japan running news

by Brett Larner With Japan's premier summer marathon bringing back its elite field this year, corporate league runners Koji Gokaya  (Team JR Higashi Nihon) and Yuko Watanabe  (Team Edion) scored their first marathon wins, taking the men's and women's Hokkaido Marathon titles in 2:14:26 and 2:29:13 on Aug. 25 in Sapporo. Following an early break by Shingo Igarashi  (Team Subaru) and by 2010 Nobeoka Marathon winner  Masaki Shimoju  (Team Konica Minolta), Gokaya, who finished 7th at the 2011 Chicago Marathon in 2:12:15, ran in a dense lead pack through 35 km before turning it on, grinding down Shigeki Tsuji  (Team Otsuka Seiyaku) to open a margin of 19 seconds before crossing the finish line.  Tsuji, the only runner to try to stay with Gokaya, was a comfortable 2nd in 2:14:45, 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack led by Shimoju, who held off past Gold Coast Marathon winner Dickson Marwa (Tanzania) in the last sprint for 3rd in 2:15:1...

by Brett Larner Fukushi at 26 miles. Photo (c) 2011 Dr. Helmut Winter Multiple national record holder Kayoko Fukushi  (Team Wacoal) ran a solid performance at her second marathon, running a promising 2:24:38 for 3rd at the 2011 Chicago Marathon.  Fukushi ran the first half of the race shadowing eventual winner Liliya Shobukhova  (Russia) at Japanese national record pace but faded after 25 km, slowing dramatically in the final kilometers.  Nevertheless she still finished with the fourth-best time of the year by a Japanese woman and the third-fastest time ever run by a Japanese woman within the United States..  In so doing she also became the 20th Japanese woman to break 2:25 and the 50th to break 2:27. In post-race comments to Jiji.com Fukushi said, "It was a 2:24, so it was good.  I wanted to take it as far as I could.  I couldn't have done any better.  I was able to move my legs a bit after 30 km.  If I can run more comfortably than ...

by Brett Larner Half-marathon national record holders Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) at the 2011 Chicago Marathon press conference.  Photo (c) 2011 Dr. Helmut Winter Since Toshihiko Seko 's 2:08:27 win in 1986 the Chicago Marathon has been kind to Japan's elite marathoners, with four of the five sub-2:10s by Japanese men in the U.S. and three of the five fastest Japanese women's performances in the U.S. run on the Chicago course.  This year sees a large contingent of one woman and seven men lining up to go for strong times ahead of the winter Olympic selection race cycle. The biggest news is the return to the marathon of multiple women's national record holder Kayoko Fukushi  (Team Wacoal), her first marathon since her spectacularly failed debut in 2008 . Fukushi has had a difficult year, going through both the Christchurch and Tohoku earthquakes and having foot surgery and minor injury troubles in the summer, but this...

by Brett Larner The Chicago Marathon has updated its elite field listing for this year's running due on Oct. 9.  Notable amond the adds are Japanese half marathon national record holders Kayoko Fukushi  (Team Wacoal) and Atsushi Sato  (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and former 30 km world record holder Takayuki Matsumiya  (Team Konica Minolta), along with five other Japanese men.  For Fukushi it will be her first attempt at a marathon since her bizzarely suicidal debut at the 2008 Osaka International Women's Marathon.  In the official press release announcing her participation Fukushi was quoted as saying, "At this year's Bank of America Chicago Marathon, I want to challenge the 2:20 mark, and also test my own abilities in the marathon and what the distance involves. Racing in Chicago is the start of my preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games Marathon in London." Sato will be attempting another comeback after a year and a half away from the distance.  Mats...

by Brett Larner After a long push starting at 25 km Moroccan Ahmed Baday ran a PB 2:10:14 to win the 60th anniversary Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon on Feb. 6. In a race targeted to be in the mid-2:08's Baday ran in a pack with longtime Japan resident Daniel Njenga (Kenya/Team Yakult) and a dozen Japanese competitors including pre-race domestic favorites Atsushi Fujita (Team Fujitsu), the 2007 Beppu-Oita winner and former national record holder, and Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko), who had a promising marathon debut with a 2nd-place finish at the 2009 Tokyo Marathon only to miss most of last year following ankle surgery. Early pacemaking irregularities by course record holder Gert Thys (South Africa) and two other pacers resulted in an opening 5 km split of 14:55 followed by 15:32 versus the targeted pace of 15:15 / km. The fast opening left the top two seeds, 2003 Beppu-Oita winner Samson Ramadhani (Tanzania) and Abiyote Guta (Ethiopia) playing catchup, and neither ever factor...

by Brett Larner Updated Jan. 19 with complete elite field. In a special advance release, organizers of the 60th anniversary Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon scheduled for Feb. 6 briefly made the names of some of this year's elite field publicly available on Jan. 14. At the top of the foreign elite field are 2003 Beppu-Oita winner Samson Ramadhani (Tanzania) and the man who made last year's Beppu-Oita of international note with an exciting come-from-behind 3rd-place finish and Australian debut record of 2:11:00, Jeff Hunt . Ramadhani, the 2006 Commonwealth Games and 2007 Biwako Mainichi Marathon champion, returns to Beppu-Oita after defeating Hunt in hot and humid conditions at October's Commonwealth Games where he was 5th in 2:19:31 to Hunt's 2:25:03 13th place finish. The rematch should be one of the highlights of this year's race. Also in the international field are last year's runner-up Daniel Njenga (Kenya/Team Yakult), Ethiopian Abiyote Guta , last year...

