japan running news

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/ibaraki/news/20150125-OYTNT50223.html translated by Brett Larner The 63rd running of the Katsuta National Marathon took place Jan. 25 in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki.  A total of 20,280 runners took part in the combined men's and women's marathon and 10 km divisions.  In the men's marathon, Yosuke Chida (Team Hitachi Butsuryu) claimed his first win in 2:18:15, while 2013 women's winner Manami Kamitanida (Team Hitachi) returned to the top in 2:38:29. Conditions at the 10:30 start were excellent, with blue skies, 12.0 degree temperatures, 33.2% humidity and a gentle 1.7 m/s northerly wind.  Starting on Omotemachi Mall, the marathon course passed in front of Katsuta Station before heading north on Route 245 to Tokaimura where it returned to Ishikawa Exercise Plaza. In the men's race, Tatsuya Itagaki (Team JP Post) took the lead at 15 km, but near 32.7 km a chase group of three caught him.  Chida surged on the hills around 34 km, and w...

by Brett Larner Taking on increased importance as the Japanese Federation focuses on hot weather racing in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics men's and women's marathons, the Hokkaido Marathon featured one of its deepest men's fields in memory.  The women's field was smaller but featured at least three good up-and-coming talents.  Getting the better of them all in the mid-20s temperatures was former pro-XC skier and mountain running champion Azusa Nojiri (Hiratsuka Lease), a 2:24:57 marathoner while at the Sachiko Yamashita -coached Daiichi Seimei corporate team but mostly unsuccessful since leaving to follow an Arata Fujiwara -inspired route of independent sponsorship.  In Hokkaido Nojiri easily dropped the rest of the field to win in 2:30:26, a quality mark in a typically hot race that rarely sees sub-2:30 winning times.  Debuting runner-up Shoko Mori (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) was nearly five minutes back in 2:35:10, just beating pre-race favorite Yuka Yano (C...

by Brett Larner The fall elite marathon season gets underway this Sunday with Sapporo's Hokkaido Marathon .  Two years organizers did away with their elite fields, leaving top amateurs Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Yuri Yoshizumi (Osaka Nagai AC) to win in two of the slowest winning times in event history.  Last year the elite fields returned with a small international contingent that proved mostly superfluous as Japanese runners swept the podium in both the men's and women's race.  Organizers have trimmed the fat this year to focus on a good domestic field that on paper any other country outside Africa would have a tough time matching. Leading the men's field is the 4th-fastest Japanese man of the year, Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), who ran 2:09:10 in Tokyo in February.  Named to the federation's new marathon National Team program on the strength of that performance, with Hokkaido's always-hot conditions Sakai will be the first guinea pi...

by Brett Larner For years the worldwide fall elite marathon season has gotten underway with Sapporo's Hokkaido Marathon on the last Sunday of August.  Two years organizers did away with their elite fields, leaving top amateurs Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Yuri Yoshizumi (Osaka Nagai AC) to win in two of the slowest winning times in event history.  Last year the elite fields returned with a small international contingent that proved mostly superfluous.  With the release of this year's elite fields today it's clear that organizers have trimmed the fat to focus on a good domestic field that on paper any other country outside Africa would have a tough time matching. Leading the men's field is the 4th-fastest Japanese man of the year, Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), who ran 2:09:10 in Tokyo in February.  Named to the federation's new marathon National Team program on the strength of that performance, with Hokkaido's always-hot conditions Sakai...

by Brett Larner You couldn't ask for much better conditions than the Tokyo Marathon had today, and when you have fields with eight to eleven athletes with best times faster than your course records, those records are bound to fall.   Dickson Chumba  (Kenya) and Tirfi Tsegaye (Ethiopia) came through to beat the favorites, Chumba running a PB 2:05:42 to get the Tokyo men's course record and Tsegaye cutting more than three minutes off the women's record with the win in 2:22:23.  For Japanese men it was either the second or third-greatest marathon in history depending on your metric, five of them clearing 2:10, four for the first time, led by Kohei Matsumura  (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) in 2:08:09. Daegu World Championships marathoner Mai Ito  (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) led the women's race through a relatively conservative first 10 km in 34:18 before the pace began to quicken.  Still in the lead at 20 km, she split 33:47 for the second 10 km before g...

by Brett Larner All three pro Japanese runners at the 117th Boston Marathon ran well, both Yuka Yano (Canon AC Kyushu) and Manami Kanitanida  (Team Hitachi) recording PBs after leading through the lazy early pace in the women's race and Tomohiro Tanigawa  (Team Konica Minolta) finishing 13th in his debut.  More importantly, all three and their supporters were confirmed safe following the finish line bombings . I had already finished long before the explosions but had just left the Copley Square area a few minutes beforehand and was on the 34th floor of a nearby hotel and could hear them even from there.  My condolences to the victims and their families. 117th Boston Marathon Boston, 4/15/13 click here for complete results Men 1. Lelisa Desisa (Ethiopia) - 2:10:22 2. Micah Kogo (Kenya) - 2:10:27 3. Gebregziabher Gebremariam (Ethiopia) - 2:10:28 ----- 13. Tomohiro Tanigawa (Team Konica Minolta) - 2:16:57 - debut Women 1. Rita Jeptoo (Kenya) - 2:26:25 ...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/event/sports/news/20130409-OHT1T00201.htm translated by Brett Larner The organizers of the Ome 30 km Road Race announced on Apr. 9 that they are sending Tomohiro Tanigawa  (24, Team Konica Minolta) and Yuka Yano  (26, Canon AC Kyushu) to run its sister race, the 117th Boston Marathon in Massachusetts on April 15.  Tanigawa finished 2nd in the Ome men's 30 km division in February, with Yano taking 2nd in the women's race.  For both men and women Boston is included as a selection race for August's Moscow World Championships marathon team. Translator's note: Manami Kamitanida  (Team Hitachi) is also scheduled to run Boston through a similar arrangement after winning January's Katsuta Marathon.