by Brett Larner Japan's road season got into swing this weekend with two large road races and two competitive ekidens. At the Fukuoka Prefecture Road Championships in Omuta, Kyushu, Yuya Konishi (Team Toyota Kyushu) won the 10-miler in 48:00, one of the fastest winning times on record at the race. The rest of the top ten went under 48:30 as well, making for an outstanding tight race. Sally Chepyego (Kenya/Team Kyudenko) won the women's 5 km for the second year in a row and took advantage of the ideal temperatures to set a course record of 15:51. Runner-up Yuka Miyazaki was 44 seconds behind. Local boy Yuki Koga (Omuta H.S.) won the high school 10 km in 31:29. At the other end of the country, the Sapporo Half Marathon, not to be confused with July's Sapporo International Half Marathon, saw 12,003 finishers led by Toshiaki Nishizawa (Komazawa Univ.) in 1:05:07 and Mika Sawa (Bukkyo Univ.) in 1:16:10. Across the world, J...
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