by Brett Larner Each year the Hokkaido Marathon in Japan's northernmost major city of Sapporo is the first elite race on the worldwide fall marathon season calendar. Although it rarely has overseas elites, Hokkaido showcases much of Japan's up-and-coming talent and some of the better Japan-based Africans. This year's race takes place this Sunday, Aug. 29. The race will be broadcast live on Fuji TV starting at noon, a broadcast which overseas viewers can watch for free by clicking here . Additionally, this year for the first time Hokkaido will sponsor a 5-hour official webcast via Ustream. Check the Hokkaido Marathon website closer to race date for more information. The men's race features the return of defending champion Daniel Njenga (Kenya/Team Yakult). The veteran Njenga may have slipped from the ranks of the world's top-tier marathoners but his world record-pace surge in the middle of last year's race showed that he still has the ability to compete and win...

by Brett Larner 2008 Kumanichi 30 km winner Masaki Shimoju (Team Konica Minolta) continues to edge upward in distance, taking a win at the 48th Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon on Feb. 14. Traditionally a development race for younger runners, this year Nobeoka stayed in character as first-timers took 7 of the top 10 places with relatively inexperienced men clocking PBs for the top 3 spots. Shimoju ran the first 30 km tight in the first pack. When pacemaker Tomoyuki Sato (Team Asahi Kasei) dropped out at 30 km after maintaining a steady pace of 3:07/km there were still six men in the lead pack. Shimoju immediately went into the lead, but it wasn't that he picked up the pace so much as that everyone else fell away. First-timer Norihiro Nomiya (Team Toyota) initially went with him but by 40 km was a minute behind. Shimoju finished hard to win easily in a new PB of 2:12:18 with a 1:34 margin of victory. Nomiya fell to 4th, the top debutant in 2:14:36. Nomiya was overtaken by Fumiyuki Wat...

http://www.iaaf.org/LRR09/news/newsid=54705.html Japanese men in Beijing: 8. Masashi Hayashi - 2:12:39 11. Tomonori Onitsuka - 2:13:00 12. Masaki Shimoju - 2:13:08 14. Koichi Sakai - 2:14:29 Click here for complete results.

by Brett Larner There were no surprise upsets in the 11th edition of the Nagano Marathon on Apr. 19. Running on a new course, the fastest man in the field, Isaac Macharia (Kenya) bided his time before dropping the other leaders in the final 7 km to take his second Nagano win in 2:11:21, while the woman with the best recent time, Irina Timofeyeva (Russia), finished strong to overtake ailing Kenyan Irene Limika in the final stretch, clocking 2:30:08 for the win. Expected men's contender Masaru Takamizawa (Saku Chosei H.S.) went flat in the second half of the race, leaving the top Japanese man title to debutant Masaki Shimoju (Team Konica Minolta), 7th overall in 2:15:57. Akemi Ozaki (Second Wind AC), the older sister of 2009 World Championships team member Yoshimi Ozaki (Team Daiichi Seimei), was the top Japanese woman, 3rd overall in 2:31:18. Frontrunning the race as he did on his way to victory at last year's Hokkaido Marathon, high school coach Masaru Takamizawa took the race...

by Brett Larner On May 8, the Sendai International Half Marathon released the names of the invited runners for this year`s 18th edition, to be held May 11 in Sendai. Headlining the field are Japanese national marathon record holders Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex) and Toshinari Takaoka (Team Kanebo). Noguchi will be using Sendai as a tune-up for the Beijing Olympics after a spring season which saw her drop out of her other preparatory races after a series of minor setbacks. She is the defending champion, having won last year`s Sendai in a strong 1:08:54, and is also the overwhelming favorite in a somewhat limited women`s field which includes only one other Japanese runner with a PB under 1:10. Her strongest competition will likely come from Yuko Machida (Team Nihon ChemiCon), a member of Japan`s team at last year`s World Road Running Championships, and Kei Terada (Team Tenmaya), 2nd place finisher at last year`s Universiad Half Marathon Championships. Machida`s teammate Hiroko Shoi a...

http://kumanichi.com/fsports/30km/index.cfm http://kumanichi.com/fsports/30km/30km52/20080225.1.cfm http://kumanichi.com/fsports/30km/30km52/20080225.2.cfm http://kumanichi.com/fsports/30km/30km52/20080225.3.cfm translated and edited by Brett Larner On Feb. 24 individual entrant Masaki Shimojo (Team Konica Minolta) won the 52nd Kumanichi 30 km Road Race in Kumamoto in 1:30:33. He became only the 3rd individual entrant to ever win the event, the last being Tomoya Shimizu (Team Sagawa Express) 2 years ago. Only 2 women were entered in the race, but winner Miho Notagashira (Team Wacoal) set a new course record by 13 seconds, running 1:44:00. Although windy conditions prevented a predicted 1:29 finish time, the men's race yielded the first dead heat finish in years. It started with a slow pace. At the 10 km point, Kodai Tanabe (Team Mazda) broke from the lead pack and opened a gap, but at the halfway point it looked likely that the finish time would be in the 1:33 range. The chase...