japan running news

After winning the Morinomiyako Ekiden for the first time in October, Josai University pulled off the double in an anchor stage battle against Tohoku Fukushi University and Daito Bunka University with all three going for their first-ever Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national title. 2024 Morinomiyako and Mt. Fuji double champ Ritsumeikan University got off to a good start with a stage win from lead runner Yua Sato but plummeted to 9th when star 3rd-year Sayuki Ota was only 16th of 24 on the Second Stage. From there it was all Ritsumeikan could do to hang on to a place in the top 5, the same as its result in Morinomiyako this year. In its place, Josai went to the front off a CR of 20:36 for the 6.8 km Second Stage by 1st-year Kyo Honma to go with her opening leg CR at Morinomiyako. It stayed out front until the longest leg of the race, the 10.5 km Fifth Stage, where Sarah Wanjiru of perpetual runner-up DBU easily turned a 47-second deficit into a 47-second lead and Nazuki Sasaki ...

Six-time defending national champion Meijo University came to Sunday's Morinomiyako Ekiden national university women's championships with the weakest team since before its reign started in 2017, but with a flawless team performance that saw all six women on the team make top 4 on their stage Meijo beat the odds to go home with a record-breaking 7th-straight national title. Previous dynasty Ritsumeikan University came out hard with stage wins on the first two legs of the 38.0 km race, but a win on the 5.8 km Third Stage by Meijo 2nd-year Asuka Ishimatsu on her 20th birthday turned a 6-second deficit to Ritsumeikan into a 31-second lead. That closed to 15 seconds by the end of the Fifth Stage, but another stage win from anchor Nanase Tanimoto was enough to give Meijo the win by 52 seconds. 2nd eight times in the last 10 years, Daito Bunka University landed there again thanks to a stage win on the 9.2 km Fifth Stage by Sarah Wanjiru and a wicked kick over the last 100 m on ...

On July 28, Reiri Nakashima , 25, a member of a winning Hakone Ekiden team while in college, and 2018 1500 m national champion Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu , 23, announced on Twitter that they have gotten married. Nakashima was a member of Tokai University 's 2019 Hakone-winning team, while Takamatsu was a member of national champion teams at both the National High School Ekiden and National University Women's Ekiden. Together they form one of the power couples of Japanese athletics. The daughter of a Kenyan father and Japanese mother, Takamatsu came to Japan at age 1. At Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. she won the Second Stage at the National High School Ekiden, helping lead the team to the overall win. She was also a member of Meijo University 's undefeated team at the National University Women's Ekiden and Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden. She retired after graduating in 2022. Hailing from Himeji, Nakashima ran the downhill Sixth Stage at the Hakone Ekiden, helping Tokai score...

There was never really any doubt that five-time defending champion Meijo University was going to become the first team in National University Women's Ekiden history to win a sixth-straight title. Star 1st-year Nanaka Yonezawa took the lead in the first 200 m and from there Meijo never looked back. Its first four runners Yonezawa, Asuka Ishimatsu , Yuma Yamamoto and Nanase Tanimoto all won their stages, Yamamoto tying the 21:37 CR held by teammate Narumi Kobayashi on the 6.9 km Third Stage and Tanimoto turning in the most impressive run of the day with a 15:14 CR on the 4.8 km Fourth Stage, 23 seconds under the CR she set last year and 50 seconds faster than the next-best runner on the stage. Captain Kobayashi was the only weak link in the lineup, 30:48 for 6th on the 9.2 km Fifth Stage, but anchor Yuka Masubuchi still had a 1:55 lead to work with on the 6.7 km Sixth Stage. Like Tanimoto, Masubuchi broke her own CR with a 22:04 that put Meijo's final lead up to 2:31. Wit...

Sunday is the 40th edition of Sendai's Morinomiyako Ekiden , the National University Women's Ekiden Championships . NTV will be broadcasting the race live starting at noon local time, with coverage also on @JRNLive . 26 teams are racing for the national title, the complete course covering 38.1 km in 6 legs. Last year Meijo University led start-to-finish en route to a fifth-straight win, taking 5 of the 6 individual stage titles with 3 of them in course record time. 2 of the stage winners have graduated, but in their place Meijo has a very strong class of first-years led by Nanaka Yonezawa , 8:59.57 for 3000 m and 15:31.33 for 5000 m. 4 others are under 9:15 for 3000 m or under 15:50 for 5000 m, making solid support for the 4 returning members from last year. A lot depends on 4th-year Narumi Kobayashi , who ran a 10000 m  collegiate record 31:22.34 last year but hasn't run well most of her senior year so far. 4th-year Yuma Yamamoto on the other hand is fresh off a 15:16....

