japan running news

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....

Since July 23 official track time trials have returned to Miyagi prefecture. Despite this summer's National High School Championships having been canceled local high school athletes have been training hard, and the work they put in has paid off with good results. On July 25 the 41st Sendai Long Distance Time Trials meet took place at Athlete Park Sendai Field in Sendai's Miyagino Ward. Sendai Ikuei H.S. 2nd-year Nanako Yonezawa 16, produced the biggest result of the day in the women's 1500 m. Last season as a first-year she won the Second Stage at the National High School Ekiden Championships, contributing to Sendai Ikuei's team victory. In the 1500 m she led from the early stages of the race, kicking off the last corner to take the win. Her time of 4:18.52 was a PB that broke the 25-year-old Miyagi prefecture high school record. It was also the fastest U18 time in the world this year and second-fastest U20 time by just 0.22. "My goal was to hit the Nationa...

video highlights by NHK Bringing together the country's best high school athletes in Kyoto, the Dec. 22 National High School Ekiden Championships saw Miyagi prefecture's Sendai Ikuei H.S. dominate, taking the national titles in both the girls' and boys' races. It was the first time in 26 years for Sendai Ikuei to achieve the double at Nationals. The girls' race, a half marathon distance split into five sections, featured an early duel between last year's winner Kamimura Gakuen H.S. of Kagoshima prefecture and Sendai Ikuei, 3rd last year. A stage-winning run from third runner Moe Shimizu put Sendai Ikuei into the top position, and from there to the end it held on to the lead to win in 1:07:00, its fourth national title and the fifth-fastest time in event history. Only one other school, Aichi prefecture's Toyokawa H.S. , has ever won Nationals four times. Anchor and team captain Rina Kimura was overjoyed as she commented, "We started the race t...

After a slow start that saw it playing catchup for the first half of the 35th anniversary East Japan Women's Ekiden  in Fukushima today, the Chiba prefecture team came on strong late in the race with three straight stage wins to put anchor Rika Kaseda safely 2:45 out front with 10 km to go. A smaller version of January's National Women's Ekiden, East Japan features 18 teams made up from the best junior high school, high school, university, club, corporate and pro runners from each prefecture in the region. With their home battered by typhoons this fall the Chiba team hoped to pull of a win to give some inspiration to the people back home. Mai Shinozuka , Chika Kosakai and Rika Minami played a big role on the 6th through 8th stages, giving Kaseda, the silver medalist in the half marathon at this year's World University Games, the margin she needed to have a chance against Tokyo's Hitomi Niiya . Last year, in her first road race back from a five-year retirem...