japan running news

Arguably the highest-volume elite-level marathoner in the world, Hiroko Yoshitomi (Memolead) survived four straight weekends of marathons to win her hometown Saga Sakura Marathon yesterday. Starting the month off at the Mar. 3 Tokyo Marathon Yoshitomi ran 2:32:30 for 13th. A week later at the Mar. 10 Nagoya Women's Marathon it was 2:34:49 for 31st. Last weekend she headed overseas in a bid to win the Mar. 17 New Taipei City Wan Jin Shi Marathon in Taiwan, but in a rare off day she finished 6th in only 2:48:45. Heading back home she rallied to win the Mar. 24 Saga Sakura Marathon in 2:42:02. At an expo talk show appearance the Wan Jin Shi organizers billed Yoshitomi as "the female Kawauchi," but not even he has come close to the kind of volume of racing Yoshitomi has been turning out over the years while working at her parents' botanical farm. Expect to see more, and more, and more from her in the months to come. photos courtesy of Wan Jin Shi Marath...

There’s a woman in her 30s who has been breaking marathon course records left and right. A native of Saga, her name is Hiroko Yoshitomi (34, Memolead). In the last year she has broken course records at three domestic marathons including a 2:33:57 at March’s Saga Sakura Marathon. “In terms of my age, I’ve still got years left to be breaking records,” Yoshitomi says. “If you approach your running in terms of that kind of thinking then it’s totally natural that the times are going to come.” At one point she had thought about retiring this season, but for now she’s determined to push on. Tokyo-based running Industry conglomerate Rbies recently launched the Marathon Challenge Cup (MCC) series, a grouping of 33 domestic marathons across the country. In the 2017 season 19 of those member races saw a total of 23 new course records. The only person to set multiple new course records was Yoshitomi. Along with these records, at December’s Honolulu Marathon, February’s Tokyo Marathon and Apri...

http://bit.ly/1mP9Kti translated by Brett Larner On June 30 the Memolead Group wedding and funeral ceremony management and production company based in Seihi Nagayomachi held a press conference to announce its sponsorship of a new women's athletics team.  It is the first new women's corporate team to be based in Nagasaki since the launch of the Juhachi Ginko team two years ago. Appearing at the press conference in Nagasaki were corporate representatives and new head coach Yuki Mori .  Mori joined Memolead the year before last and, remaining active as a runner, captained the Nagasaki prefecture team at last year's final Grand Tour Kyushu ekiden.  Based on his performance and leadership there, corporate management took an interest and agreed to fund a new women's team.  The team will focus on women interested in the marathon and other long distances. With a planned team start date at the beginning of the new fiscal year next April, Mori intends to retire from h...