japan running news

by Brett Larner Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. outruns defending champ Toyokawa H.S. for the 2012 National High School Girls Ekiden title. Click for video highlights courtesy of broadcaster NHK. As expected , the 2012 National High School Girls Ekiden Championships came down to a showdown between #1-seeded defending champion Toyokawa H.S.  and #2-ranked Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. Toyokawa, with a lineup bolstered by transfers from the great Sendai Ikuei H.S. , started the race in 5th, losing out in a brilliant late-stage surge by Saki Yoshimizu  (Chikushi Joshi H.S.) on the first leg.  Toyokawa did not advance to the lead until the 3.0 km Third Stage, where its Azusa Sumi  ran a course-record 9:21 to put the team into first three seconds ahead of Ritsumeikan Uji and #5-ranked Osaka Kunei H.S.  with 2010 national champion Kojokan H.S. , and 7th-9th ranked teams  Kamimura Gakuen H.S. , Chikushi Joshi Gakuen H.S.  and Suma Gakuen H.S.  close behind.  F...

by Brett Larner   High school track continued along the road to next month's National Championships with a nationwide round of regional championships this weekend.  Thirty-three girls across the country broke the 9:30 mark over 3000 m, with the fastest time of the weekend going to Kenyan Mary Waithira  (Sendai Ikuei H.S.), who set an impressive meet record of 9:00.85 at the Tohoku Regionals meet over Kenyan rival Rosemary Wanjiru  (Aomori Yamada H.S.), who ran 9:07.44.  The fastest performance by a Japanese girl came at the South Kanto Regionals meet, where Maki Izumida  (Hakuoh Joshi H.S.) won in 9:17.74.  All but three regions featured winning times under 9:30. Boys' performances were less noteworthy, but in the Tokai Region 5000 m Kenyan Jeremiah Karemi  (Toyokawa H.S.) set a meet record of 13:52.51.   Charles Ndungu (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.) also set a meet record in the Hokkaido Region 5000 m, running 13:57.81.  Both boys' a...

by Brett Larner This weekend's main track action came at regional high school championships across the country as Japan's best young distance athletes sought places at the July 29-Aug. 2 National High School Track & Field Championships  in Niigata.  The most noteworthy results came in the girls' 3000 m, where three regions saw the top pair go under the meet record.   Miyuki Uehara  (Kagoshima Joshi H.S.) made headlines with a prefectural record 9:06.91 MR at the Kagoshima regional meet, the fastest time of the weekend.  Uehara was so dominating that runner-up Misuzu Nakahara  (Kamimura Gakuen H.S.), the only other woman to go under 9:20 this weekend, was also under the old meet record but nearly 10 seconds behind. Uehara certainly looks like the favorite for this summer's national meet, despite the best efforts of rivals Sakiko Naito  (Funabashi Shiritsu H.S.), who set a MR 9:21.60 at the Chiba regional meet, and Miki Hirai  (Shiroishi H....

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/general/track/news/20120204k0000m050008000c.html http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/02/04/kiji/K20120204002563870.html http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20120203-OHT1T00147.htm http://www.47news.jp/sports/localsports/2012/02/post_20120204110414.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Feb. 3 Rikuren announced the invited athlete list for the Feb. 12 Chiba International Cross-Country Meet.  Headlining the senior 8 km and 12 km lists are women's 5000 m national champion Megumi Kinukawa  (Mizuno) and men's 10000 m national champion Yuki Sato  (Team Nissin Shokuhin), along with others kicking off a season they hope will lead to the Olympics on the track.  Top university talent in the senior men's 12 km include Hakone Ekiden stars Suguru Osako  (Waseda University) and Ikuto Yufu  (Komazawa Univ.).  The women's 8 km also features Ukrainian Tetiana Gamera-Shmyrko , the runner-up at last weekend's...

Yuka Tokuda gives Osaka the National Women's Ekiden win in 2:16:37. Click photo for video highlights courtesy of broadcaster NHK . by Brett Larner The Osaka women's team emerged from nowhere to take a surprise win at the 30th anniversary National Interprefectural Women's Ekiden Championships Jan. 15 in Kyoto, leading wire to wire to score its first national title in 19 years.  First Stage runner Ryoko Kizaki , winner of November's Yokohama International Women's Marathon Olympic selection race, got things off on the right by taking the 6.0 km opening leg by a margin of 2 seconds.   Chizuru Ideta  followed up on the 4.0 km Second Stage, second-fastest on time but holding on to the narrow lead, but Third Stage junior high school runner Nozomi Musembi Takamatsu , half-Japanese daughter of Kenyan 2001 Nagano Marathon winner Maxwell Musembi , deserves much of the credit for opening up a permanent lead despite only running 3.0 km.  Takamatsu was second on her stage ...

