japan running news

In a lot of ways this was one of the more interesting races in National Men's Ekiden history. 2 of the country's current top high schoolers, Fukushima 's Yota Mashiko and Hyogo 's Haruki Niizuma , made sure the race got off right with a CR-pace attack from the beginning. Everyone went with them, but it quickly shook down to the 2 of them and Miyagi 's Hiroto Suzuki , a relatively unknown factor. Niizuma was fresh back from running last weekend's World XC Championships in Florida and showed the fatigue from that race and the travel, dropping off just before 5 km on the 7.0 km opening stage. Mashiko and Suzuki hit it in 13:37, a head-to-head battle between runners from the top 2 teams at December's National High School Ekiden . Mashiko, who ran the fastest-ever Japanese time on the opening leg for winner Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. there, had better credentials than Suzuki, 3rd on the third leg for runner-up Sendai Ikuei H.S. and opened up with 1 km to go. But ...

Fresh off a sub-31 PB at last month's 10000 m National Championships, Haruka Kokai ran down Kotona Ota of longtime leader Hyogo on the anchor stage to give the Miyagi prefecture team its first National Women's Ekiden title in 29 years. Women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima went out hard to put earthquake and tsunami-hit Ishikawa in the lead by 35 seconds on the 6.0 km First Stage, but a Second Stage win by 1500 m and 5000 m NR holder Nozomi Tanaka put Hyogo into a lead it held until midway through the final stage. Shizuoka and Chiba both spent time in 2nd and at times closed on Hyogo only to get dropped again. The 4.1075 km Fifth Stage was especially good, with sub-32 collegian Risa Yamazaki of Chiba running down high school 1st-year Kairi Ikeno for the lead only to get retaken by Ikeno, with both breaking the 1995-era CR for the stage. Behind them, Miyagi was working its way up through the field, improving its position every stage except the Third until Y...

The 40th National Women's Ekiden took place Jan. 16, starting and finishing at Kyoto's Takebishi Stadium and covering 42.195 km in 9 stages. The race having been canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 winner Kyoto took the top spot again in 2:15:05 to strengthen its position as the winningest team in event history with 18 national titles. Fukuoka scored 2nd, with Miyagi taking 3rd. Following up on her superb 31:28 CR on the National Corporate Women's Ekiden 's 10.0 km Fifth Stage in November, Shiseido corporate runner Rino Goshima put the Ishikawa prefecture team out front on the 6.0 km opening leg, beating members of the Tokyo Olympic team and finishing in 18:41, just 2 seconds behind the CR held by 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka . Kyoto's Sakiho Tsutsui was only 9th, but over the next three stages the team worked its way toward the front of the field along with Fukuoka and Miyagi. On the race's Eighth Stage, 3.0 km reserved for juni...