japan running news

A statement published by the organizers of the Tohoku Miyagi Fukko Marathon on their race website. JRN's Mika Tokairin  was involved with the organization of the first edition in 2017, and we traveled to the tsunami-hit areas that year to see the race. Read Tokairin's article on it here . In 2017 we launched the Tohoku Miyagi Fukko [reconstruction] Marathon along the coastal areas impacted by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami as part of an effort to support recovery and redevelopment of the area. Along the way there were cancelations due to typhoons and the COVID-19 pandemic, but even so the race returned in 2023 and 2024 with over 10,000 runners from all 47 of Japan's prefectures and from abroad. Participants praised the course, which let them see the progress of the ongoing recovery, the aid stations full of local flavor, and the warm hospitality of the volunteers. The support and cooperation of a wide range of people and organizations, including local ...

https://www.triathlete.com/culture/ironman-oldest-competitor-2023/ A profile of 79-year-old Ryuji Nakagawa , the oldest competitor in next week’s Ironman World Championships in Nice. Interview and words by JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin , who will be in Nice to cover the race. 日本語版はこちら 。 photo c/o Ryuji Nakagawa

https://www.maurten.com/magazine/the-ekiden?fbclid=IwAR2pOJGxzKgCpPDjt4W5VZOe02LZEpIxbL1X-1vp_CdOPFm4Yl-Ew8Ll19w A piece on the psychology of the ekiden by JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin  for Maurten.

https://www.maurten.com/articles/a-kengo-suzuki-story An interview and photo essay with Japanese men's national record holder Kengo Suzuki  ahead of Sunday's Tokyo Marathon , by JRN's Mika Tokairin . Photos by Kaoru Fukui .

https://www.triathlete.com/events/olympics/how-will-the-tokyo-olympics-happen-should-they/ Triathlete Magazine 's pre-Tokyo 2020 Olympic feature, by JRN's Mika Tokairin  and Brett Larner . Read our follow-up on how sponsorship works in Japan in relation the triathlon scene here .

Happy New Year to all JRN readers. Thanks for 10 years.

by Brett Larner My first awareness of South Africa's Comrades Marathon was Alberto Salazar 's seemingly random win when I was 20 and his subsequent crediting of the performance benefits he received from taking the drug Prozac, but it was at the Boston Marathon the next spring that it really caught my imagination.  At the pre-race pasta party an older Irish runner sitting at the same table told my friend Bruce and I about Comrades, its epic scale, the intense drama of its finish line cutoff, the camaraderie of those trying to help each other to the line and the devastation of the unlucky stopped just a stride away.  Ever since then I've wanted to run it.  In 2010 JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin and I planned to do it, but with the change of course direction due to the World Cup we opted to wait for another uphill year.  This year things finally aligned. Our experience was no different from any other blog account of Comrades you can find.  And yet it w...

by Brett Larner Organizers announced that 17,000 fans turned out on a spectacular spring day for the final track and field meet at Tokyo's 1964 Olympics National Stadium, Sunday's Golden Grand Prix Tokyo . Many were there to relive memories of Abebe and Tsuburaya, of Taniguchi and Yamashita's 1991 World Championships medals, and of Seko, Takahashi and Noguchi's wins at the old Tokyo International Marathon, but there's no question that the main draw was the meet-closing men's 100 m featuring Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.) up against the likes of Justin Gatlin (U.S.A.), Christophe Lemaitre (France) and Mike Rodgers (U.S.A.). Strong winds precluded fast times as multiple medalist Gatlin duly took 1st in 10.02 (-3.5) over Rodgers and Lemaitre. Kiryu was just 5th in 10.46, but fans seemed happy to see him in action regardless of the outcome. Along the way they were treated to a great men's high jump that saw Moscow World Championships gold medalist M...

by Brett Larner photo by Mika Tokairin split chart courtesy of Dr. Helmut Winter Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Hitomi Niiya . She received little more than passing mention, if that, in most English-language coverage of Sunday's Moscow World Championships women's 10000 m, but she deserves a lot of credit for making the race regardless of its predicable outcome. Prefigured precisely by her meet record 31:06.67 win at June's National Championships, where she took the lead just past 3000 m and ran alone right on national record pace to lap the entire field, and by the London Olympics where she led a significant portion of the race to make the top ten in a PB of 30:59.19, a performance that you would think should have earned her enough respect to be called by her name rather than just "Japanese girl" by at least one prominent American outlet covering Moscow, Niiya took over from struggling American rabbit Shalane Flanagan  after 3000...

London Olympian and 2:07:48 marathoner Arata Fujiwara 's new book "The Future of the Marathon," a series of conversations with university professors  Shigeo Ito and Tetsuro Yamanishi  on what awaits the sport of marathoning over the next twenty years, is out this month.  Edited by JRN associate editor  Mika Tokairin and published in Japanese by Runners, it is available here for ¥1050 per copy.

Yet more self-promotion: JRN profiled on the German Road Races website:  http://www.germanroadraces.de/24-0-26743-unser-mann-in-japan-der-kanadier.html?npi=1 Google Chrome's machine translation of the article included the sad-but-true statement: "...Japan Running News, which operates Larner since 2007...." Pics in the article were taken by Dr. Helmut Winter at the Namban Rengo running club's year-end party last Saturday at the British Embassy in Tokyo during a live-band karaoke session.   In these gems JRN associate editor Mika Tokairin pours her heart and soul into the Ramones' "Beat on the Brat" with one minor and predictable lyric change. The highlight of the evening, personally: "Anarchy in the U.K." Photo by Shoji Shimomitsu .

by Brett Larner photos by Mika Tokairin elite race video by Alberto Stretti running video by Brett Larner For the third straight year JRN was on-hand to cover the Venice Marathon, this year helping to host Courir Magazine editor-in-chief Yukiya Higuchi  who ran the race for a feature article in the November issue of Courir.  After several days of rain the entire race weekend saw excellent conditions on the cool side with sunny skies at the start outside Villa Pisani on the banks of the Brenta in Stra. The excellent weather was conducive to good times in the elite races, where Kenyan Helen Kirop took nearly four minutes off the Venice record with an outstanding 2:23:37 and Ethiopian Tadese Tolosa Aredo led three men under 2:10 with a 2:09:13 win. Defending champions Harun Makda Haji (Ethiopia) and Simon Mukun (Kenya) both finished 2nd. At last year's 25th anniversary race the Venice city council had for the first time granted permission for the race cours...