japan running news

Ryo Kiname age: 28 sponsor: MHPS graduated from: Keiho H.S. best time inside MGC window: 2:08:08, 7th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon PB: 2:08:08, 7th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 13:40.62 (2012) 10000 m: 28:18.52 (2011) half marathon: 1:02:22 (2012) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 26th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon, 2:17:19 DNF, 2018 Chicago Marathon 7th, 2018 Tokyo Marathon, 2:08:08 – PB other major results: 25th, 2019 Shibetsu Half Marathon, 1:06:50 9th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Fifth Stage (12.1 km), 36:50 3rd, 2017 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:10:30 5th, 2016 Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler, 46:47 1st, 2016 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:13:16 8th, 2014 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:12:46 Kiname is another of the handful of men in the field who didn’t go to university, going straight to the strong MHPS team after high school. He had a good arc to his early marathon career, 2:12:46 in Beppu-Oita in 2014, a 2:13:16 win at the Hokkaido Marathon in 2016, and a 2:10:30 b...

Yuji Iwata age: 32 sponsor: MHPS graduated from: Fukuoka Kogyo H.S. best time inside MGC window: 2:09:30, 6th, 2019 Beppu-Oita Marathon PB: 2:09:30, 6th, 2019 Beppu-Oita Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 14:08.35 (2014) 10000 m: 28:53.82 (2010) half marathon: 1:03:38 (2011) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 6th, 2019 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:09:30 – PB 7th, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:15:09 46th, 2018 Lake Biwa Marathon, 2:24:00 other major results: 22nd, 2019 Shibetsu Half Marathon, 1:06:44 3rd, 2019 New Year Ekiden Seventh Stage (15.5 km), 45:50 8th, 2017 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, 2:12:15 4th, 2015 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:17:29 One of the things about Japanese marathoning, especially on the men’s side, is that the depth makes it so that there’s usually going to be some random guy who busts a 2:08~2:10 out of nowhere. Put Iwata into that category. One of only three men in the field who didn’t go to university, at age 32 Iwata has been in th...

Kenyan Razini Lemeteki (Takushoku Univ.) and relative unknown Nanami Aoki (Iwatani Sangyo) took the top spots in hot and sunny conditions at the Shibetsu Half Marathon in Hokkaido. With Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) doing early frontrunning in the men's race only to fade to a 20th-place finish in 1:06:40 Lemeteki had little competition for the win in 1:03:25. 2017 Shibetsu winner  Tsubasa Hayakawa (Toyota) was the top Japanese man at 2nd in 1:03:42, beating MGC Race Olympic marathon trials qualifiers Daichi Kamino (New Balance) and Naoki Okamoto (Chugoku Denryoku) - by 4 seconds and 11 seconds. Other MGC Race qualifiers Masato Imai (Toyota Jidoshokki), Yuji Iwata (MHPS) and Ryo Kiname (MHPS) all struggled, none of them breaking 66 minutes. Aoki won the women's race easily in 1:15:12 by almost a minute over Mai Nagaoka (Sysmex). MGC Race qualifiers Reia Iwade (Under Armour) and Keiko Nogami (Juhachi Ginko) were listed to start but apparently did not run. 33rd S...

The JAAF held a press conference on June 3 to announce the women's and men's fields for Japan's 2020 Olympic marathon trials , the Sept. 15 MGC Race . Following the announcement last week of the Japanese marathon teams for this year's Doha World Championships the complete entry lists for the MGC Race feature just 12 women and 31 men, of whom at least two will score places on the ultra-prestigious home soil marathon teams for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. With Daiji Kawai (Toenec) also named alternate for the Doha team the men's list could shrink to 30 if anyone in the Doha lineup gets injured, and there is a good chance that some people won't make it to the starting line. On the women's side nothing has been seen this year of Hanami Sekine , one of two runners from the Japan Post team to make the entry list, since a lackluster run at December's Corporate Women's Time Trials 10000 m. Mizuki Matsuda , also one of two Daihatsu runners on the list, h...

