japan running news

Komazawa University Takes Overall Hakone Win for First-Ever Triple Crown Ekiden Season Sweep - Jan. 2-3 After winning the first day of the 2023 Hakone Ekiden , Komazawa University joined the exclusive club of teams to pull off the triple crown of wins at the Izumo Ekiden, National University Ekiden and Hakone, dominating the second day to win by just under two minutes over Chuo University . Both teams and 3rd-place Aoyama Gakuin University made the all-time top 10 fastest times , and five men ran the equivalent of a sub-1:01 half marathon. TV viewership was high, with ratings of 35.0% . JRN's pre-race preview . Suzuki, Ichiyama, Koyama and Akasaki Paris-Bound - Japan's Olympic Marathon Trials - Oct. 15 At the Marathon Grand Championship race, Japan's trials for the Paris Olympics and the most difficult marathon ever to qualify for, Yuka Suzuki , Mao Ichiyama , Naoki Koyama and Akira Akasaki all scored places on the Olympic team by finishing in the top two. Ai Hosoda ...

With the deadline for qualification for the Oct. 15 MGC Race Olympic marathon trials coming right up, at Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon eleven Japanese men took a last shot at joining the 67 men and 29 women to have already qualified. Depending on how fast they had already run inside the qualifying window each of the eleven had an individual qualifying standard to run, ranging from 2:08:00 to 2:11:30. But with the difficulties of doubling after having already raced in February or March, long international travel, and hot conditions in the last half hour of the race, none succeeded in hitting their qualifying mark. Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Soft) and Ryo Osaki (Komori Corp.), who both ran 2:08 earlier this year and needed to run in the 2:11 range to make it, and 2:10 runner Chihiro Ono (GMO) lasted the longest, Takeuchi still on track at 35 km and Osaki and Ono right on the cusp at 30 km. But like winner Yihunilign Adane (Ethiopia), who dropped from 2:06 pace at 30 km t...

11 Japanese men are running Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon , the last race worldwide where Japanese athletes can qualify for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials before the May 31 deadline. Streaming starts at 6:30 a.m. local time on May 28, with the race kicking off at 7:00. Leaderboard and tracking are here , with the race app here . Four pacing groups are currently planned in Ottawa, the lead group going after last year's 2:06:04 CR, one group at 2:08:00 pace, one at 2:09:30, and one at 2:15:00. The Japanese men, who need to either run 2:08:00 or faster or have two races averaging 2:10:00 or better inside the qualifying window, will be split between the 2nd and 3rd groups. 67 men have already qualified, and if all goes well in Ottawa that number could end up over 70. A guide to the 11 runners and their target times is here . The complete elite men's field is here , and the women's field here . © 2023 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

The deadline for Japanese athletes to qualify for the MGC Race , Japan's Olympic marathon trials happening Oct. 15 in Tokyo, is May 31. Up to this point 67 men and 29 women have hit the tough qualifying standards that make the MGC Race the hardest marathon in the world to get into. That looks set to be the final number of women, but 11 men will be taking their last shot at making the cut at the May 28 Tartan Ottawa International Marathon . To get in they'll have to either walk away from Ottawa with an average of 2:10:00 or better between what they run there and one other race since the qualifying window opened on Nov. 1, 2021, or run 2:08:00 or faster in Ottawa. The 11 runners break down into four groups. At the top end, Ryo Osaki , Ryoma Takeuchi and Junnosuke Matsuo can all afford to run slower than what they already have in order to hit the 2:10:00 average. Osaki and Takeuchi both have a 2:08 race to their names inside the qualifying window and only need to run 2:11, but t...

Aiming for Olympic trials qualification at Sunday's Rotterdam Marathon , Sakiho Tsutsui (Yamada Holdings) had the closest thing to a good race out of the four elite-level Japanese athletes competing abroad this weekend. Needing to run 2:27:15 for qualification after running a 2:28:45 PB just five weeks ago in Nagoya, Tsutsui was just off target at 5km in 17:29, 2:27:33 pace. She fell progressively further off as she went but rallied in the last 10 km to finish 8th overall in 2:29:09, a solid effort at just 24 seconds off her Nagoya best. Also in Rotterdam, Takashi Ichida (Asahi Kasei) needed to run 2:10:45, just under 3:06/km pace, after a 2:09:15 PB at Beppu-Oita the first weekend of February. Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku) only needed 2:11:40, just over 3:07/km, off a 2:08:20 PB in Osaka at the end of February that put him as the 2nd-fastest Japanese man not to have qualified for October's Olympic trials yet. Mystifyingly, both went out at 3:00/km only to crash and bur...

Last Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon was the last of the main chances for Japanese marathoners to qualify for the Oct. 15 MGC Race, the country's official marathon trials for the 2024 Paris Olympics. At the trials the top 2 finishers will be named to the Olympic team, with the 3rd finisher provisionally in and the 4th and 5th placers named provisional alternates. After that it's one last turn through the winter 2023-24 season of the big domestic races where people will have the chance to steal the 3rd spot on the team and bump the 3rd-placer at the trials down to alternate. The deadline for qualifying for the trials is May 31, and there are still a few smaller domestic races like this Sunday's Tokushima Marathon and April's Nagano Marathon, and overseas races with a World Athletics elite label or better where those who haven't qualified yet can try to make a miracle happen. But for the most part, almost all the real contenders are already in. 62 men and 29...

