japan running news

by Brett Larner



19-year-old Nittai University second-year Hideto Yamanaka lived up to his superb 2014 Hakone Ekiden First Stage win today in Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park, taking nearly five minutes off his half marathon best to win the National University Half Marathon Championships in a course record 1:02:09.  Despite cold temperatures and on-and-off rain, Yamanaka led aggressively from the start before getting away in the final kilometers to win by more than twenty seconds over Waseda University's Daiki Taguchi and Koki Ido and Komazawa University's Yoshihiro Nishizawa and Shota Baba.

The momentum of Yamanaka and the others in the front pack pulled the entire field along, all of the top ten going sub-63, nine of them in PB times.  For the first time in history more than 200 men cleared 66 minutes in a single half marathon, a new world record which confirmed the upward trend in Japanese university men's performances that has only increased since Tokyo won the 2020 Olympi…

by Brett Larner

Fall track season continued over the National Sports Day long weekend with three large meets.  The National Sports Festival in Yamaguchi produced a women's 5000 m Olympic B-standard PB from this year's national corporate 10000 m champion Kasumi Nishihara (Team Yamada Denki), who ran 15:23.80 to win by six seconds.  The junior women's 3000 m saw the top four high schoolers break 9:10, with Tomoka Kimura (Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.) winning in 9:05.81 over rival Miki Sakakibara (Hamakita Nishi H.S.) after losing to Sakakibara in the heats.

The Niigata Time Trials meet also produced two Olympic B-standard performances.  2010 national 5000 m champion Yuki Matsuoka (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) ran a PB 28:03.46 to win the 10000 m and clear the London B-standard.  Five-time national 1500 m champion Mika Yoshikawa (Team Panasonic) continued her successful transition to longer distances this year by breaking 32 in a virtually solo 10000 m, qualifying for the Olympics with…

http://www.47news.jp/CN/201105/CN2011051501000316.htmlhttp://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&rel=j7&k=2011051500107 http://www.mbs.jp/news/jnn_4725601_zen.shtml
translated and edited by Brett Larner complete results coming soon
At the May 15 Naoko Takahashi Cup Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 2007 World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Martin Mathathi (Kenya/Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) won in 1:00:47. 2011 World Championships marathon team leader and amateur runner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref.) ran 1:04:44 for 13th. Kawauchi ran among the leaders through 10 km but fell off pace after colliding with another athlete. "I had trouble moving my legs properly after that," he said. "Looking at my performance I'd have to say that I'm disappointed with a result like this, but it was good to get the feeling of racing again. I'd like to polish things up for the Sapporo International Half in July." Kawauchi then headed out to run hill repeats in the surrounding mount…

by Brett Larner
The Japanese track season continued the May 7-8 weekend with the first of three straight weekends of regional corporate championships. The Chugoku Regional Championships held its 5000 m the night of May 7, with Yuko Watanabe (Team Endion) and Hironori Arai (Team Chugoku Denryoku) having surprise wins in 16:08.48 and 13:58.65 over top-ranked woman Rei Ohara (Team Tenmaya) and Kenyan Joseph Gitau (Team JFE Steel). The rest of the meet including the 10000 m will be held this coming weekend of the 14th-15th.
The Chubu region held its entire championships on the 7th and 8th, meaning many runners doubled at 5000 m and 10000 m in less than 24 hours. Kenyan John Thuo (Team Toyota), who ran a then-world-leading 10000 m last month at the Hyogo Relay Carnival meet, had the best run of the weekend, taking the men's 10000 m in 27:52.86. His teammate Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota) was the top Japanese finisher, 5th in 29:10.06 with a 57-second last lap. Kenyan Samuel Ndungu (…

by Brett Larner
Apart from the Fukuoka International Cross Country Meet and Sunday's epochal Tokyo Marathon, three other significant races took place in Japan on Feb. 27.
Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) took the Kumanichi 30 km road race, winning in 1:32:14 by 18 seconds over Komazawa University's Akinori Iida. No women competed in this year's running.
At the 60th running of the venerable Kashima Yutoku Road Race, Hiroaki Koike (Toyo Univ.) won the men's half marathon in a modest 1:05:04, the only runner to break 66.
Korean university runner Seung Ho Baek beat Toyo University's Koshi Watanabe by 1 second to win the Inuyama Half Marathon in 1:03:47, while Mao Kuroda lead a near-sweep by Team Yutaka Giken runners in the women's division in a strong 1:12:21. Six women went under 35 minutes and six men under 30 in Inuyama's 10 km.
Kumanichi 30 km Kumamoto, 2/27/11 1. Tomoyuki Morita (Team Kanebo) - 1:32:14 2. Akinori Iida (Komazawa Univ.) - 1:32:32 3. Shota Yamaguch…