japan running news

Ayuko SuzukiAge: 27
sponsor: Japan Post
graduated from: Jishukan H.S., Nagoya University

best time inside MGC window:
2:28:32, 1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon

PB: 2:28:32, 1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon

other PBs:
5000 m: 15:08.29 (2015) 10000 m: 31:18.16 (2016) half marathon: 1:07:55 (2019)

marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019):
1st, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:28:32

other major results:
2nd, 2019 National Championships 10000 m, 31:46.25
2nd, 2019 Kagawa Marugame Int’l Half Marathon, 1:07:55
2nd, 2019 National Women’s Ekiden 9th Stage (10.0 km), 31:08
2nd, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden 3rd Stage (10.9 km), 34:46
2nd, 2018 National Championships 10000 m, 31:57.82
10th, 2017 London World Championships 10000 m, 31:27.30
2nd, 2017 National Championships 10000 m, 31:41.65
2nd, 2017 National Championships 5000 m, 15:20.50
12th, 2016 Rio Olympics 5000 m H2, 15:41.81
2nd, 2016 National Championships 5000 m, 15:24.47
1st, 2016 National Championships 10000 m, 31:18.73
9th, 2015 Be…

https://www.athleticsintegrity.org/disciplinary-process/provisional-suspensions-in-force

The AIU announced today that Kenyan-born Bahraini Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa has been provisionally suspended for a positive test for EPO. Prior to disappearing at the end of 2017 after winning the Macao International Marathon Kirwa was a familiar face in Japan, winning all seven of her races there between 2015 and 2017, taking 2nd in another in 2013, and medaling at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, 2015 Beijing World Championships and 2016 Rio Olympics.
It was notable that despite her string of international medals Kirwa never ran the big European and American races after hitting that level, her only appearance in the World Marathon Majors a DNF at the 2014 Boston Marathon and her only times running the biggest European marathons coming in 2012 and 2013 in Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt, all in the 2:21-2:23 range and making the top three twice.
Details of Kirwa's case are still forthcoming, but belo…

The organizers of the Ome 30 km Road Race announced on Feb. 10 that both of its feature invited elite athletes Yuma Hattori (Toyota) and Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) have scratched from the Feb. 17 race.

Hattori won December's Fukuoka International Marathon in a strong 2:07:27 to position himself as a leading candidate for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and its trials event, September's MGC Race. He is reportedly not feeling well currently. In the organizers' statement he commented, "I'm simply not in the best condition to run Ome, and thinking about the future I've decided not to do it. I'm very sorry to disappoint everyone who was looking forward to Ome. I will do everything I can to be on the starting line of the MGC Race in perfect condition and ask for your continued support."

Suzuki ran an all-time Japanese #3 time of 1:07:55 at the Feb. 3 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon, demonstrating the potential to make the podium at the Tokyo Olympics. A…

It was one of those magical Marugame days when everything, almost everything, went right, when despite an uphill second half everyone, almost everyone, ran a PB they'll probably never touch again. Defending Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon winner Betsy Saina (Kenya) taking over a minute off her best to beat the debuting Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) to the line 1:07:49 to 1:07:55, Suzuki's time landing her at all-time #3 on the Japanese charts. 41-year-old 3rd-placer Sinead Diver (Australia) running a masters' world record 1:08:55. And more down the line.

And on the men's side, Abdi Nageeye (Netherlands) knocking almost two minutes off his best to outrun former Ageo City Half Marathon course record holder Simon Kariuki (Nihon Yakka Univ.) over the last 5 km for a national record 1:00:24 to Kariuki's 1:00:43 PB. 3rd-placer Jack Rayner (Australia) narrowly holding off a fast-closing pack of five Japanese collegiate and corporate men in 1:01:36 with all five b…

With championship ekiden season a wrap this weekend gets Japan's winter road racing season up to full steam. The main race of the weekend is Sunday's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. Everything is about qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics more-or-less one-shot trials right now, and that's obvious with a look at what's probably the strongest-ever Beppu-Oita entry list. Ten men in the field have broken 2:10 in the last three years, five of them Japanese, with last year's top two Desmond Mokgobu (South Africa) and Hayato Sonoda (Kurosaki Harima) leading the way.

Sonoda, Daisuke Uekado (Otsuka Seiyaku) and 2018 Hokkaido Marathon winner Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) have already qualified for September's MGC Race trials event, but anyone else in the 2:10 to 2:11 range will have a shot. With a 2:09:36 in Tokyo last year Kohei Ogino (Fujitsu) only needs to run 2:12:24 to qualify, making him the probable favorite to qualify, but the field also features the debut…

Last year's winners Betsy Saina and Edward Waweru, both of Kenya, return to the Feb. 3 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon, but in both cases they have tough competition. Ranked #1 in the women's race is Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) with a 1:09:14, 3 seconds better than Saina's winning time last year. 3 seconds slower is Sinead Diver (Australia) with a 1:09:20 on home ground last year. Sara Hall (U.S.A.) isn't far behind, and with track star Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post) making her debut off a brilliant run at last weekend's National Women's Ekiden it should be a solid pack up front.

In the men's race, 2017 marathon world champion Geoffrey Kirui (Kenya) leads the way, his best recent time a 1:00:04 in New Delhi two years ago. Only 2 seconds behind is Shadrack Kiplagat (Kenya), with Evans Cheruiyot (Kenya) and the Japan-based Waweru just over 20 seconds back. Waweru's condition is a question mark after an injury at the New Year Ekiden. Kenta Murayama (Asah…

Kenyans Betsy Saina and Edward Waweru (NTN) took the top spots at the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon's 72nd edition, winning in 1:09:17 and 1:00:31.