Three Japanese athletes ran Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon in an effort to score qualifying marks for the 2023 MGC Race, Japan's marathon trials for the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the men's race, Yuta Shimoda (GMO) and Takumi Oishi (Suzuki) went with the leaders all the way until eventual winner Andualem Shiferaw (Ethiopia) made his move before 30 km. Shiferaw, the favorite with a best of 2:05:52, was stellar over the second half, going 1:03:52 / 1:02:12 to set a new course record 2:06:04 for the win. When Shiferaw attacked, Oishi, coached by 2010 Ottawa winner Arata Fujiwara , immediately dropped off, ultimately finishing 8th in 2:15:50. Shimoda, who ran 2:08:35 at March's Tokyo Marathon and needed to run 2:11:25 here to qualify for the trials, hung on to 3rd, overtaken by Abdi Ali Gelchu (Bahrain) and dropping to 4th at one point but running down Leonard Langat (Kenya) just before the finish to retake 3rd. Yamaguchi went out in a pack of 6 women that...

Running with support from JRN, Takumi Oishi and Haruka Yamaguchi will be making their Canadian debuts at Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon . Japan's Olympic marathon trials are the hardest marathon in the world to qualify for, and both Oishi and Yamaguchi will be going for times that will help put them in position to make the September 2023 trials race. The auto-qualifier times for races outside Japan, 2:08:00 for men and 2:24:00, are pretty ambitious, but with an option for qualifying via a two-race average of 2:10:00 for men and 2:28:00 for women both Oishi and Yamaguchi will be aiming to get under those times in Ottawa before hitting a second race next winter. Oishi, a graduate of Josai University , was 4th on the Eighth Stage at the 2018 Hakone Ekiden. He now runs for the Suzuki corporate team alongside 2021 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Michael Githae . His coach at Suzuki is Arata Fujiwara , who won Ottawa in 2010 in 2:09:34, the first man to brea...

2012 London Olympian Arata Fujiwara , 37, announced his retirement from competition on April 1. Effective the same day he will join the Suzuki Hamamatsu AC coaching staff. Translator's note: The most wildly unpredictable of Japan's elite marathoners, Fujiwara's achievements included a 2:07:48 PB that at the time ranked him all-time Japanese #7, a 2:09:34 course record at the 2010 Ottawa Marathon that made him the first Japanese man in 23 years to win a marathon outside Japan sub-2:10, three 2nd-place finishes at the Tokyo Marathon, becoming only the fifth Japanese man to score five career sub-2:10s, and representing Japan at the 2009 Berlin World Championships and 2012 London Olympics. His 2010 decision to quit the corporate league system and get individual sponsorship led the way for others including future national record holder Suguru Osako and Hakone Ekiden star Daichi Kamino to do the same.  source article: https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20190401-00000146...

Last weekend's Ottawa Marathon  was the final IAAF gold label marathon of the spring season, marking a lull until July's Gold Coast Airport Marathon and August's London World Championships . Gold label events are required to recruit elite athletes of a variety of nationalities under specific time standards, currently 2:10:00 for men and 2:28:00 for women in the marathon, in order to earn that label. Nike's Breaking2 experiment aside, the Tokyo Marathon men's race was the best of the season, led by Wilson Kipsang 's year-leading 2:03:58 Japanese all-comers record. Mary Keitany 's 2:17:01 women-only world record likewise marked the London Marathon as the top women's race so far this year. But looking beyond just the fastest winning time, what were the best marathons in the first five months of 2017 by depth of quality? The races with the most gold label performances, the standard that the IAAF has decreed as the top level of the sport? Below are the ...

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/ottawa-marathon-2015-mekuria-birhanu Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon Ottawa, Canada, 5/24/15 click here for complete results Women 1. Aberu Zennebe (Ethiopia) - 2:25:30 2. Rebecca Chesir (Kenya) - 2:25:41 3. Abebech Afework (Ethiopia) - 2:25:53 4. Agnes Kiprop (Kenya) - 2:26:12 5. Meselech Melkamu (Ethiopia) - 2:26:45 ----- 11. Rika Shintaku (Japan/Shimamura) - 2:33:34 DNF - Zivile Balciunaite (Lithuania) Men 1. Girmay Birhanu (Ethiopia) - 2:08:14 2. Philip Kangogo (Kenya) - 2:09:56 3. Chele Dechase (Ethiopia) - 2:09:59 4. Rachid Kisri (Morocco) - 2:10:18 5. Peter Kirui (Kenya) - 2:10:23 ----- DNF - Deriba Merga (Ethiopia)

by Brett Larner photo courtesy of Remo System Arata Fujiwara will be the best Japanese man to have ever run the ING New York City Marathon. That’s a safe statement to make considering that the best Japanese marathoners are never able to run New York due to the demands of the regional corporate ekiden qualifiers held in early November. But Fujiwara had dreamed of running New York since his high school days in Nagasaki, and he found his own solution for the dilemma of not being able to run: despite being one of Japan’s best current marathoners, with a 2:08:40 PB, two runner-up spots at Tokyo and a 3rd at Fukuoka that put him into the Berlin World Championships, he quit his corporate team cold this spring in order to be free to race where and when he wanted. And that meant New York. First off the bat in his new solo career was a dry run, May’s Ottawa Marathon, a race with the same time difference from Japan as New York and a similar course, hilly with a combination of sharp curves and lo...

