japan running news

In contrast to hot and sunny conditions at yesterday's men's triathlon , the Tokyo Olympics women's triathlon went off Tuesday morning as the southern edge of a passing typhoon skirted the Tokyo area. Great Britain's Jessica Learmonth  led an initial breakaway group of seven through the swim and was in it through the bike. American Katie Zaferes  took over the front group shook down to just her, Learmonth, German Laura Lindemann  and Bermuda's Flora Duffy .  Duffy hammered the run, covering it in 33:00 and opening a lead of over a minute to take gold in 1:55:36, the first Olympic triathlon medal female or male for Bermuda. Zaferes dropped the others in the front group to move into 2nd, but on the third lap she was caught by Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown , one of the people to have dropped back from the leaders on the bike. On the final lap Taylor-Brown broke away from Zaferes to take silver in 1:56:50. Zaferes held on to bronze in 1:57:03. Japan's Nii...

by Brett Larner photos by Chris Godfrey , Martin Yelling and Brett Larner Making her international marathon debut in excellent conditions on an almost perfectly flat course, Yoshiko Sakamoto (Y.W.C.) won the Zurich Marathon with an evenly-paced solo run that put her more than 8 minutes ahead of runner-up Nicola Spirig (Switzerland), the London Olympics triathlon gold medalist.  A 36-year-old mother of three , Sakamoto was a high school star who quit running completely for 9 years before starting again in her early 30s and set a PB 2:36:29 in January this year. Running in Zurich with support from JRN and targeting a 2:34 PB, Sakamoto was slightly off pace from the beginning but never flagged dramatically, going through halfway in 1:18:18 and facing headwinds on the return trip into town before crossing the finish line first in 2:37:47. Australia's Jane Fardell , a late addition to the field, ran 2nd throughout the race but with a little over a km to go was run down by ...

by Brett Larner What if you could have a second chance?  Drifting toward 40, long out of the game, the chance to make all the things you thought you would do when you were younger happen.  What if you had the chance to answer the question, "What if?" In the mid-90s Yoshiko Sakamoto , then Yoshiko Akiba, was one of the top high school runners in Japan, beating future marathon national record holders Yoko Shibui and Mizuki Noguchi on the most competitive stage at the National High School Ekiden Championships and setting a still-standing Fukushima prefecture record for 5 km on the roads.  After graduating in 1997 she and Shibui joined the Mitsui Kaijo corporate team alongside two-time World Championships marathon medalist Reiko Tosa , forming the core of a lineup that would make Mitsui Kaijo into one of the most dominant teams of the day. At Mitsui Kaijo she had a smattering of success, again beating Noguchi on the track at the 1997 National Corporate Championships...