japan running news

The number of Japanese athletes going overseas continues to inch back toward pre-pandemic levels, with people racing in Europe and North America this weekend. Three were at the Adizero: Road to Records promotional event at Adidas world HQ in Germany Saturday, 19-year-old Koku Gakuin University teammates Kiyoto Hirabayashi and Ayumu Yamamoto , and marathoner Mao Uesugi (Starts). Despite low-hanging official road 5 km NR of only 13:55 and 15:52, both times regularly beaten by high schoolers in ekiden racing, both Yamamoto and Uesugi fell far short. Yamamoto, who ran 1:00:43 for the half marathon in February, ran only 14:34 in the men's 5 km, while Uesugi, 2:22:29 at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon, ran 16:12 in the women's 5 km. Hirabayashi was at about the same level in the men's half marathon, running 1:03:33. Two women from the Uniqlo corporate team were at Stanford University's Payton Jordan Invitational in the U.S.A., Mai Shoji in the 5...

With the shift of the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai qualifying race to the half marathon distance last year the Takashimadaira Road Race, a fall classic on the Tokyo race calendar, is the last elite-level 20 km left in Japan. Run on a perfectly-flat 5 km loop in Tokyo's northern suburbs, Takashimadaira features 5 km, 10 km and 20 km divisions and tends to attract a mix of some of the better Hakone teams and second-tier corporate teams. The main event, the men's 20 km, typically sees winning times under 60 or even under 59 minutes. This year it was down somewhat, with Koki Yamane of Hakone 5th-placer Teikyo University edging Hakone champ Tokai University 's Tomoya Hada for the win 1:00:34 to 1:00:56. The unattached Kyoko Matsumoto won the women's 20 km in 1:13:31. The 10 km seemed to be the bigger draw this year. The men's race is typically dominated by the Tokyo Police Department 's corporate team, but this year runners from a half dozen other teams fought th...

Running her first race as a 20-year-old two days after her birthday, 2018 World U20 Championships 3000 m gold medalist Nozomi Tanaka (Toyota Jidoshokki TC) tuned up for the Doha World Championships with a 15:17.28 meet record in the Memorial Francisco Ramon Higueras meet in Andujar, Spain. Running with support from JRN, Tanaka had an unexpected rematch against this year's 5000 m national champion Tomoka Kimura (Shiseido). With a projected 3000 m split of 9:13 Tanaka kept herself in 3rd place until the pacer dropped out a lap early at 2600 m. When frontrunning Ethiopian-born athletes Beyenu Degefa and Bontu Rebitu immediately slowed down Tanaka went to the front to keep the pace moving, dropping Kimura and others. Over the next three laps she and Degefa exchanged the lead at least three times before Tanaka put the hammer down from 800 m out. Alone over the last 800 m, Tanaka was under 3:00 for the final 1000 m to take the win in 15:17.28, missing her PB by less than 2 seco...

Japanese athletes were busy on the track overseas this weekend. At Friday's Stumptown Twilight meet in Portland, indoor mile Asian record holder  Nanami Arai (Honda) took 2nd in the men's 1500 m in 3:39.58, his second time this season breaking 3:40. It used to be a rarity to see a Japanese man clear 3:40, something that happened once every couple of years, but so far this season four Japanese men have done it a total of six times. If the distance had even a fraction of the prestige of the Hakone Ekiden, or of that it has in the U.S., there's no doubt there'd be more. Speaking of distances with prestige, on the first day of London's Muller Anniversary Games Diamond League spectacular Yuki Koike (Sumitomo Denko) became the third Japanese man to join the sub-10 club, running 9.98 (+0.5 m/s) for 4th in the men's 100 m final. Koike also ran 2nd on the Japanese men's 4x100 m relay team, which clocked a season best 37.78 for 2nd despite featuring only two r...

