japan running news

A close 2nd at December's National High School Ekiden , 90% of the members of the five-time national champion Omuta H.S. team in Fukuoka will transfer to Tottori Johoku H.S. in Tottori at the start of the new school year next month. The mass transfer comes as a backlash against Omuta's treatment of head coach Ken Akaike , 52, with most team members and parents choosing to continue running under Akaike following his move to Johoku. Akaike had resigned as head coach at Omuta in March, 2023 after it came out that he had used corporal punishment on team members. But many team members at the time and their parents asked him to continue, and he returned to a coaching position at the school after undergoing training. Effectively serving as head coach, he led the team at last December's National High School Ekiden where they finished 2nd in a close-fought battle that went all the way to the end. According to multiple sources, in November the month before the National High School ...

While the girls' race was a blowout by 2022 champ Nagano Higashi H.S. , the boys' race at Sunday's National High School Ekiden was a tense battle of turnover that saw all of the final top four teams take a stab at leading. 2023 3rd-placer Yachiyo Shoin H.S. handled the first 2 of the 7 stages in the 42.195 km race, with lead runner Rui Suzuki delivering a bold run on the 10.0 km First Stage that produced the fastest-ever time by a Japanese runner on the stage, 28:43, and put Yachiyo Shoin 29 seconds out front. Last year's Fifth Stage CR breaker Tetsu Suzuki ran Yachiyo Shoin down to put 2023 champ Saku Chosei H.S. into 1st on the 8.1075 km Third Stage, but Genta Sugano of last year's 8th-placer Sendai Ikuei H.S. had other plans and took the lead on the 8.0875 km Fourth Stage. Smiling and fist pumping to the crowd almost the entire way, Taketo Tsukada of last year's 6th-placer Omuta H.S. moved up from 3rd to 1st by 2 seconds over Saku Chosei on the 3.0 k...

Ekiden season saw two of its first important races happen this weekend. Modeled after January's Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden, Sunday's Okukuma Ekiden in Kumamoto put corporate, collegiate and high school teams together on a marathon-length course with teams of 4 all running double-digit distances and high schoolers with teams of 7 and all but the 10.0 km First Stage split into two parts. Tosu Kogyo H.S. starting runner Taiyo Iwasa led corporate leaguer Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) by 2 seconds on the First Stage, with Omuta H.S. third runner Yuma Matsuda passing both teams to take the lead. It took until the anchor stage for Hiramatsu Byoin's Yeneblo Biyazen to catch Omuta, crossing the line in 2:06:39 with Omuta anchor Nobuyuki Anai 7 seconds back for 1st in the high school division. Soka University was the only other team to go under 2:07, 3rd overall and 2nd in the college/corporate division in 2:06:57. Rakunan H.S. was next in 2:07:07, with e...

The National Track and Field Championships in Niigata were the main event this weekend, but up north where it's cooler there were three important road races.   Chuo University won the 7-stage, 66.2 km university men's race at Saturday's 71st Oga Ekiden in Akita. Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University led on the first two stages, but on the 7.5 km Third Stage Chuo's Rei Yamahira took over the top spot and never let go. Chuo won in 3:22:42, with Aoyama Gakuin ultimately a minute and a half back in 3:24:12. Tokyo Kokusai University was a close 3rd in 3:24:53. Running the same distance, the Shingenden corporate team was the top placer in the open division in 3:31:06, well back from 4th-place university team Toyo University . Omuta H.S. won the 7-stage, 49.5 km high school boys' division in 2:30:10, with Sendai Ikuei H.S. taking the top 2 spots in the 5-stage, 21.3 km high school girls' race, its A-team winning in 1:08:56. Complete results here . At th...

On Apr. 13 it was learned that the Nagasaki Track and Field Association has suspended a male coach in his 40s at a high school in Nagasaki for entering two incoming junior high school student runners as high school first-years at a track meet in late March. Calling the coach's actions inappropriate, the NTFA suspended him for two months. According to the NTFA and other sources, the time trial meet took place in Omuta, Fukuoka on Mar. 26 and 27 this year. The two third-year junior high school student runners, who were set to join the high school team at the start of the new school year on Apr. 1, ran in the 1500 m. "I thought it would be OK to enter them as new students," the coach said. "My mistake." On Apr. 6 the JAAF received complaints that the rules had been broken, leading to the NTFA investigating what had happened. A spokesperson for the NTFA commented, "The athletes were negatively impacted by the coach's lack of awareness. Because he showed in...

