japan running news

At the 48th Kanagawa Half Marathon at Yokohama's Nissin Olio Group's Isogo Plant, Jinya Ozaki (Teikyo Univ.) outran tough competition from National University Ekiden champion Komazawa University and Hakone Ekiden winner Aoyama Gakuin University to take 1st in the men's race in 1:02:04. AGU's Sho Fukutomi was 2nd in 1:02:07, with Komazawa's Rinta Muta 3rd in 1:02:08. High schooler Nichika Maeda (Miura Gakuen H.S.) took the women's race in 1:16:30. But it was another high schooler who made headlines. 3rd-year Koki Matsuo (Shiritsu Funabashi H.S.) ran 1:02:47, taking 28 seconds off the fastest half marathon time ever run by a Japanese-born high school student. Last summer Matsuo ran the 5000 m at the National High School Track and Field Championships, and in November he went under 14 minutes for 5000 m, his time of 13:55.07 putting him into the top class of high school running. At last fall's Chiba Prefectural High School Ekiden Matsuo set a new CR of 2...

Japan's best collegiate meet started Thursday at Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium with the 104th edition of the Kanto Region University Track and Field Championships . On the track only three finals happened, with the D1 women's 10000 m getting things rolling. In windy conditions meet record holder Sarah Wanjiru (3rd yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) pulled off a slow burner, leading start to finish but starting off on mid-33 pace and gradually ratcheting it up. Haruka Ogawa (3rd yr., Rikkyo Univ.) was the last one to stay with her, but by just past halfway Wanjiru was on her own and kept up the acceleration the whole way to win in 32:25.78. Ogawa was next in 33:10.37, with Mariya Noda (3rd yr., Daito Bunka Univ.) shaking off Yume Miyake (2nd yr., Takushoku Univ.) for 3rd in 33:34.46. Tomonori Yamaguchi (4th yr., Waseda Univ.) got the D1 men's 10000 m off to a fast start with a 2:43 opening 10000 m that killed off everyone except James Mutuku (4th yr., Yamanashi Gakuin Uni...

In our post-Hakone Ekiden analysis of this year's record-breaking race we wrote that winner Aoyama Gakuin University head coach Susumu Hara excels at developing depth of quality and can usually fill gaps caused by graduation. It's a sign of how much depth he has that his B- and C-squad runners occupied podium places at two fast half marathons just a week after Hakone. The Takanezawa Genki-Up Half Marathon in Tochigi is the usual destination for AGU benchwarmers and has seen some breakthrough performances from future A-squad stars. Local independent Ryuichi Yoshioka got the win in 1:03:00, but AGU runners took the next 6 spots, all under 1:03:40, led by Riku Anjima and Daiki Sasaki in 1:03:04 and 1:03:06. And they weren't even the fastest AGU people in action. At the rebranded Tokyo New Year Half Marathon , previously the Hi-Tech Half, Kaito Nakamura and Kyosuke Hiramatsu went head-to-head with former 10000 m NR holder Kota Murayama from the GMO corporate team. ...

Running with three returning members of last year's course record-breaking team, Nagano pulled off another CR to win its 3rd-straight National Men's Ekiden title Sunday in Hiroshima thanks in large part to a stellar run from anchor Mebuki Suzuki from Komazawa University . Last year's opening leg 3rd-placer Ryuto Kawahara of Nagasaki got things started with a 2:44 opening km on the 7.0 km First Stage, then let 2023 National High School Ekiden First Stage winner Sota Orita of Hyogo take over. Orita did most of the work through the middle part of the stage, then with 1.5 km to go Kawahara attacked and pulled away to break the 19:39 CR set by Sonata Nagashima last year by 8 seconds. It was one of those runs that makes the National Men's Ekiden great, with someone from a high school that isn't good enough to make Nationals taking down one of the big stars whose team did. In a four-way sprint for 2nd Nagano's Yamato Hamaguchi was 4th and Orita 5th, both one s...