The 2019 Tokyo Marathon is this Sunday. Storylines and subplots of this year’s race: The Women The Tokyo Marathon has its roots as an elite men-only race. It’s taken twelve years since 18-year-old Hitomi Niiya became its first female winner, for no prize money or recognition (“I got a nice finisher’s medal” she told JRN last week), for the Tokyo women’s race to get up to parity with the men’s. It’s been a slow, step-by-step process, but this year at last parity has been achieved. If anything the women’s field is better than the men’s. Even before the withdrawal of the top two men there were more high-level international women in the field than men, and that’s even more so now. Ethiopian power trio Ruti Aga , Boru Feyse Tadese and Yebrgual Melese all have the skills to better Sarah Chepchirchir ’s 2:19:47 course record and its likely replacement, last year’s 2:19:51 win by Birhane Dibaba , Aga talking 2:18:30 at the pre-race press conference. But with six other women in the f...

Hot on the heels of the London Marathon field announcement, the Tokyo Marathon has put its 2019 elite field into the public sphere. With a new date a week later on March 3rd thanks to the impending Imperial succession Tokyo has at last put together a proper elite women's field at parity with the men's field, one including top-level Japanese women for the first time. Change is slow to come, but with this field it looks like it has arrived. 2:18:34 for 2nd in Berlin last year, Ethiopian Ruti Aga leads 14 women with times 2:23 or better in the last 3 years. Half are Ethiopian, two Kenyan, two Bahraini and three Japanese, with two high-level first-timers, Kenya's Joan Chelimo Melly and Japan's Mao Ichiyama , tacked on. #2 through #4-ranked women Boru Feyse Tadese , Yebrgual Melese and Ababel Yeshaneh all ran 2:19 to 2:20 last year, making the chances of an Ethiopian sweep definitely greater than zero. The structure of Japanese national team selection and marketin...

2018 Jakarta Asian Games men's marathon gold medalist Hiroto Inoue (26, MHPS) announced Jan. 10 that he this season he will tackle one of the world's highest-level races, April's Boston Marathon. "Not having pacers in a race adds its own kind of stress," he said. "I want to race it seriously as a step toward what's coming up." The Boston Marathon is famous for its uphills late in the race. September's MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials event also features an uphill at 37 km, and the opportunity to get the same kind of experience was enough to convince him to run. Originally Inoue had been looking at running March's Tokyo Marathon where he ran 2:06:54 last year, but, he said, "I want to run for time when the time comes to run for it. This year is about finding out how competitively I can race." Inoue made his announcement just before departing for a training camp in New Zealand along with his MHPS teammate Ryo Kiname , 28. ...

It was a pretty good year for the Japanese men, in the marathon at least. Not so much on the track and less so in the half marathon, but very decent in the marathon. On the track, the fastest 5000 m time was only 13:29.11 by national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) and in the 10000 m 27:55.85 by all-time #2 man Tetsuya Yoroizaka (Asahi Kasei). With the IAAF announcing 13:22.50 and 27:40.00 standards for next year's Doha World Championships after doing an about-face on its plans to base everything on world rankings it's pretty likely that, for the second World Championships in a row, there won't be a single Japanese man running either distance. Of the 4 still-active Japanese men to have ever bettered the 5000 m standard nobody has done it in the 3 and 1/2 years since Osako and Yoroizaka did in July, 2015. Likewise in the 10000 m, where none of the 5 currently active men to have cracked 27:40 has done it since 2015. Neither distance saw any me...

Just over seven months since Yuta Shitara broke Toshinari Takaoka 's longstanding 2:06:16 national record from the 2002 Chicago Marathon with a 2:06:11 in Tokyo in February, U.S.-based Suguru Osako  brought the record back home to Chicago with a 3rd-place finish in 2:05:50. Running the same pattern as in his first two marathons, Osako sat back in the lead men's pack, never exerting himself as it whittled down to the core members. Just past the turn into Chinatown near 35 km his Nike Oregon Project teammate and 2017 Chicago winner Galen Rupp fell off the front group to leave Osako in contention with former NOP member Mo Farah , 2:04 Ethiopian Mosinet Gemerew , former Asahi Kasei runner Kenneth Kipkemoi and 2017 world champion Geoffrey Kirui . As in Boston and Fukuoka last year, when the real move came, this time in the form of a surge by Farah and Gemerew, Osako was left behind to battle it out for 3rd. While Farah kicked away for the win by 13 seconds in a European rec...

