japan running news

by Brett Larner Following the rebranding of the Chiba International Cross-Country Meet earlier this month as the trendier-sounding X-Run Chiba, Japan's mini XC season saw most of its action over the weekend.  The other big domestic meet alongside Chiba, the Fukuoka International Cross-Country Meet was likewise rebranded this year as the National Cross-Country Championships .  Yukari Abe (Team Shimamura) was crowned the first senior women's national champion, winning the 8 km race in 27:13 by a second over Tomoka Kimura (Team Univ. Ent.).  With Ethiopian Kassa Mekashaw (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) running up front to keep the pace hot, first-year pro Takashi Ichida (Team Asahi Kasei) had a surprise win over Hakone Ekiden Fifth Stage star Daichi Kamino (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) and, fresh from breaking 1:01 at the Marugame Half, the ascendant Keijiro Mogi (Asahi Kasei) to pick up the inaugural senior men's 12 km title in 35:59.  Fukiko Ando (Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.) and Sot...

by Brett Larner click here for 2014 men's rankings Back in 2010 JRN interviewed Tsutomu Akiyama , one of the people originally responsible for bringing Kenyans into the high school and collegiate running circuits.  One of the topics at the time was the then-recent move towards restricting non-Japanese athletes to the shortest stages in ekidens to minimize their impact on the races, and in particular the implications for women's running, where at the National Corporate Women's Ekiden African athletes run only 3.6 km instead of the longest stage, 10.9 km, where all the best Japanese athletes run.  At the time Akiyama said, "That kind of idea of restricting runners is incredibly wrong. It’s going to lead to a weaker environment for Japanese women. If we bring a slower runner from Kenya and they train together with the Japanese runners, all the Japanese runners will get stronger from having a more competitive attitude. With just a 3 km stage it’s the same thing as s...

by Brett Larner Two of Japan's elite women-only ekidens founded after the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics celebrated their 30th anniversaries Sunday.  At the Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden , last year's top collegiate team Osaka Gakuin University staged a classic come-from-behind race to take its first Fukui title, covering the six-stage, 30.0 km course in 1:38:23.  Down by more than a minute behind leader Panasonic and in 15th place after the 6.55 km First Stage, each of Osaka Gakuin's next five runners moved up in both stage ranking and overall standing until Sakie Arai took the lead by four seconds over 2014 National University Women's Ekiden champion Ritsumeikan University and by six over Panasonic with a 16:10 stage best on the Fifth Stage.  Anchor Saori Noda then put both Ritsumeikan and Panasonic away with a 24:25 stage best for the 7.45 km Sixth Stage to win by nearly a minute.  Panasonic's anchor, 2014 Gold Coast Airport Marathon winner Asami Kato , overtook Ri...

by Brett Larner Just shy of six months since a stress fracture knocked Enock Omwamba and Yamanashi Gakuin University out of the 2014 Hakone Ekiden , Omwamba sent a clear signal that he is back to full strength.  Omwamba made a tentative return at l ast month's Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships with a double 1500 m and 5000 m win but sat out defending his title in the 10000 m.  In the first meet of this summer's Hokuren Distance Challenge series in Fukagawa, Hokkaido, Omwamba outran a half-dozen corporate-league Africans and top Japanese talent including sub-28 men Chihiro Miyawaki (Team Toyota), Keita Shitara (Team Konica Minolta) and Yuta Shitara (Team Honda) to cut more than 15 seconds off his best as he won the 10000 m A-heat in 28:00.33.  With Omwamba fully recovered, senior Hiroto Inoue having cleared 62 minutes for the half marathon this season, the entire core of Yamanashi Gakuin Prep High School 's 2013 National H.S Ekiden champion t...

by Brett Larner photo by Kazuyuki Sugimatsu Running against the wind,  Kenta Murayama (Komazawa Univ.)  at the 2013 Hakone Ekiden. Japan is sending two strong squads to the Mar. 29 World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, both led by their youngest member and each with a good chance of going home with hardware. There's a lot of buzz domestically about the young and talented men's team, four of its five members between 21 and 23 years old, three of them university runners and three students at or graduates of three-time defending National University Ekiden champion Komazawa University .  Much of the buzz is focused on Komazawa third-year  Kenta Murayama , freshly 21 and on a rapid rise to the very top of the Japanese distance world. Last year at age 19 he cracked the all-time Japanese half marathon top ten with a 1:01:19 in Marugame, following up a month later in 1:02:02 for 10th at the NYC Half Marathon.  This year, just before his 21...

