japan running news

by Brett Larner It's Tokyo Marathon week. This is the first of JRN's two-part preview of this year's fifth edition, to be held this Sunday, Feb. 27. Click here for part two , our men's preview. Look for additional articles and info as the week goes along. This year's race will be broadcast live on Fuji TV beginning at 9 a.m. Japan time. Overseas viewers should be able to watch online via Keyhole TV . Some viewers experienced trouble with Keyhole for last week's Yokohama International Women's Marathon but it appears to be working fine as of this writing, so make sure you have downloaded the current version of the player to increase your chances. In any case, JRN will be doing live race commentary via Twitter. Click here to follow . The Tokyo Marathon's elite women's race occupies a peculiar position in its third edition, with world-class prize money at stake and quality overseas competition but excluded from the selection races for this year's Wo...

by Brett Larner Update: Yumiko Hara (Team Univ. Ent.), Tomo Morimoto (Team Tenmaya), Adriana Fernandez (Mexico) and Tetyana Holovchenko have withdrawn with injuries . The 30th anniversary Osaka International Women's Marathon takes place this Sunday, Jan. 30. With a new course which aims to be flatter and faster by eliminating the old course's most famous feature, the twisting and hilly turn through the ground of Osaka Castle, organizers are hopeful of seeing outstanding times in the first of the major domestic selection races for this summer's World Championships. 2009 World Championships marathoner Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) says she is going to deliver. Akaba, one of Japan's top track and half marathon runners in the last few years, came to last year's Osaka with a knee injury, but despite being less than 100% she led the race through a 1:10:45 in cold rain. Akaba ultimately DNF'd but said afterwards that she had just wanted to see what she could do in the ...

by Brett Larner On Dec. 20 the organizers of the Osaka International Women's Marathon announced the field for the 2011 edition. Celebrating the event's 30th anniversary with a new, faster course eliminating the famous hilly, twisting section through Osaka Castle and with the addition of female pacemakers, the field features a competitive cross-section of current top Japanese women and several aging overseas elites. Osaka is the first major domestic selection race for the 2011 World Championships team. The top Japanese woman meeting Rikuren's time goals will be automatically named to the team. If the race is slow then the top domestic finisher will have to wait until mid-March for the final selection announcement. It doesn't look likely to be slow, however. Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren) is the favorite, coming fresh from a sub-32 road 10k in Sunday's National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden in the midst of her marathon training. Akaba says she will be shooting for a f...

by Brett Larner Update 6/9/10: It seems the original results listing on the Japan Run website was incorrect and that Ohira actually finished 1st, with Shibui 2nd. Currently awaiting confirmation that this was the case. Guest runners Yoko Shibui and Miki Ohira of Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo went an easy 1-2 at the Japan Run 4-Miler in New York's Central Park, part of the June 6 Japan Day festivities. The pair's times of 22:49 and 23:23 were unremarkable and far slower than their marathon paces, but at least in Shibui's case the run was noteworthy in that it was her first race since December's National Jitsugyodan Ekiden Championships and only her second since sustaining a stress fracture after last summer's San Francisco Marathon. She is evidently back on her feet, but whether 10000 m national record holder Shibui is back in one piece remains to be seen. 2010 Japan Run 4-Miler - Top Women click here for complete results 1. Yoko Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaij...

by Brett Larner Shibui rides again. Click picture for sanspo.com's National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden photo gallery. Despite not taking a single stage best title, six-time national champion Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo returned to the top of the six-stage marathon distance 2009 National Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden Championships on Dec. 13 in Gifu with another win to make it seven. The team's chances depended largely on whether its star Yoko Shibui had recovered from the stress fracture that kept her out of the 2009 World Championships marathon. She had. Although she was far from her normal condition, Shibui's stage-4th 32:13 for the 10 km Third Stage was good enough to keep the team in position after a strong stage-2nd performance by First Stage runner Ikuyo Yamashita . Fresh from last month's Yokohama International Women's Marathon, Miki Ohira ran the 2nd-best time on the Fifth Stage to take the lead and anchor Chisato Osaki likewise was 2nd on her stage...

