japan running news

by Brett Larner Kenyans Jairus Chanchima and Henry Chirchir top the men's entry list for the Apr. 19 Nagano Marathon , with Beatrice Jepkemboi joining them in hope of becoming just the second Kenyan women's champion in Nagano's 17-year history.  Kiflom Sium (Eritera) and Bayron Piedra (Ecuador) round out the small international men's field, 2:11 man Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and debuting 1:01:25 half marathoner Takuya Fukatsu (Team Asahi Kasei) looking like the domestic Japanese favorites. The women's race features good old-time names like Catherine Ndereba (Kenya), Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC), Eri Okubo (Miki House) and Chihiro Tanaka (Athlec AC), but with Russian women having taken 7 of the last 10 Nagano titles it's safe to say that Nadezhda Leonteva is likely to be Jepkemboi's toughest competition in the women's race despite a difference of over 4 minutes in their bests.  Shoko Mori (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), a training partn...

Haile Gebrselassie leads Tsegaye Kebede and Ayele Abshero in front of Manchester United's home ground Old Trafford. http://www.iaaf.org/Mini/LRR12/News/NewsDetail.aspx?id=65030 Translator's note: Ishikawa's Honda teammate Takahiro Yamanaka  finished 16th at the Great Manchester Run in 29:54.  2008 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Mara Yamauchi  (GBR) was 6th in the women's race in 32:28.  Elsewhere overseas, national champion Team Nissin Shokuhin's Manabu Itayama  was 7th at the Jakarta International 10 km road race in 31:33 while sub-2:10 man Tomoya Shimizu  (Team Sagawa Express) ran 2:16:57 to take 2nd at the Riga Marathon, his teammate Masanori Ishida  6th in 2:23:00. Men's marathon world record holder Patrick Makau watches the start of the City Games Manchester men's 150 m. photos (c) 2012 Brett Larner all rights reserved

by Brett Larner Despite heavy snow throughout much of western Japan and a nearby volcanic eruption which has continued through recent weeks, times were quick at the 49th Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon with four of the top ten recording PBs and the remaining six marking their debuts. Winner Kenji Takeuchi (Team Toyota Kyushu), a former teammate of Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru (Kenya) and coached by Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita , clocked a ten-minute PB to win in 2:12:44, putting him inside the five fastest winning times in Nobeoka. Runner-up Takumi Owada (Team Hitachi Cable) broke his own PB by nine minutes to finish 40 seconds back from Takeuchi in 2:13:24. Takuro Yamashita (Team Fujitsu), instrumental in Asia University's 2006 Hakone Ekiden win, took four minutes off his PB to round out the top three in 2:13:33. Little changed for the first part of the race as pacer Yoshikazu Kawazoe (Team Asahi Kasei) took a large pac...