japan running news

Alongside the weekend's 2 big 30 km races and college ekiden action, 4 of Japan's big mass-participation races with quality sub-elite fields happened across the country. The Kitakyushu Marathon just north of Fukuoka saw the fastest men's race up front, with Toyo University 's Mashu Nishimura scoring the win in his debut in 2:16:14, outrunning Rio Olympian Hisanori Kitajima by 2 minutes. The Daihatsu corporate team's Yuki Shibata had a decent debut to win the women's race in 2:40:36. The only one of the 4 marathons to be on the World Athletics calendar and visible to the rest of the world, the Kumamoto Castle men's race was almost as fast as in Kitakyushu, with amateur Hiroaki Furukawa taking a 5th win in 2:16:56 and 3 others under 2:20 like in Kitakyushu. Another amateur, women's winner Michiru Kato took her 5th win too, running a CR and PB 2:42:00. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. , the Kyoto Marathon had the fastest Japan...

This season's Izumo Ekiden winner Koku Gakuin University and National University Ekiden champ Komazawa University brought solid squads to Sunday's Ageo City Half Marathon , pushing the always super-deep race into uncharted territory with almost 50 people under 63 minutes, over 100 under 64, and up front, a new race record courtesy of the favorite for the win. Making his half marathon debut, Komazawa 2nd-year Shunsuke Kuwata did all the work almost the entire way, leading the front pack almost from the gun steadily on low-61 pace, 14:35 through 5 km, 28:55 at 10 km, and 43:27 at 15 km. Just past 15 km the fastest guy in the race, KGU's Rui Aoki with a 1:00:47 PB that exactly matched the Ageo record, took over, and only Kuwata could follow. The lead changed multiple times over the last few km as the projected finish time got closer and closer to the record, and after a 57:44 split at 20 km, inside the last km Aoki kicked. Track resurfacing meant a slightly different cou...

4th at the 100th Hakone Ekiden in January, Toyo University announced this week that 1:00:43 half marathoner Kazuki Matsuyama will do a fifth year at Toyo during the 2024-2025 academic year beginning next week. Head coach Toshiyuki Sakai , 47, commented, "He feels that he has unfinished business at Toyo, both academically and athletically." Matsuyama has been one of the driving forces at Toyo since enrolling in the spring of 2020. He ran Hakone's competitive Second Stage as a first year, placing 4th, and backed that up a year later with a 5th-place run as the second-fastest Japanese athlete. As a 4th-year this year he left the Second Stage to 3rd-year Ren Umezaki , instead running the Fourth Stage where he was 2nd. That played a major role in Toyo taking 4th on Day One and in the overall results. Collegiate athletes are allowed to be registered as part of a team's 16-member entry roster a maximum of four times. During Matsuyama's 3rd year he didn't make Toy...