The Kanto Region qualifier for October's National University Women's Ekiden took place Sunday in Inzai, Chiba on a 6-stage, 34.4 km course, its first time in 3 years back on the roads. 5th at Nationals last year, Nittai University won in 1:55:03, its first time to win the qualifier in 8 years. 2021 Nationals 3rd-placer Takushoku University was 2nd in 1:55:33. Takushoku ran without collegiate 10000 m NR holder Seira Fuwa , who won the Sept. 10 National University Track and Field Championships 10000 m in a comeback from an injury in January. Planning for "a race that wouldn't rely on one runner," head coach Toshiharu Igarashi was very positive about finishing only 30 seconds behind Nittai, saying, "Our goal was 5th. Having exceeded that by a long shot is going to pay off later." Igarashi spoke well of senior Kae Gyu , who handled the longest stage, 8.6 km. "The results of everything she's done up to now are starting to come out now," he sa...

a press release from the event organizers, the KGRR As the weather shifts to the pleasantness of early autumn we send you our warmest greetings, and we thank you all for your continued support of the KGRR's activities. After careful discussion with the host city of Inzai, Chiba, we have made the decision to cancel the 27th Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden.  As this race serves to select the greater Tokyo area's representative teams at October's 39th National University Women's Ekiden, we will instead hold a selection event as per the details below, without spectators and following all the COVID-19 protocols outlined in the JAAF's "Guidance for Resuming Athletics Competition." Please be aware that depending on the status of the pandemic this event may also be canceled. We ask for your understanding and cooperation with this decision. Kanto Region Selection Event for 39th National University Women's Ekiden Date:  Saturday, Sept. 29, 2021 Locat...

The Hokkaido University Ekiden took place Aug. 14 in Sapporo's Moerenuma Park, with women covering 35.86 km in six stages and men 101.06 km in eight stages. In the women's race, Sapporo Gakuin University  scored a fifth-straight prefectural title, all six of its athletes winning their stages and covering the total distance in 2:11:31. The team's win secured its place at the Oct. 31 National University Women's Ekiden in Sendai. The Sapporo Gakuin men won in 5:19:31, their fourth-straight and 28th overall prefectural win. They likewise qualified for the National University Ekiden, taking place Nov. 7 in Nagoya for men. The women's decisive win came under new head coach Hiroyuki Kudo , 71, who previously led the Otani Muroran H.S.  boys and girls and the Sapporo Nichidai H.S.  girls to a combined 21 National High School Ekiden appearances. 2nd-year Sena Onishi  generated the team's momentum on the opening leg. Last year Onishi was unwell and lost more than 10 kg, p...

Three-time defending Morinomiyako Ekiden champion Meijo University made it four in a row, leading Sunday's National University Women's Ekiden almost start to finish to break its own year-old course record by over a minute and a half. Rival Ritsumeikan University 's leading runner Rinka Hida was the only one to spoil Meijo's party, dropping Meijo's Yuna Wada to win the 6.6 km First Stage by 8 seconds. But on the next stage Yuma Yamamoto put Meijo out front, and with its next three runners all winning their stages, two in stage record time including an impressive 29:14 for the 9.2 km Fifth Stage by 10000 m national collegiate champ Rika Kaseda , its lead only grew. Anchor Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu was 2nd-fastest on her stage, but with a lead of nearly a kilometer she was never in danger of getting caught as she broke the tape in 2:02:57, a full 1:37 under the record for the 6-stage, 38.1 km course that it set last year. Road records might not be worth what the...

Some of its major events have been canceled, but championship ekiden keeps moving forward. This weekend it's the Morinomiyako Ekiden , the national university women's championships , with 25 teams from around the country 38.1 km in six stages around Sendai. In some ways the national distribution of the top end of the field is more interesting than at next month's National University Ekiden, where schools from the Tokyo-centered Kanto Region dominate the eight-deep podium every year. Since Matsuyama University broke Ritsumeikan University 's near monopoly on the national title in 2016 Meijo University has come up to take Ritsumeikan's place as the top program in collegiate women's long distance, winning Morinomiyako in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Meijo comes to Sendai as the favorite again, with Tomomi Musembi Takamatsu  having won the 1500 m at September's National University Championships and Rika Kaseda taking the 10000 m. Many of its best runners turned in ...