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2010060200286 translated and edited by Brett Larner Following his course-record win at the May 30 Ottawa Marathon , Berlin World Championships marathoner Arata Fujiwara announced on June 1 that he will run the Nov. 7 ING New York City Marathon . Speaking at a press conference in New York following a tour of the marathon's hilly course, Fujiwara told members of the media, "I think the Ottawa Marathon was the perfect experience to be ready for the ING New York City Marathon." Fujiwara will be the best Japanese man to have ever run in New York, the only major marathon to have never had a Japanese winner. "I've always wanted to run the ING New York City Marathon because it's the most famous marathon in the world and this where all the great runners come," he said at the press conference. "You have to win here to be the best." He also plans to run July's Sapporo International Half Marathon as part of his ...

http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/othersports/2010/05/30/14192046.html Also, the CTV national news coverage of the race: http://watch.ctv.ca/news/#clip307787

by Brett Larner photos by Brett Larner except Deriba Merga and Arata Fujiwara by Yasunori Sakamaki In his first race since his unprecedented departure from Team JR Higashi Nihon at the end of March, Arata Fujiwara won the 2010 Ottawa Marathon on May 30. Fujiwara broke the existing course record by one minute two seconds, outkicking Kenyan Laban Moiben and junior world record holder Bazu Worku of Ethiopia to win in 2:09:33.4. His time on the difficult course was the fastest of the year by a Japanese man and came three months after his 2nd place finish in sleet and wind at February's Tokyo Marathon. A slower than expected first 10 km over challenging hills through Quebec scuttled the expected attack on the Canadian all-comers record on 2:08:32 from last fall's Toronto Waterfront Marathon, but the top four men all broke the previous course record of 2:10:35. Two of the three pacemakers dropped off far earlier than planned, leaving Kenyan Festus Langat to do the rest of the wo...

http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/local/article/536794--canadian-record-in-runner-s-sights 2010 Ottawa Marathon top four invited men, L-R: Marathon junior world record holder Bazu Worku (Ethiopia), 4-time Ottawa Marathon champion David Cheruiyot (Kenya), 2009 World Championships marathoner Arata Fujiwara (Japan), and 2006 Cologne Marathon winner Teferi Wodajo (Ethiopia). Photo by Yasunori Sakamaki.

JRN will be on location at the 2010 Ottawa Marathon for the next week. Apologies for any interruptions to regularly scheduled service during this time, but we will be bringing you exclusive coverage throughout race weekend. This year's outstanding men's field includes world junior record holder Bazu Worku (Ethiopia), 2:07 men Philip Manyim (Kenya) and Teferi Wodajo (Ethiopia), 2:08 runner Arata Fujiwara (Japan) and defending champion David Cheruiyot (Kenya). The 10 km features luminaries Deriba Merga (Ethiopia) and Dire Tune (Ethiopia). For complete elite field listings, click here for the marathon or here for the 10 km .

http://runottawa.ca/index.php/en/media/media-centre/2010/05/19/550 Arata Fujiwara (Proposer Japan) makes his racing debut since going independent last month at the May 30 Ottawa Marathon . 2010 Ottawa Marathon Elite Field - Top Entrants click here for complete elite field listing Men Bazu Worku (Ethiopia) - 2:06:15 (2009) Philip Manyim (Kenya) - 2:07:41 (2005) Teferi Wodajo (Ethiopia) - 2:07:45 (2009) Arata Fujiwara (Japan) - 2:08:40 (2008) Hussan Adelo (Ethiopia) - 2:09:09 (2010) Hillary Kimaiyo (Kenya) - 2:09:54 (2008) John Njoroge (Kenya) - 2:10:00 (2006) Wegayehu Girma Tefera (Ethiopia) - 2:10:09 (2010) Gebo Burka Gameda (Ethiopia) - 2:10:18 (2009) David Cheruiyot (Kenya) - 2:10:36 (2007) Women Rose Kerubo (Kenya) - 2:29:22 (2007) Lioudmila Kortchaguila (Canada) - 2:29:42 (2007) Alemitu Abera (Ethiopia) - 2:31:01 (2010) Merima Mohammed (Ethiopia) - 2:33:56 (2009) Radiya Adlo (Ethiopia) - 2:35:00 (2009) 10 km click here for complete elite field listing Men Deriba Merga (Ethiopia) -...