In the MIkawa neighborhood of Omuta, Fukuoka, the udon restaurant Donbeian was among the many victims of the large-scale flooding to strike Kyushu. Despite there being little chance the restaurant will be able to reopen in the foreseeable future, the entire local Omuta H.S. boys' ekiden team turned up on July 10 to help clean it out as a gesture of support for owner and Omuta H.S. alumnus Hirofumi Esaki , 66. Even as the rains continued to fall Esaki said, "Thanks to the kids I can at least see a way forward now. Donbeian will definitely be back." Floodwaters overcame the restaurant midday on July 6, rapidly rising to waist-deep level. Tables and seats from the customer area were strewn everywhere, with cooking utensils and bowls floating in the muddy waters. "I was in the second-floor office," recalled Esaki. "It was all I could do to get the heavy noodle-stretching machine away from the water and up to a higher place." By July 8 the floodwaters...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20140807-OHT1T50169.html translated by Brett Larner Tossed about by the winds of a complex fate, Josai University 's twin runners Ryota and Keita Kishima , both seniors, face their final year at the Hakone Ekiden together.  At the last Hakone this past January, the younger Keita was scheduled to run the anchor Tenth Stage but was replaced by the older Ryota on race morning.  In his debut at Japan's greatest race Ryota finished only 18th, while Keita still awaits what will be his first and last time setting foot on Hakone's hallowed ground.  This season the pair are aiming to make the team together, handing off the tasuki one to another and going for the top. This year Hakone celebrated its 90th running.  Course record holder Toyo University 's twins Yuta Shitara (now Team Honda) and Keita Shitara (now Team Konica Minolta) won the Third and Fifth Stages, playing crucial roles in guaranteeing Toyo the overall win.  While...

http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nnp/f_chikugo/article/101635 translated by Brett Larner photo by rikujolove Omuta H.S. second-year Shota Onizuka , 16, is bound for Eugene, Oregon in the U.S.A. where he will compete in the July 22-27 World Junior Championships.  The meet features outstanding under-20 competitors from around the world including 43 from Japan selected from among the country's best high school and university athletes. Onizuka is the first-ever Omuta H.S. student to be picked for the national team.  Last year he was Omuta's anchor in its runner-up finish at the National High School Ekiden Championships.  On the track he was also 2nd in a tight race at the National High School Championships, but the disappointment of losing by a margin of only one second served as motivation for his training and at a time trial meet this May he ran 13:58.43, the fastest time so far this year by a Japanese high schooler [above photo] . Onizuka leaves Japan on July 17 and...

by Brett Larner Two weeks after finishing 4th and 6th in 1:02:44 and 1:02:58 at the Great North Run half marathon, London Olympian Arata Fujiwara  (Miki House) and the Koichi Morishita -coached Ryuji Watanabe  (Team Toyota Kyushu) scored wins on the roads at opposite ends of Japan. Running at Hokkaido's Hakodate Half Marathon  against a strong domestic field including perennial rival Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't) who was 8th at the Great North Run, Fujiwara bided his time in hot conditions before attacking 2008 World Half Marathon 5th-placer  Yusei Nakao  and Taiga Ito  of Suzuki Hamamatsu AC with 1.5 km to go and taking the win in 1:04:19.  "It was quite hot out there, so it ended up being a slow day," Fujiwara told JRN post-race.  After not having raced domestically since last December, though, he added, "Everyone made it a great race and I'm really happy to have gotten the win."  It was only the third road race vi...

by Brett Larner Having been runner-up in the Fukuoka Prefecture Road Race Championships 10-miler twice, the popular Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) finally took the win in the 2012 edition, Sept. 30 in Omuta, Fukuoka. Despite tough conditions at the tail end of the passing typhoon that stuck Japan over the weekend, Imai outpaced teammates Ryuji Watanabe and Yuki Oshikawa over the latter stages of the race to win in 47:53, the second-fastest known time in the Championships' 66-year history behind only Beijing Olympics marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru 's 46:18 course record from 2005 and the first Japanese man to break 48 minutes on the challenging Omuta course since 2003. As his best performance since his 2:10:32 PB at last year's Fukuoka International Marathon, Imai's run bodes well for the upcoming season and his bid to make the Moscow World Championships marathon team after missing out on London. 66th Fukuoka Prefecture Road Race Championships Omuta, F...

by Brett Larner After a string of runner-up placings, Team Toyota Kyushu ace Yu Mitsuya took his second win Oct. 3 at the Omuta Road Race 10 Miler , site of the annual Fukuoka Prefectural Road Championships. Mitsuya easily handled the competition, runner-up Shuji Yoshikawa (Team Kyudenko) finishing 16 seconds back. Defending champion Kentaro Nakamoto (Team Yasukawa Denki) was only 10th in 49:04. In the women's 5 km, Kenyan Sally Chepyego (Team Kyudenko) outkicked Fukuoka University's Rina Hidaki for the win in a modest 16:23. Local boy Atsushi Yamasaki (Omuta H.S.) took the high school boys' 10 km in 32:59. 2010 Fukuoka Prefectural Road Championships Omuta, Fukuoka, 10/3/2010 click here for complete results Men's 10 Miler 1. Yu Mitsuya (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 48:23 2. Shuji Yoshikawa (Team Kyudenko) - 48:39 3. Ryuji Watanabe (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 48:42 4. Teruo Taneno (Team Yasukawa Denki) - 48:48 5. Hayato Ideue (Team Toyota Kyushu) - 48:48 6. Yuki Oshikawa (Tea...