video stills and text by Brett Larner photos and video by Mika Tokairin As a high-pressure front swept away a week of cold and rain with cloudless morning temperatures of 20 degrees and variable, gusting winds, 2006 European 10000 m champion Inga Abitova of Russia scored her first important marathon win with a 2:27:18 victory at the inaugural Yokohama International Women's Marathon on Nov. 15. As predicted , the race was between Abitova and 2009 Hokkaido Marathon winner Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC), who ran down Beijing Olympics silver medalist and 2007 World Champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya for 2nd place in 2:28:51. Beijing gold medalist Constantina Dita (Romania), who reported injury troubles shortly before the race, was a distant 11th in 2:36:04. Unseasonably warm conditions at the start played into the hands of Shimahara, an athlete noted for her warm weather skills and her fast finish. Having rehearsed a new fast-starting strategy for winning earlier this season in se...

http://www.asahi.com/sports/spo/TKY200910210174.html translated by Brett Larner The first running of the new Yokohama International Women's Marathon, sponsored by the Asahi Newspaper Group and others, takes place Nov. 15. On Oct. 20 the event's organizing committee announced the lineup of the elite field of eleven. 2007 World Championships 6th place finisher Kiyoko Shimahara (Second Wind AC), the Ominami twins Hiromi and Takami (Team Toyota Shatai) top the domestic contenders, while Beijing Olympics gold and silver medalists Constantina Dita (Romania) and Catherine Ndereba (Kenya) will be the main overseas competition. The domestic field consists of five invited athletes. Shimahara, 3rd at last year's Chicago Marathon and 3rd in the 2006 Osaka International Women's Marathon, is an experienced veteran. In August she set the Hokkaido Marathon course record of 2:25:10, her PB. At age 32 she is at the peak of her powers. The Ominami twins, both past winners of the Rotterdam...

by Brett Larner The final meet in the 2009 Hokuren Distance Challenge series took place July 20 in Abashiri, Hokkaido, the last domestic opportunity for athletes to qualify for the Japanese national team for this year's World Championships. Ironically, the only athlete to pick up a Berlin ticket was Ethiopian Yakob Jarso (Team Honda). Jarso set the Ethiopian national record of 8:13.47 in the 3000 m steeplechase at last summer's Beijing Olympics where he was 4th. This spring Jarso attempted to move up to the 5000 m and 10000 m but missed the times he needed to make the Ethiopian team at those competitive distances. Resigned to running the steeple again after a year's absence, Jarso had to set an A-standard time to illustrate to the Ethiopian federation that he is ready to go for Berlin. The Abashiri Meet organizers were generous enough to organize a steeplechase heat for Jarso, but when he came to the starting line he found only Sapporo Gakuin University's Masashi Takem...

JRN co-editor Mika Tokairin ran the 2009 Osaka International Women's Marathon. Below are some photos and videos she shot on race day. A 360' shot inside the stadium before the start. Yoko Shibui and the other top eight finishers at the award ceremony. The award ceremony continued. Shibui with the award ceremony MCs. Shibui, Akaba, Hara, Ohira, Simon, Okunaga and Wanjiru at the post-race party.

by Brett Larner Yoko Shibui celebrates her first marathon win in over four years. Yoko Shibui said she was going to run Osaka like an adult and she kept to her words. After running her last two marathons with 1:10-1:11 first halves only to fall apart each time, Shibui (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) sat in the pack for nearly 30 km before going on the offense to take the win in the 2009 Osaka International Women's Marathon , her third victory in eleven attempts. Enduring a 1:13:01 first half, Shibui ran 16:11 between 30 and 35 km and clocked splits as fast as 3:08/km in the final quarter of the race, running a 1:10:41 second half while laughing to supporters along the course to finish in 2:23:42. Shibui covered her final 2.195 km in 7:02; at last month's elite men's Fukuoka International Marathon only winner Tsegaye Kebede (Ethiopia) ran a faster finish, 6:25, as second-fastest finishing man Arata Fujiwara (Team JR Higashi Nihon) clocked 7:03. Shibui's first win at the 200...

