japan running news

January's Hakone Ekiden has a big impact on the shape of the fall season for Japanese collegiate men. The top 10 teams at Hakone run this past Monday's Izumo Ekiden , where 6 runners per team run an average of 7.5 km. 11th-place and lower run Saturday's Yosenkai, the half marathon used to fill the 10 remaining slots in the Hakone field and the lineup of the select team made up of top-placing individuals from universities that don't qualify as a team. The 42 teams at the Yosenkai can run up to 12 people, with the times of their first 10 finishers adding up to a team score and the 10 fastest teams going on to the big show. At Izumo a lot of the top teams were down on track times this season . At the Yosenkai it's really noticeable how much the level has come up. In 2023 only 2 teams, Daito Bunka University and Tokyo Kokusai University , had a 10-runner 10000 m average under 29 minutes. Last year there were 3, Chuo University , Tokai University and TKU again. This ...

Saturday is the official qualifying event for the 99th running of the world's greatest road race. Back on its regular course after two years as loop around a runway, the Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai half marathon has the 11th through 53rd-ranked men's university teams in the greater Tokyo area racing it out to be in the top 10 and score a place in Hakone in January. All 43 teams field from 10 to 12 runners with their first 10 finishers scoring and teams ranked on their scoring runners' total combined times. It's tense, dramatic, and every second from every runner really does count. Sometimes the difference between 10th and 11th in the team scoring comes down to a fraction of that per runner. NTV will be broadcasting it live starting at 9:25 a.m. local time Saturday. It doesn't need to be said that proven half marathon ability is the best predictor of half marathon success, but given that teams can qualify runners via 10000 m best that's what organizers KGRR list in ...

http://www.saitama-np.co.jp/news/2017/02/06/08.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 111 men's and women's teams took part in the 84th edition of the Saitama Ekiden on Feb. 5, running from Saitama Shintoshin to Kumagaya Sports Park Field.  Fresh from representing Saitama for the first time at December's National High School Ekiden, the Honjo Higashi H.S. girls scored their first-ever Saitama Ekiden win, covering the five-stage, 20.5 km women's course in 1:12:14.  Honjo Higashi's third, fourth and fifth runners Mayuko Saito , Nanami Ishihara and Tomomi Miyasaki each won their stages to move up their team up place by place into 1st after a slow start. In the six-stage, 42.195 km men's race, Nihon Yakka University took the top position for the first time in 2:08:13 thanks in part to a 36:07 course record on the 12.1 km Third Stage by Kenyan Simon Kariuki .  The Musashino Ogoshi H.S. boys were the top-finishing high school position for the first tim...