Motivated in part by the legacy of Toshinari Takaoka 's longstanding former national record of 2:06:16 at its 2002 race, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon has long been a draw for top-level Japanese athletes male and female. Few men have made much of an impact in Chicago, with none making the top five in the last 14 years and only two, Hiroaki Sano and  Koji Kobayashi , breaking 2:11 in the same time period. But they still keep coming, and this year's crew of five looks to have the best chance of bettering the results of the last decade and a half. 【 #シカゴ・マラソン 】 10月7日（日）号砲🔥 #川内優輝 選手（埼玉県庁）、 #大迫傑 選手（Nike）、 #木滑良 選手（MHPS）、 #鈴木洋平 選手（愛三工業）、 #藤本拓 選手（トヨタ自動車）の大会前コメントです🇯🇵🎤🙋‍♂️ ▼こちらから▼ https://t.co/En6uRnqTNj #JAAF #陸上 #ChicagoMarathon #MGC pic.twitter.com/VyjFpTjzdI — JAAF（日本陸上競技連盟） (@jaaf_official) October 6, 2018 Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) PB: 2:15:30 (15th, Lake Biwa Marathon, 2018) Major recent results: 7:59.30 - PB (6th, Hokuren Distance Challenge...

A Bank of America Chicago Marathon press release. The Bank of America Chicago Marathon announced today that several international running stars are joining the 41st annual Bank of America Chicago Marathon elite athlete competition. Past champions Abel Kirui (KEN) and Dickson Chumba (KEN) lead the charge on the men’s side, and 2017 runner-up Brigid Kosge i (KEN) and two-time podium finisher Birhane Dibaba (ETH) stand out among the women. They will join previously announced global sensations Mo Farah (GBR), Yuki Kawauchi (JPN) and Suguru Osako (JPN). Note: The previously-announced Chihiro Miyawaki (Japan) is no longer listed in the men's field. 41st Bank of America Chicago Marathon Elite Field Highlights Chicago, U.S.A., 10/7/18 times listed are best in last three years except where noted complete elite fields Women Roza Dereje Bekele (Ethiopia) - 2:19:17 (Dubai 2018) Birhane Dibaba (Ethiopia) - 2:19:51 (Tokyo 2018) Brigid Kosgei (Kenya) - 2:20:13 (London 2018)...

A Bank of America Chicago Marathon press release The Bank of America Chicago Marathon announced today that reigning Boston Marathon champion and “citizen runner” Yuki Kawauchi and 2016 Olympian and Nike Oregon Project runner Suguru Osako will join the elite competition as they both seek to become the first Chicago Marathon champion from Japan since Toshihiko Seko took the crown in 1986. "I'm really happy to have the chance to race in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and the Abbott World Marathon Majors," Kawauchi said. "I'm looking forward to running the same race where Toshinari Takaoka set the former national record and so many other great Japanese athletes have run well. My results in the other American Abbott World Marathon Majors races, Boston and New York, were pretty good, and I'll do everything I can to line up in Chicago ready to produce good results there too." “Yuki and Suguru are exciting additions to our elite field,” said ...

Since Yuta Shitara 's national record-breaking 2:06:11 yesterday at the Tokyo Marathon I've been getting a lot of questions about the 100 million yen bonus he received for doing it. The bonus comes via Project Exceed , an initiative launched in 2015 by the National Corporate Federation to try to produce new men's and women's marathon national records ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Under the plan, any Japanese citizen, whether a registered corporate league athlete or not, who broke the men's national record of 2:06:16 or the women's record of 2:19:12 on a record-legal course would receive 100 million yen, roughly 760,000 Euro or $937,000 USD at today's exchange rate. The athlete's coach or team would also receive a separate 50 million yen (380,000 Euro or $468,000 USD) bonus for their role in having made the record happen. If more than one athlete broke the record in the same race, the other athletes breaking the record would receive 10 million y...

This isn't going to be a race recap. Past Tokyo Marathon champs Dickson Chumba of Kenya and Birhane Dibaba of Ethiopia running smart races, working hard after 30 km to each score a second Tokyo title, Dibaba negative splitting her way to a 2:19:51 PB just 4 seconds off the course record and Chumba running away to win in 2:05:30. London World Championships bronze medalist Amy Cragg living up to her pre-race vow to make the top three in PB time, taking 3rd in 2:21:42. Cancer survivor Satoru Kasuya delivering his best performance since almost dying five years ago, an emotional 2:14:37 for 30th. What this is about is today, the day, the one that's been coming. Yuta Shitara getting it right, strong, unafraid, in control when he needed to be, finding what he needed when it counted, breaking the 16-year-old Japanese national record in 2:06:11 and winning a million dollar bonus for it. But not just him. Hiroto Inoue , just as strong, just as in control, never giving up e...