Stanford University's Payton Jordan Invitational is usually a big draw for Japanese runners, the site of the current women's 10000 m and former men's 10000 m national records. But with the JAAF moving the National Championships 10000 m from June to mid-May and the Golden Games in Nobeoka meet coming next weekend only a handful made the trip to California this time around. On the women's side, Rina Nabeshima (Japan Post), the fastest Japanese woman over 5000 m last year, ran 15:26.30 for 8th in the 5000 to miss the 2019 Doha World Championships entry standard by just over 4 seconds. Returning from a stellar half marathon debut in February her teammate Ayuko Suzuki ran 31:33.62 for 4th in the 10000 m, with Mai Shoji (Denso) 16th in 32:29.63. Suzuki was well under the Doha standard but almost 9 seconds over the 2020 Tokyo Olympics standard. Having qualified for the Sept. 15 MGC Race Olympic marathon trials it's unlikely she would run the 10000 m in Doha, bu...

Weekend Japanese track action kicked off at the Bryan Clay Invitational at California's Azusa Pacific University. Passing on a spring marathon in favor of a shot at the 10000 m national record this season, 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) ran 13:29.11 for 3rd in the 5000 m, the best time so far this year by a Japanese man. Bigger news came in the men's 1500 m, where  Shoma Funatsu  (Chuo Univ.) capped a residency in Oregon with a 3:38.65 to move up to all-time Japanese #5 and collegiate #2. Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) also ran 3:41.51, with U.S.-based Yusuke Uchikoshi (Boise State Univ.) going 3:44.50, Funatsu's Chuo teammate Kazuyoshi Tamogami 3:45.84, another U.S. transplant Yasunari Kusu (AMAC) 3:46.98 and Hirotaka Nakatani (Uchida Chiryoin AC) 3:49.28. At the nearby Mt. SAC Relays Yui Fukuda (Toyota Jidoshokki) won the women's 1500 m in 4:16.64. Mai Shoji (Denso) was slightly off her season best in the 5000 m in 15:56.99, ...

by Brett Larner Japan's team for this weekend's World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang, China features 21 athletes.  As always, its strongest contingent is its junior women, in this case led by 9:00.89 high schooler Azusa Sumi , undefeated since 2013, and teammate Yuka Sarumida of Toyokawa H.S.   The junior men's team features three athletes with 5000 m bests under 14 minutes including 2014 World Junior Championships team member Shota Onizuka (Omuta H.S.). 2015 Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet winner Mai Shoji (Chukyo Univ.) leads the senior women's squad which also includes her collegiate rival Maki Izumida (Ritsumeikan Univ.).  Once again this year, Japan's senior men are largely giving World Cross a miss, with only three entered versus six on the each of the other three squads.  Corporate runners are completely absent, with 2015 Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University 's Kazuma Kubota the biggest name of the three and Juntendo U...

by Brett Larner Japan will send a team of 21 athletes to next month's World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang, China.  As always, its strongest contingent is its junior women, in this case led by 9:00.89 high schooler Azusa Sumi , undefeated since 2013, and teammate Yuka Sarumida of Toyokawa H.S.   The junior men's team features three athletes with 5000 m bests under 14 minutes including 2014 World Junior Championships team member Shota Onizuka (Omuta H.S.). 2015 Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet winner Mai Shoji (Chukyo Univ.) leads the senior women's squad which also includes her collegiate rival Maki Izumida (Ritsumeikan Univ.).  Once again this year, Japan's senior men are largely giving World Cross a miss, with only three entered versus six on the each of the other three squads.  Corporate runners are completely absent, with 2015 Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University 's Kazuma Kubota the biggest name of the three and Juntendo Univ...

by Brett Larner photos by rikujoulove Japan's two-race cross-country season wrapped up Saturday with the 29th Fukuoka International Cross-Country Meet , the last chance for Japanese athletes to make this year's World Cross-Country Championships team.  Two-time world junior 3000 mSC champion Jonathan Ndiku (Kenya/Team Hitachi Butsuryu) easily beat #1-ranked collegiate Kenta Murayama (Komazawa University) in the senior men's 10 km, surging on a corner mid-race to break free and win by a margin of 9 seconds in 29:22.  Murayama, in his last race wearing the Komazawa uniform, dueled with New Year Ekiden Fourth Stage course record setter Yuta Shitara (Team Honda) before kicking away for 2nd in 29:31, Shitara 4 seconds behind. Corporate runner Yuta Takahashi (DeNA RC) outkicked 2014 Ageo City Half Marathon winner Koki Takada (Waseda Univ) for 4th in 29:36, with 2013 Ageo winner Takashi Ichida (Daito Bunka Univ.) closing fast but coming up short of catching his high...