http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/general/2014/02/18/0006719014.shtml translated by Brett Larner On Feb. 18 the Japanese Federation announced  Kenta Murayama  (Komazawa University), 20,  and the other nine members of the Japanese national team for the Mar. 29 World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. Note: 2011-2013 National University Ekiden champion Komazawa's Ikuto Yufu , the 2013 National University 1500 m champion and 1:02:51 at November's Ageo City Half Marathon, has also joined the Mar. 16 New York City Half Marathon field. World Half Marathon Championships - Japanese Team Copenhagen, Denmark, Mar. 29, 2014 Men Kenta Murayama (Komazawa University) - 1:00:50 (Marugame Half 2014) - all-time Japanese #3 Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta) - 1:01:17 (National Corporate Half 2014) Sota Hoshi (Team Fujitsu) - 1:01:18 - (National Corporate Half 2014)  2013 national champion, 5000 m Hiroto Inoue (Yamanashi Gakuin University) - 1:01:39 ...

by Brett Larner Two high-level mid-season women's ekidens held their 29th runnings on Nov. 10.  A dry run for January's National Women's Ekiden and featuring the same format of teams made up of junior high school, high school, university and pro runners from each prefecture, the nine-stage, 42.195 km East Japan Women's Ekiden in Fukushima saw 2010 winner Chiba Prefecture  advance in the second half of the race after a strong Fifth Stage run from ace Yurie Doi  and a brilliant performance from the Seventh Stage's Asahi Tate  to return to the top.  Anchor Mai Shinozuka  had a scare from 2013 London Marathon 3rd-placer Yukiko Akaba  (Tochigi Pref.), but with a starting margin of almost 45 seconds at her disposal fro the 10 km Ninth Stage she was safe enough to run a steady, conservative leg to bring Chiba home in 2:19:23, 27 seconds ahead of Akaba.  Up front through much of the race, Nagano Prefecture was the only other team to break 2:20:00 in ra...

by Brett Larner photos by Kazuyuki Sugimatsu videos by Ekiden News The 232nd edition of 2013 Hakone Ekiden champion Nittai University 's regular time trial meet series was the biggest on record.  After a Saturday dedicated to distances ranging from 800 m to 10000 m, Sunday dawned early for 45 heats of 5000 m, 42 for men and 3 for women, the first starting at 7:30 a.m. and the last at 9:20 p.m.  Mass-producing quality, the 5000 m heats averaged 42 runners each with the two largest having 48 finishers.  Late in the day the heats were beginning every 15 minutes like clockwork.  Performances were equally deep, with the women's 5000 m A-heat seeing the most women ever under 16:30, 38, and the men's 5000 m A-heat with 30 under 14:05 falling just short of the record of 33. The performance of the weekend went to 20-year-old Meiji University junior Genki Yagisawa , a former high school star who has so far struggled to live up to expectations on the university e...

by Brett Larner The threat of heavy rain held off for Sunday's 10th edition of the Twilight Games meet at Tokyo's Oda Field, allowing meet records in five of the meet's twenty-three events.  Both the men's and women's 1500 m saw new records, the men's by Kanto Regionals 1500 m champion Enock Omwamba  (Kenya/Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) just off his PB in 3:40.84 and the women's via Daito Bunka University ace Chikako Mori , who just held off Maya Iino  (Tokyo Nogyo Univ.) in the last 100 m for the record in 4:20.24 with Iino 0.23 seconds behind and also under the old record. The men's 4x100 m and women's 4x400 m relays both saw multiple teams break the record, Chuo University winning the 4x100 m in 39.18 without its star member, 200 m national champion Shota Iizuka , and Nittai University  leading four women's 4x400 m teams under the old record in 3:43.75 thanks in large part to a spectacular anchor run from senior Misaki Ishibashi .  The men'...