japan running news

This has been updated to reflect withdrawals announced late Friday. This weekend kicks off three in a row with major races across Japan. First up Saturday is the National Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka. The senior women's 8 km lost its biggest draw, 18-year-old 30:45.12 10000 m runner Seira Fuwa (Takushoku Univ.), earlier this month when she pulled out to focus on prep for May's 10000 m national championships. In her absence, some of the bigger names include National Corporate Half Marathon winner Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (U.S.E.), 3000 m steeplechase Olympian Yuno Yamanaka  (Ehime Ginko), last year's 5th-placer  Momoka Kawaguchi (Toyota Jidoshokki), and 31:16.48 10000 m runner Minami Yamanouchi (Raffine). Despite losing 10000 m NR holder  Akira Aizawa  (Asahi Kasei) and 3000 m SC NR holder  Ryuji Miura (Juntendo University) to last-minute withdrawals, the senior men's 10 km is thicker on top-level talent, including 1500 m, 3000 m and 5000 m high scho...

Both the Sendai Ikuei H.S.  girls and the defending champ  Sera H.S.  boys led start-to-finish to win today's National High School Ekiden , Sendai Ikuei becoming the first team in the 33-year history of the girls' event to win the national title five times, and Sera extending its record as the only team in the boys' race's 72 years with double-digit wins to eleven. Cold and windy conditions with off and on snow meant no new stage records, but in both races there were  still fast times. 3rd last year, Sendai Ikuei put its three strongest runners first, leaving the last two stages to debuting first-years. Opening runner Nanaka Yonezawa  ran 19:15 for her 6.0 km stage to put Sendai Ikuei 30 seconds out front. Second runner Kokone Sugimori added 26 seconds to that, running 12:41 for 4.0975 km, with third runner Natsumi Yamanaka  putting in another 19 seconds with a 9:53 stage best on her 3.0 km leg. First-year Kurea Watanabe  added 1 last second on the 3....