by Brett Larner video and photos by Ekiden News Second only to May's Prefontaine Classic, one of the world's few remaining ultra-deep 10000 m races went down Saturday in the misty mountains of Tokyo's western suburb of Hachioji at the Hachioji Long Distance Time Trials meet.  Japan-based Million Zewdie (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) ran a PB 27:36.35, the fastest time by an Ethiopian man in 2014, to lead 11 men sub-28 in one of the big tuneups for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden corporate men's national championships.  Right with him was Kenyan Bernard Kimani (Team Yakult) with a 27:36.60 PB for 2nd, while a few strides back Zewdie's teammate Kassa Mekashaw (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) added to the PB haul in 3rd in 27:38.93. The biggest news from the Japanese point of view came in 4th, where Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei), already the fastest Japanese collegiate ever with a 27:44.30 in the U.K. in 2011, ran 27:38.99 for 4th, all-time #5 in the Japanese record books a...

by Brett Larner Following up last week's Cork City Sports meet in Ireland that saw a sizeable group of mostly collegiate Japanese women in the 3000 m, Japanese men got started on their annual European track junket at meets in the Netherlands and Belgium.  2014 Waseda University graduate Suguru Osako (Team Nissin Shokuhin) was due to run the two mile at the Diamond League Glasgow meet, but with the cancellation of that distance he instead headed to the Netherlands' Runnersworld Track Meeting , where he ran 8:02.11 for 2nd in the 3000 m as a tuneup for next weekend's KBC Nacht meet in Belgium, where he and rival Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) will run 5000 m. Also tuning up for the KBC Nacht was a large group of young corporate league runners and 2014 Asian Games track team member Kota Murayama (Josai Univ.) in the 1500 m at Belgium's Guldensporenmeeting .  Led by former Japanese university 10000 m record holder Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Team Asahi Kasei), 2nd overal...

Thank you to Hilary Evans and reader Joe West for pointing out this story. 2013 Kazan Universiade (World University Games) women's 5000 m gold medalist Roxana Bârcă of Romania has received a ban for testing positive at the Universiade in connection with her win on July 11. http://www.antena3.ro/en/sport/romanian-athlete-roxana-barca-gold-medalist-in-kazan-tested-positive-for-doping-223161.html With Bârcă's medal retracted silver medalist Olga Golovkina of Universiade host Russia is apparently elevated to gold, with Japan's bronze medalist Ayuko Suzuki  (Nagoya Univ.) and 4th-placer Mai Shoji  (Chukyo Univ.) moving up to silver and bronze respectively. However, Golovkina herself has received a two-year ban for testing positive for steroids in an out-of-competition test five days after the Universiade women's 5000 m. http://en.ria.ru/sports/20131005/183957328.html As Golovkina's positive test was subsequent to her Universiade run it appears that she w...

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/world-university-games-kick-off-in-kazan Note: The 4th-place women's 10000 m finisher mentioned in the article should be Mai Shoji rather than Mai Sho Ji.

by Brett Larner videos by naoki620 and toyosina2008 Stanford University's Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational, home of both the Japanese men's and women's 10000 m national records, once again delivered big times.  In the men's 10000 m,  Suguru Osako  (Waseda Univ.) and Yuki Sato  (Team Nissin Shokuhin), both graduates of Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. and perpetual rivals over the last two years, each got under the Moscow World Championships A-standard but came up just short of the 27:35.09 NR, Osako taking 2nd in 27:38.31 and Sato 3rd in 27:39.50.  Osako's time was the fastest ever by a Japanese collegiate and good for all-time Japanese #4 a fraction of a second behind Sato's all-time #3 mark of 27:38.25.   Tsuyoshi Ugachi  (Team Nissin Shokuhin) also got under 28 but was a distant afterthought in 27:55.27, while last year's top two 10000 m runner Chihiro Miyawaki  (Team Toyota) and Daisuke Shimizu  (Team Kanebo) both struggled.  Af...