by Brett Larner After failing to even qualify for the 2007 All-Japan Jitsugyodan Women's Ekiden , Team Toyota Jidoshoki scored a surprise win over defending champion Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo at this year's national championship ekiden in Gifu Prefecture. Toyota Jidoshoki, one of two teams in the ekiden coached by Yoshio Koide, had only previously qualified once and was missing its star runner Yuriko Kobayashi, whom Rikuren banned from competing in jitsogyodan events after her enrollment in university last year. Neverthless, strong performances from the entire team, particularly anchor Aya Nagata's stage best run, were enough to unseat Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo. Team Panasonic's 17 year old Christie Muyanga, the 2008 World Junior 3000 m steeplechase champion, ran away from the field on the ekiden's 6.6 km 1st stage. She faded in the final 600 m and was almost overtaken by the chase pack which included 2008 International Chiba Ekiden Japanese national team anchor M...

by Brett Larner Team Toyota Boshoku's rookie Yusei Nakao had the strongest Japanese performance at the Rio World Half Marathon Championships on Oct. 12, finishing 5th in the men's race in 1:02:05, while the Japanese women came up with another bronze medal-winning team performance led by the 10th place finish of Team Hokuren's Yukiko Akaba. In the men's race, Masato Kihara (Chuo Gakuin University) led the way as the sole non-African in the lead pack of thirteen at the 5 km point, crossing the mark in 14:07. Although he has run faster than this before in a half marathon, Kihara soon ran into trouble and began to move backward, eventually finishing 83rd of 86 finishers in a shocking 1:20:05. Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN), Kazuo Ietani (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) and Tetsuo Nishimura (Team YKK) set out at a more conservative pace and finished accordingly. Nakao, who ran a massive PB of 1:02:00 in May's Sendai International Half Marathon, ran the early stages of the race in...

http://www.iaaf.org/WHM08/news/kind=100/newsid=47971.html

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/news/20080616-OYT1T00581.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner On June 16, Rikuren announced the members of the Japanese team for the World Half Marathon Championships to be held October 12 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Leading the team of five men and five women will be two-time Olympic marathoner Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex). The complete lineup of each team, with qualification data: Men Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku): 1:02:00 (2nd, Sendai, 5/11/08) Kazuo Ietani (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko): 1:02:05 (3rd, Sendai, 5/11/08) Masato Kihara (Chuo Gakuin Univ.): 1:02:07 (5th, Sapporo, 6/15/08) Tetsuo Nishimura (Team YKK): 1:02:35 (3rd, Jitsugyodan, 3/16/08) Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN): 1:02:40 (4th, Jitsugyodan, 3/16/08) Women Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren): 1:08:11 (1st, Jitsugyodan, 3/16/08) Mizuki Noguchi (Team Sysmex): 1:08:25 (1st, Sendai, 5/11/08) Chisato Osaki (Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo): 1:09:16 (2nd, Sapporo, 6/15/08) Miki Ohira (Team Mistui Sumitom...

by Brett Larner After an earlier preliminary announcement of its invited elites, the Sapporo International Half Marathon has released the complete field for this year`s 51st running on Sunday, June 15. Normally held in July, this year`s competition was moved to June due to the upcoming G-8 summit in Toyako, near Sapporo. Considering the dramatic difference in Japan`s weather between mid-June and mid-July, the date change will probably help to put the course records up for grabs. The Japanese runners in the field have the added motivation that the top domestic man and woman will be selected for the Japanese team at this fall`s World Half Marathon Championships. By far the favorite in the men`s race is defending champion Mekubo Mogusu (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.). Mogusu ran a solo 59:54 to win last year`s race in course record time. This year he comes fresh from setting a sizeable PB in the 10000 m and breaking his own course record in the half marathon at last month`s Kanto Regional Univer...

by Brett Larner Mara Yamauchi (GBR, Second Wind AC) took a surprise win in cold, windless, intermittently snowy conditions at the Osaka International Marathon , running a PB of 2:25:10 for her first marathon victory. Taking the lead at 34.63 km from struggling first-time marathoner Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal), Yamauchi powered her way to the win, holding off a late charge from top Japanese finisher Tomo Morimoto (Team Tenmaya). Morimoto finished 2nd in 2:25:34, a good time but not strong enough to seal her a spot on the Beijing Olympic team. Her fate is left up to the runners in March's Nagoya International Marathon , including Naoko Takahashi, Naoko Sakamoto, and possibly defending Osaka champion Yumiko Hara who dropped out shortly before today's race with a cold. Yamauchi's teammate Yuri Kano, one of the pre-race favorites, dropped out of the race with leg pain after only 17 km. Osaka's other major pre-race favorite, Japanese national 3000 m, 5000 m and half maratho...