japan running news

The Tokyo Metro Corporation is pleased to announce plans to found a new women's ekiden team beginning in April, 2020. Under the leadership of Michiko Shimizu the team will seek to become champions of the National Corporate Women's Ekiden. As a long-distance relay the ekiden is in close conceptual affinity with the railway industry, which functions to connect separate stations. In addition, the fact that a team's success rests on the regular, daily work of each member and their individual contributions toward making a better whole is fully aligned with our corporate mission of each of our employees making valuable contributions through their daily work to the safety and comfort of our customers. Tokyo Metro seeks to make a positive contribution to the community and to society at large through its women's ekiden team. The team will be based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is our hope that having a team based and training along our routes will help to unite and revitaliz...

by Brett Larner 20-year-old Miyuki Uehara (Team Daiichi Seimei) became only the second Japanese woman ever to qualify for an Olympic 5000 m final, boldly fruntrunning her heat to make it through on the fifth day of athletics competition at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.  Just 6th at June's National Championships, her 15:21.40 PB was enough to put her on the Olympic team over three athletes ahead of her without the Olympic standard.  Pre-race her coach Sachiko Yamashita , the 1991 Tokyo World Championships marathon silver medalist and 1992 Barcelona Olympics marathon 4th-placer, told her simply , "Be aggressive."  Uehara took that to heart. Rocketing out at sub-15 pace close to the Japanese national record while the rest of the field completely ignored her, she quickly had a lead of at least 50 m. It's been relatively common in recent years to see Japanese runners frontrun on the track at world-level championships but rarely so dramatically.  Leading past 3000 m w...

by Brett Larner Outside of the marathon, Japanese distance runners have rarely made an impact at the Olympics.  Post-war, in the 10000 m only three men and two women have ever made the top eight, and the men's 5000 m, the women's 5000 m and the men's 3000 m steeplechase have seen just one Japanese athlete each make the finals.  Of those, only Michiko Shimizu made a mark with a 4th-place in the women's 5000 m at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Below are the top ten post-war Japanese men's and women's performances at the Olympics for the 3000 mSC, 5000 m, 10000 m and marathon, ranked both by placing and by time.  Click any list to enlarge.  With a talented distance squad including men's 10000 m national record holder Kota Murayama (Team Asahi Kasei), men's 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project), women's 3000 mSC junior and collegiate national record holder Anju Takamizawa (Matsuyama University) and more the lists should ne...