japan running news

The Osaka Marathon is Sunday, one of Japan's biggest mass-participation races and the next stop on the calendar for its elite marathoners hoping to qualify for the L.A. Olympics marathon trials in the fall of 2027. Last year it snowed mid-race, but this year is looking warmer than ideal given the season, with sunny skies, almost no wind, and temps forecast to be 11˚ at the start and rising to 19˚ by the time the winners are finishing. NHK is broadcasting Osaka with a heavy emphasis on the men's race, and if you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it from overseas. There's also official streaming on Youtube starting at 8:30 a.m. local time, although it doesn't look like it's the same as what NHK will be showing. Given Osaka's history at the elite level as the continuation of the men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, the women's field is small relative to the men's, just enough to tick World Athletics' label requirements and with almost no do...

With 3 weeks to go the elite fields for the Feb. 22 Osaka Marathon are out. Given Osaka's history as the elite men-only Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon the women's field is small, with only one entrant, Sinhala Kureshi , having broken 2:21 with her 2:19:53 in Hamburg last spring. Afera Godfay , Mare Dibaba and Rose Chelimo have all run 2:21 to 2:22 in recent races, and Esther Chemtai is an interesting debut off a 1:08:09 at last fall's Cardiff Half. Kaede Kawamura is the highest-level Japanese woman in the field with a 2:25:44 in Osaka 2 years ago. Last year's men's champ and CR breaker Yihunilign Adane is back, his main competition being fellow Ethiopians Bute Gemechu , Mulugeta Asefa Uma and South Africa's Elroy Gelant . 4th last year in 2:05:58, Kyohei Hosoya leads the front of the super deep Japanese field along with Ichitaka Yamashita , Kenta Sonota , Kiyoto Hirabayashi , Yuhei Urano , Yusuke Nishiyama and Daisuke Doi . But where Osaka excels is in deb...

  Maybe the next big thing coming down the Tenmaya corporate pipeline, Mizuki Nishimura made good on her pre-race plan for the Kumanichi 30 km to get as close as she could to her Tenmaya teammate Honami Maeda 's 1:38:35 NR. Out solo almost on track to break 1:40 in excellent conditions, Nishimura started to slow in the middle third of the race but had enough time and energy to work with to still take almost 2 minutes off the old pre-super shoe era CR, winning easily in 1:41:42. 2nd and 3rd-placers Mio Kuroda and Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh were together through 20 km before Galbadrakh faded, Kuroda taking 2nd in 1:44:49 and Galbadrakh 3rd in 1:45:44 in a tuneup for next month's Tokyo Marathon. 天満屋の西村美月選手、熊日30キロで1:41:42大会新記録。 Mizuki Nishimura wins Kumanichi 30k in 1:41:42 CR. pic.twitter.com/rAru1WywEm — Japan Running News (@JRNHeadlines) February 16, 2025 The men's race started conservatively, keeping a large group of 11 together until 20 km. sub-61 half marathoner Dai...

At Sunday's Kitakyushu Invitational Women's Ekiden , 27.2 km in 6 legs for the high school division and 5 legs for the corporate team division, last year's overall winner Kamimura Gakuen H.S. did it again, breaking the finish tape ahead of the top corporate team. Head coach Tetsuzo Arikawa commented, "The athletes really grew in ability over this last year." The key play came on the 3.8 km Fourth Stage, where 3rd-year Rina Kurogami ran aggressively after starting 11 seconds behind Ritsumeikan Uji H.S. "I didn't push too hard on the climbs and just built up momentum on the downhills," she said. Just past 2 km into the stage she passed Ritsumeikan Uji for the lead, going on take 8 seconds off the CR she had set on the same stage 2 years ago. 2nd-year Rin Setoguchi had responsibility for the longest stage of the race, the 5.9 km Fifth Stage. "I just told myself that I could make up the 21 seconds to the corporate division leader, and ran like ...

Yuka Ando (Wacoal) and Desta Burka (Denso) raced each other to a new Osaka Half Marathon course record, while the men's race saw a very strange apparent DQ of winner Taiyo Iwasaki (JFE Steel). Running with Wacoal male coaching staff member Seiya Morimoto as pacer, Ando set out on pace to go sub-68 with the goal of bettering her 1:08:13 PB from the 2022 National Corporate Half. Burka, who had only run 1:09:31 once in 2021, was right there next to her the entire time as the pace held steady through 15 km. But as Ando started to fade over the next 5 km Burka dropped her and opened a small lead. It looked like the win and CR would be hers, but over the last km Ando fought back and passed her on the track to score the win by 2 seconds in a 1:08:18 CR. "My goal was to beat my PB, but I'm glad I got close," she said post-race. Burka's 1:08:20 was also well under the old CR of 1:09:43 and a PB by over a minute. The men's race saw 42-year-old Mongolian Ser-Od Bat-...