by Brett Larner The 2013 Nittai University Time Trials series, Japan's premier long-distance track series and a factory for mass-producing precision-made track results with Saturdays dedicated to distances from 800 to 10000 m and Sundays focused exclusively on 5000 m, kicked off this weekend.  Although far from the highest-quality performance of the weekend, the 16:00.54 win by 10000 m national record holder Yoko Shibui  (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) in the women's 5000 m A-heat was the most noteworthy, coming just a week before her planned shot at the Moscow World Championships marathon team at next weekend's London Marathon.  A solo run with a margin of over 20 seconds over 2nd place, her run spoke well of her fitness despite the unimpressive time. Japan-based Africans won the other three major races of the weekend, with high schooler Rosemary Wanjiru  (Kenya/Aomori Yamada H.S.) taking the women's 3000 m A-heat in a quality 9:01.36, Ethiopian pros Bikila Demma D...

by Brett Larner Two days after winning the National University Track & Field Championships 10000 m title, Kenyan first-year Enock Omwamba  (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) returned to outrun Nihon University's Kenyan pair Benjamin Gandu  and Daniel Kitonyi  and all Japanese comers for the 5000 m title.  Running off a slow first 2000 m in 5:40, Omwamba accelerated throughout the second half of the race to take the win in 13:53.53, Gandu 2nd in 13:55.81.   Shuho Dairokuno  (Meiji Univ.) was the top Japanese finisher, 4th overall in 14:02.01 a step ahead of Aoyama Gakuin University's star first-year recruit Kazuma Kubota  with Aoyama Gakuin captain Takehiro Deki  just behind in his first quality performance since his 2:10:02 marathon debut at March's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon.  Defending collegiate 5000 m champion Kenta Murayama  (Komazawa Univ.) was only 14th in 14:22.38 just ahead of his twin brother Kota Murayama  (Josai Univ.) Th...

by Brett Larner Along with marathons and other road races, this busy weekend included two significant ekidens and three large track time trial meets. At the Nov. 19 Biwako University Ekiden, Western Japan's answer to January's Hakone Ekiden, defending champion Kyoto Sangyo University  braved heavy rain and wind to take its second-straight Biwako title.  After a slow 8th-place start Kyoto Sangyo worked its way up through the field and covered the eight-stage, 83.6 km course in 4:16:17.   Daiichi Kogyo University  was 2nd in 4:18:09 thanks in large part to an impressive 31:57 record for the 11.0 km Third Stage by its Kenyan ace  Kiragu Njuguna , a full 43 seconds under the old record.  Njuguna put Daiichi Kogyo in the lead by more than a minute over early leader  Ritsumeikan University , and the team maintained the lead all the way until the 7th stage when Daiichi Kogyo was overtaken by Kyoto Sangyo's stage-winning Kazuki Noda .  Ritsumeikan anc...

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...

Nittai University Time Trials Top Results Nittai University, Yokohama, Apr. 17, 2011 click here for complete results Men's 5000 m Heat 24 1. Joseph Onsarigo (Kenya/Sozo Gakuen Univ.) - 13:36.88 2. Daniel Gitau (Kenya/Team Fujitsu) - 13:37.05 3. Kazuya Watanabe (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 13:39.31 4. Benjamin Gandu (Kenya/Nihon Univ.) - 13:41.99 5. Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota) - 13:46.73 6. Kota Murayama (Josai Univ.) - 13:57.90 7. Hirotaka Tamura (Nihon Univ.) - 13:58.40 8. Yuki Yagi (Waseda Univ.) - 14:00.17 9. Atsushi Yamazaki (Team Subaru) - 14:00.34 10. Ibrahim Mukunga (Team Fujitsu) - 14:00.63 ----- 11. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama T&F Assoc.) - 14:02.49 14. Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) - 14:04.67 16. Shota Hiraga (Waseda Univ.) - 14:06.49 23. Cosmas Ondiba (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) - 14:19.63 Women's 5000 m Heat 16 1. Miho Ihara (Team Shikoku Denryoku) - 15:57.27 2. Chisa Fujimoto (Team Daiichi Seimei) - 16:02.74 3. Mai Shoji (Okazaki Gakuen H.S.) - 16:07.92 4. Ikuyo...