japan running news

For the second time in a month Australians Andy Buchanan , Isaac Heyne , Sam Clifford , Ryan Gregson and Brett Robinson faced off against a big group of 60-61 minute Japanese men pulled in from a big February half marathon, and for the 2nd year in a row Buchanan outkicked them all for the win at the China Airlines Gold Coast Half Marathon . Robinson, 3rd at last month's Launceston Half Marathon , got things moving with a fast start that put the race on pace to go just over 60 minutes, well under Pat Carroll 's 1:01:11 Australian all-comers record that Launceston winner Teruki Shimada missed by just 1 second. Yuma Nishizawa , 1:00:29 at February's National Corporate Half Marathon where most of the Japanese men in the field ran, took over to keep it moving, then handed over to Launceston runner-up Isaac Heyne . Heyne did most of the work the rest of the way, the pace gradually slowing and incrementing over Carroll's record, until a move from 2:07 marathoner Naoya Sakud...

The ACN Expo Ekiden was the biggest race of the weekend domestically, but there was so much else going on domestically and internationally that it was hard to keep track. We'll do our best. Saturday in Fukuoka the Fst in Fukuoka road mile and 5 km moved from its usual fall date to a spring date for the first time. Ireland's Sophie O'Sullivan outran high school sensation Sherry Drury by 1 second for the win in the women's mile, 4:53 to 4:54. Drury's mark was a new U20 NR. The men's mile also came down to a 1-second win for Irishman Brian Fay over Japan's Jo Aoki , 4:12 to 4:13. Margaret Akidor had an easy win in the women's 5 km in 15:34, with veteran Yuichiro Ueno outrunning a doubling Fay in the men's 5 km to win in 14:07. Complete results here . The Matsue Ladies Half Marathon hosted the National University Women's Half Marathon Sunday. National champion Ritsumeikan University 's Makoto Tsuchiya outran Daito Bunka University 's...

  The winner of Tokyo's Year End Half Marathon in 2019,  Andy Buchanan  ran a crafty race to beat four sub-61 Japanese men and the debuting Australian  Isaac Heyne  at the Gold Coast Half Marathon . Smiling most of the way, Heyne led on 2:59/km pace through the turnaround point just before 11 km before Koki Kamata  took over. From there it was a series of turnovers that took the lead group down to just Heyne, favorite Shunsuke Shikama , 2:06 marathoner Daisuke Doi , and Buchanan. All of them made moves in the last 2 km, but Buchanan made the definitive one in the last km, pulling away to win in a PB 1:02:20. After falling slightly behind, Heyne fought back for 2nd in 1:02:22 with Doi getting Shikama on the line for 3rd, both clocking 1:02:25. Four other Japanese men including 2:05 marathoner Kenya Sonota  made the top 10. The women's race started out as a trio with Australians Leanne Pompeani  and Jessica Stenson , and two-time winner  Sara H...

In its 71st edition the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon saw new course records in both the women's and men's races. On a cold and slightly windy day Japan-based Ethiopian Zeyituna Husan took advantage of the big crowds of amateur men at her pace, going through halfway in 1:14:44 en route in her debut to win in 2:31:41. Her time took 1:19 off the previous record set in 2018 by Hiroko Yoshitomi . Excellent pacing that saw every 5 km split through 30 km in the men's race land in the 15:01 to 15:03 range and a big pack that rolled with it set up a tough last 12 km. Djibouti's Ibrahim Hassan inched it up a notch as soon as the pacers were done, covering the next two 5 km in 14:59 each. That gave him a short lead over Kenyan Daniel Kipchumba , but Hassan almost lost it. Deeply in the zone, he didn't notice the turn into the stadium for the track finish and ran into the back of the camera truck. Kipchumba surged to take advantage of Hassan's loss, but Hassan managed t...

