind, 2nd in 15:35.38, while the team's ace, 10000 m national university record holder Hikari Yoshimoto , finished in 16:04.55 after collapsing while running between Nishihara and Ishibashi in the earlier stages of the race. Ibrahim Jeilan, #30, leads the pack in the men's 5000 m Heat 35. In the men's A-heat, past World XC jr. champion Ibrahim Jeilan (Ethiopia/Team Honda) ou...

by Brett Larner 2009 World University Games 10000 m gold medalist and 5000 m silver medalist and 2010 National University 5000 m champion Kasumi Nishihara (Bukkyo Univ.) took another step toward the top with a 15:27.94 PB to finish 1st in the final women's 5000 m at the 2010 Nighter Time Trials in Marugame on Oct. 9. With runner-up Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya) over 15 seconds behind, Nishihara's solo effort makes her the third-fastest Japanese woman of the year over 5000 m behind national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) and Nishihara's younger teammate Hikari Yoshimoto (Bukkyo Univ.). Nishihara's progression since high school has been impressively consistent: 2006: 15:47.52 2007: 15:41.54 2008: 15:36.72 2009: 15:32.89 2010: 15:27.94 Yoshimoto was also scheduled to run but was a DNS, raising concerns about her condition after several weak performances earlier this fall season. With Bukkyo runners Mai Ishibashi and Rika Kawashima also under 16 minutes in heat...

by Brett Larner With the memory of their 3-second loss at last year's National University Women's Invitational Ekiden to spur them on, Bukkyo University followed up on their win over rivals Ritsumeikan University at October's Morinomiyako Ekiden by handing Ritsumeikan their first-ever loss at the national championship ekiden. With four of its runners taking stage best titles, two setting new stage records and one equalling the existing stage record, Bukkyo covered the six-stage, 30.67 km course in Tsukuba, Ibaraki prefecture in 1:37:35, breaking Ritsumeikan's course record from last year by 58 seconds. Ritsumeikan was only two seconds slower than its record-setting performance last year but a full minute behind Bukkyo. Bukkyo's Yuika Mori got the race started on the right note, leading a four-way breakaway on the 5.0 km First Stage and outkicking Kenyan Ann Kingori (Nihon Univ.) and 2008 National University 10000 m champion Michi Numata (Ritsumeikan Univ.) to wi...

by Brett Larner Kenyan star Philes Ongori (Team Hokuren) got the 25th anniversary Fukui Super Ladies' Ekiden started in style with a stage record performance on the 6 km 1st leg. After a conservative first kilometer in which she matched paces with fellow Kenyan Danielle Philomena Cheyech (Team Uniqlo) and top university woman Kazue Kojima (Ritsumeikan Univ.), Ongori sped away to clock 18:28, breaking the 12 year-old record by 7 seconds. Cheyech attempted to follow and initially opened a comfortable gap, but the gritty Kojima returned for a sprint finish in which Cheyech prevailed by only a stride, timed at 19:11 to Kojima's 19:12. Hokuren's lead looked formidable as the team ran on course record pace through the end of the 4th stage, but despite a strong showing as anchor at last week's East Japan Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden 5th leg runner Saori Nejo ran into trouble and lost ground to the chasers. Surprisingly, the team that was running her down was not 10-time cha...

by Brett Larner It was a familiar story: clocking an unprecedented fourth-straight new stage record at the major national university women's championship Morinomiyako Ekiden , ace senior Kazue Kojima led Ritsumeikan University, except for 2005 when it was 2nd the national champion every year since 2003, to break its own course record by nearly two minutes. But there was something strange. TV cameras showed Ritsumeikan's women crying and devastated at the finish. What had gone wrong? The answer: cross-town rival Bukkyo University had beaten them by another margin of nearly two minutes to take its first-ever national title. Bukkyo's performance was just a few degrees off perfection. First Stage runner Mai Ishibashi took a slow first half before taking off in the second half to win the leg by 2 seconds over Ritsumeikan's Hanae Tanaka. From there on every Bukkyo runner just went out hell-bent at 100% from the start, recklessly running stage-record pace and daring Ritsumeika...