Saina was part of a lead group of six led by Japanese national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) that went through the downhill first 5 km in 16:15, a decent 1:08:34 pace aided by a tailwind. Saina accelerated to 16:00 for the next 5 km, and by the halfway turnaround it was down to just her and Ethiopian Ftaw Zeray with the others forming a chase group led by Sara Hall (U.S.A.).

Saina dropped Zeray on the uphill return trip and sailed on alone into the headwind to take the win in 1:09:17. Overcoming a 22-second deficit at halfway, Kaori Morita (Panasonic) blazed the second half to move up to 2nd with just over 1 km to go, holding on to finish in the runner-up position in 1:10:10.  Zeray was 3rd, fading to 1:10:31. Fukushi dropped far off to 7th in 1:13:17, with two-time marathon world champion Edna Kiplagat dropping …

It's another busy weekend on the roads across Japan. Two-time marathon world champion Edna Kiplagat (Kenya) and men's half marathon world record holder Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea) top the bill at Sunday's Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon. Kiplagat is the fastest woman in the field, her main competition coming from Sara Hall (U.S.A.) and the Japanese trio of Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal), Michi Numata (Toyota Jidoshokki) and Mai Ito (Otsuka Seiyaku). In something of a slump since the Rio Olympics, Japanese national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) is also on the entry list.

The somewhat grizzled Tadese is the only man in the field with a recent time under 60 minutes, but just back is a thick group of nine sub-61 men led by Japan-based Kenyan Bernard Kimani (Yakult) and Japanese national record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda). Along with Shitara, all five of the other still active Japanese men to have broken 61 are entered, making it the greatest Japanese half marathon fi…

The Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon is always one of Japan's deepest races of the year on the men's side, its 2012 running setting a world record for the most men under 64 minutes in a single half marathon in history. On the women's side the field is always smaller but still home to the 1:07:26 Japanese national record set by Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) back in 2006.

Edna Kiplagat (Kenya), Sara Hall (U.S.A.) and Betsy Saina (Kenya) lead the women's international field, two-time defending champ Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) giving Marugame a miss this year. Fresh off a 1:09:14 PB at last month's Sanyo Ladies Half, Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) leads a trio of Japanese women with recent sub-1:10 times, something that has become a puzzling rarity lately. Fukushi is also back, her recent best of 1:12:04 a long way from her best days.

Speaking of which, world record holder Zersenay Tadese (Eritrea) will be looking to break 60 minutes for the first time since 2015. His toughest…

Ten years ago today Japan Running News started with a story about the withdrawal of Wataru Okutani from the Japanese men's marathon team just before the start of the Osaka World Championships. The concept was to provide a high-quality and reliable source for information in English about as much of the fascinating and exciting but otherwise invisible world of Japanese distance running as possible, and in the ten years of almost daily updates since then that ideal hasn't changed.

The timing couldn't have been better, capturing the arcs of Samuel Wanjiru, Arata Fujiwara and Yuki Kawauchi, the rise of the Hakone Ekiden-driven university men's running circuit and of Japanese men's sprinting, and the buildup toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Along the way JRN has grown in ways we couldn't have expected, bringing writing jobs for publications worldwide and TV commentating work, the chance to work directly with some of Japan's best athletes and to travel around the …

a RunCzech press release

Abraham Kipyatich, one of the strongest performers on the RunCzech Racing team, is to spend the remainder of the year in Japan, competing for the Asahi Kasei Athletics Team. After a number of fine and stable performances last year, and a victory in the Birell Prague Grand Prix 2016, as a culmination of the fine season Abraham had.

The Asahi Kasei Athletics Team was founded in 1946 and is based in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture. The team is known for its great history, especially for producing Olympians (marathon), national record holders and other legends of our sport. In 2017, Asahi Kasei became first team in an 18-year period to win the New Year Ekiden National Corporate Men's Road Relay Championships with an all-Japanese lineup.

Kipyatich is the first non-Japanese runner in the team and only one out of two non-Japanese runners team has in its line-up for 2017 season. Kipyatich already had successful experience in Japan this year - he managed solid fourth p…

by Brett Larner

神野くん粘り強い。すごいわ。#丸亀ハーフpic.twitter.com/XZu299LBWY — roomie (@3runn9) February 5, 2017
Having lost his 1:00:24 Scottish national record after the Great Scottish Run was announced earlier this week to have been almost 150 m short, Callum Hawkins was out to prove he had done it for real when he lined up at today's Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon.  Against a field including sub-60 man Kenneth Kipkemoi of Kenya and a group of Japanese athletes aiming for the 1:00:25 Japanese national record led by 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) and 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei), Hawkins went to the front from the gun and never relented.

After a relatively slow 14:20 opening 5 km, the next 5 km went by in 14:07 and shook the lead group down to ten including Hawkins, Kipkemoi, Kenyan Joel Mwaura of 2016 National High School Ekiden champion Kurashiki H.S., Osako and three other Japanese men.  The 28:27 split at 10…

by Brett Larner

Japan's short post-ekiden road season gets up to full speed this weekend.  The second of four selection races for the three spots on the London World Championships men's marathon team happens at the Sunday's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon.  Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) is the leading contender for the team after a 2:09:11 for 3rd at December's Fukuoka International Marathon, a time that puts a bullseye on his back for the best men in Beppu-Oita and the other races to come.

It's rare to see someone make a national team from Beppu-Oita, but a win there in a time better than Kawauchi's would probably put someone ahead of him in priority for the team.  With a 2:09:39 debut last year at Lake Biwa the talented but injury-prone Fumihiro Maruyama (Team Asahi Kasei) is the favorite to do just that, but Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki), Ryo Kiname (Team MHPS), Kento Otsu (Team Toyota Kyushu) and debuting Toyota teammates Minato Oishi and T…