How Yuya Yoshida 's 2020 started: He was a benchwarming senior at powerhouse Aoyama Gakuin University that had never made its starting lineup for the Hakone Ekiden. How his year ended: He was the Fukuoka International Marathon champion and one of the ten fastest Japanese marathoners ever. In between: The 22-year-old Yoshida came out of nowhere at Hakone in January, planning to give up running when he graduated in March and putting it all into one single run when he got the green light to handle Hakone's Fourth Stage for AGU. And he killed it, crushing the year-old stage record set by then-future 10000 m national record holder Akira Aizawa  and setting YGU up for the overall win. He said afterward that he'd done what he'd set out to do and could walk away from the sport with his conscience clear, but he decided to give it one more go and run February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon as the last race of his career. He crushed that too, running with almost eerie poise ...

  With strict limitations on immigration still a reality in Japan, the Dec. 6 Fukuoka International Marathon has announced an almost entirely domestic field of less than 100 that includes only five Japan-based foreign-born athletes plus an all-Japan-based Kenyan pacing crew led by Bedan Karoki (Toyota). Not that the field is hurting for quality. Ryu Takaku (Yakult), 2:06:45 in Tokyo this year, 2018 Fukuoka winner and Tokyo Olympics marathon team member Yuma Hattori (Toyota), and  Taku Fujimoto (Toyota), a bump up to the 2019 Fukuoka winner's position pending after the subsequent suspension of the Moroccan who crossed the line first for biological passport violations, make up the front end of a field that includes eleven current sub-2:10 men and seven of last year's top ten. Hattori has said publicly that he'll be going for Suguru Osako 's 2:05:29 national record, and with pacing support from teammates Karoki and Fujimoto, his former Toyo University teammate Taka...

Japan's 2020 Olympic marathon selection wrapped up in cold, rainy and windy conditions at simultaneous races at Lake Biwa and in Nagoya . The men at the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon had to break the week-old 2:05:29 national record set by Suguru Osako in Tokyo to replace him on the team, a pretty tough ask in any case but even more so given the conditions. After a starting gun malfunction delayed the start 10 minutes, virtually unheard-of in Japan, the pacers and a lead pack of nearly 50 gave it a go, slow through the first 5 km as they warmed back up but getting onto track for a sub-2:06 before too much time went by. Early casualties as the pace picked up included past winner Samuel Ndungu (Kenya) and Salah-Eddine Bounasr (Morocco), both DNFs. After 20 km it drifted back toward a 2:07 race, but even at that speed most of the Japanese favorites dropped away, leaving a relatively inexperienced domestic crew up against an international quintet when the last pacers stepped off ...

Ugandan Jackson Kiprop and Ethiopian Meskerem Hunde won Sunday's 21st edition of the Nagano Marathon . Running a steady and well-paced race that went out near 2:10:30 pace and sped up slightly to a 1:04:58 halfway split, Kiprop wore down the competition until there were only four left at 30 km. Ethiopian Deresa Geleta stayed with him until the very end, but Kiprop had the finish in him to open 3 seconds on Geleta to become Nagano's first-ever Ugandan winner in 2:10:39. Geleta's 2:10:42 was good for a PB, with Japan's Naoya Sakuda (JR Higashi Nihon) also dropping a big PB of 2:11:21 for 3rd over Kenyan Alfred Kering . #1-ranked Asuka Tanaka (Hiramatsu Byoin) was one of the first to drop off Kiprop's early pace but rallied late in the race to take 5th in 2:14:35, his best performance since a stress fracture following his breakthrough in Tokyo last year. Hunde pulled off an equally evenly-paced run to win the women's race, projected to run 2:33:44 after ...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1760571.html http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1760572.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 日刊スポーツ(1/4)裏一面から。 pic.twitter.com/na0k7P7ghq — ゆう・Ｔ (@aquamarine4320) January 4, 2017 Anchoring the Hakone Ekiden's Tenth Stage for the Kanto Region Student Alliance select team, Tokyo Kokusai University fourth-year Akito Terui scored what quickly came to be called the "Phantom Stage Win."  As a member of the Kanto Alliance team Terui's time did not count in official results, but his 1:10:58 beat the 1:11:00 time of official stage winner Naoya Sakuda of Juntendo University by two seconds. Two years ago Terui trained with top-level Hakone schools Aoyama Gakuin University and Toyo University.  Putting the lessons he learned to work, last year he finished 13th on the Third Stage in Tokyo Kokusai's Hakone debut before running the fastest anchor time this year.  "It was a miracle,"...