by Brett Larner The regional qualifier meets for next month's National High School Track and Field Championships took place across Japan between June 17 and 20. Of particular note as an illustration of the depth and development of Japanese distance running at the high school level, the girls' 3000 m event featured thirty Japanese and three Kenyan girls under 9:30 between nine regional meets over the weekend. By contrast, according to the ARRS database only four American high school girls broke 9:30 for 3000 m in all of 2010, with three so far this season. Kenyan Susan Wylim of Sera H.S. was the top of the crowd with a meet record 9:03.89 at the Chugoku regional meet. Sera's Charles Ndirangu also won the boys' 5000 m with a meet record of 13:44.61. Sera H.S. is most well-known for producing Bitan Karoki (Kenya/Team S&B), who earlier this season won Stanford Univesity's Cardinal Invitational 10000 m in stunning style. Three other girls, all Japanese, broke...

by Brett Larner On the first two days of this weekend's Japanese National Track & Field Championships in Kumagaya, Saitama, five athletes secured guaranteed places on the Japanese national team for this summer's Daegu World Championships. Eight more had the right combination of placing and time to stand a chance of being selected for the team. Below is a summary of results from all event finals held on Day One and Day Two. In noteworthy performances apart from the men's and women's 10000 m: -The men's 200 m lived up to expectations as one of the best events of the meet. Beijing Olympics bronze medalist Shinji Takahira (Team Fujitsu) came back from a long injury setback to win the final in 20.49. 2nd and 3rd place Hitoshi Saito (Team Sunmesse) and Yuichi Kobayashi (Hosei Univ.) were both timed at 20.62 and are very likely to join Takahira in Daegu. 2010 world junior champion Shota Iizuka (Chuo Univ.) was 4th in 20.64, just missing a place on the team but...

by Brett Larner You can't keep a great champion down. Mostly absent from competition with injuries and motivation issues for the two years since winning the 2009 Osaka International Women's Marathon, 10000 m national record holder Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) looked well on her way to staging the nth comeback of a career full of ups and downs Jan. 23 at the Kita-Kyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden , the last major women's ekiden of the season. Starting the 11.7 km anchor leg 47 seconds back from leader Yurika Nakamura of 2010 National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden winners Team Tenmaya, Shibui virtually singlehandedly won the race as she finished the stage 48 seconds ahead in 1st. Although she was far from the stage record, Shibui also took the best time on the stage by 15 seconds over 2010 Nagoya International Women's Marathon winner Yuri Kano (Second Wind AC), clocking 37:12. Before Shibui's outstanding performance Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo was ...

by Brett Larner Click photo for video highlights. Thanks in part to outstanding performances from the identical twin Akamatsu sisters on the final two stages, Kojokan H.S. took its second-ever national title at the 2010 National High School Girls Ekiden , holding off two-time defending champion Toyokawa H.S. by 16 seconds after battling the strong Suma Gakuen H.S . throughout the ekiden. Kojokan's Katsuki Suga got the team off to a good start, winning the 6 km First Stage by a margin of 6 seconds. Suma Gakuen's Risa Yokoe caught up on the Second Stage, running a stage best to finish the leg dead even with Kojokan's Miyuki Oka . Suma Gakuen's Third Stage runner Mika Kobayashi likewise turned in a stage best, giving the school an 8 second lead after Kojokan's Manami Takehisa finished only 9th on the stage. Everything turned around on the 3.0 km Fourth Stage. Kojokan's Hiroka Akamatsu , the lesser-known of its star Akamatsu twins, seized back the lead, taking...

by Brett Larner Suma Gakuen H.S. senior Kazuto Nishiike brought his best to the second day of the 2010 Hyogo Relay Carnival on Apr. 24, taking 10 seconds off his own meet record in the high school boys' 5000 m with a PB 13:58.68. Surprisingly, Nishiike was not alone as Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. senior Shota Shinjo was close behind, just sneaking under 14 minutes with a 13:59.61 PB which likewise cleared the old meet record. The high school girls' 3000 m was leisurely by comparison as Nishiike's teammates Mika Kobayashi and Keiko Osako went 1-2, Kobayashi winning in 9:45.32. The Hyogo Relay Carnival continues the afternoon of Apr. 25 with the Grand Prix 1500 m and 10000 m A-heats. 2010 Hyogo Relay Carnival Day Two - Top Finishers click here for complete results or event header for individual event results High School Boys' 5000 m 1. Kazuto Nishiike (Suma Gakuen H.S.) - 13:58.68 - MR, PB 2. Shota Shinjo (Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S.) - 13:59.61 - MR, PB 3. Hayato Yamada (Nishiwak...