japan running news

On Mar. 22 Chuo University , 15th place at the 2018 Hakone Ekiden, announced that 2012 London Olympics marathoner and Chuo alumnus Ryo Yamamoto , 33, has been invited to join the Chuo long distance coaching staff. Yamamoto ran Hakone three times while at Chuo. Joining the SGH Group corporate team after his graduation, Yamamoto ran a PB 2:08:44 to finish 4th at the 2012 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon and earning a place on the London Olympic team. A statement from Chuo read, "As an Olympian and top-level athlete, Yamamoto is someone we would like to have guide our team members." Yamamoto will take up his new duties on Apr. 1, joining head coach and fellow 2:08 marathoner  Masakazu Fujiwara . With the record for most Hakone Ekiden victories at 14, Chuo University is set to receive an infusion of the Olympic spirit. source article: https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20180322-00000165-sph-spo translated and edited by Brett Larner photo © 2012 Dr. Helmut Winter, all right...

by Brett Larner Always the signal that the fall marathon season is about to begin, the  Hokkaido Marathon celebrates its 30th anniversary running this Sunday. The men's field features Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), a 2:09:10 performer at the 2014 Tokyo Marathon but with little success since then, and Ryo Yamamoto (Team SGH Group), a member of the 2012 London Olympics marathon squad with a 2:08:37 best from 2012. An interesting dark horse is the Barcelona Olympics silver medalist Koichi Morishita -coached 2:13 man Yuki Oshikawa (Team Toyota Kyushu), winner of February's tough Ome 30 km and 2nd at last month's Shibetsu Half Marathon.  Something of an eyebrow raiser is Kenyan Cyrus Njui (SEV Sports), who underwent a six-month suspension after testing positive at last year's Hokkaido Marathon when he took cold medicine from a local pharmacist a few days before the race.  In today's environment it's hard to imagine many races inviting back someone who teste...

by Brett Larner The Hokkaido Marathon has released the elite field for its 30th anniversary running on Aug. 28. The men's field features Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), a 2:09:10 performer at the 2014 Tokyo Marathon but with little success since then, and Ryo Yamamoto (Team SGH Group), a member of the 2012 London Olympics marathon squad with a 2:08:37 best from 2012. An interesting dark horse is the Barcelona Olympics silver medalist Koichi Morishita -coached 2:13 man Yuki Oshikawa (Team Toyota Kyushu), winner of February's tough Ome 30 km and 2nd at last month's Shibetsu Half Marathon.  Something of an eyebrow raiser is Kenyan Cyrus Njui (SEV Sports), who underwent a six-month suspension after testing positive at last year's Hokkaido Marathon when he took cold medicine from a local pharmacists a few days before the race.  In today's environment it's hard to imagine many races inviting back someone who tested positive at the same race a year earlier, bu...

by Brett Larner Japanese athletes feature in two of the three races at Australia's Gold Coast Airport Marathon in its second year as an IAAF gold label race.  Former Aoyama Gakuin University captain Takehiro Deki (Team Chugoku Denryoku) leads the men's half marathon, with cancer survivor Remi Nakazato at the top of the women's list. Deki's 58:51 best for 20 km translates to 1:02:15 for the half marathon, far ahead of the 1:03:28 best of #2-ranked Liam Adams (Australia), but although he has run 1:03:11 for the first half of a marathon Deki's legitimate half marathon best remains just 1:04:16, and with a 29:22 two weeks ago in Boston indicating mid-1:04 condition it should be a challenge for him to take down Adams and the other Aussie and Kiwi competition. "This is my first serious race in a long time," Deki told JRN.  "If all goes well I think I can run mid-1:03." Nakazato, a promising new talent after a 2:24:29 at age 23 in 2011 in...

by Brett Larner In a period that sees many of Japan's long-standing small elite races folding or changing to mass-participation formats the Okukuma Road Race, launched in 2013 in one of the most conservative areas of southern Japan, is something of a throwback, a small race of around 100 men with an accompanying high school boys' 10 km and women restricted to 5 km because, well, that's how they roll in Kumamoto. In its third edition, Kyushu-based Kenyan John Kariuki (Daiichi Kogyo Univ.) led the top four at the Okukuma Half Marathon under last year's course record for the win in a new record of 1:03:16.  Essentially unchallenged, Kariuki had a lead of around 10 seconds at 10 km and held that margin to win by 13 seconds over London Olympics marathoner Ryo Yamamoto (SGH Group) with Shun Inoura , an alternate for Komazawa University 's Hakone Ekiden runner-up team, another 3 seconds back in 1:03:32. Still recovering from a sprained ankle a few weeks back, A...

by Brett Larner top Fukushi photo by Victah Sailer, c/o Horst Milde other photos by Werner Philipp and Hannes Uhtoffs, c/o Dr. Helmut Winter 2013 Tokyo Marathon winner Dennis Kimetto (Kenya) shook the world with his incredible 2:02:57 world record at today's Berlin Marathon, running a 1:01:12 second half that brought the concept of a low-2:02 marathon into the realm of possibility.  2014 Tokyo Marathon women's winner Tirfi Tsegaye (Ethiopia) added another World Marathon Majors title to her resume, outrunning three compatriots, the U.S.A.'s Shalane Flanagan and Moscow World Championships bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) for the win in 2:20:18.  Less well-noticed was Fukuoka Marathon course record holder Tsegaye Kebede 's 2:10:27 for 9th, his 18th career sub-2:11 and tying Korean great Lee Bong Ju 's world record for most times sub-2:11. Fukushi, quietly coming to Berlin in search of a time closer to the three Japanese women who have run 2:19...

by Brett Larner There is a truckload of action just waiting to dump on fans of Japanese distance around the world this weekend.  Along with the Incheon Asian Games, where athletics kick off Saturday with the women's 10000 m and 3000 mSC and the men's 5000 m , Sunday's Berlin Marathon offers more international exposure to the stealthy Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) in the women's race and the solid trio of 2:08 men Kazuhiro Maeda (Team Kyudenko) and Ryo Yamamoto (Team SGH Group Sagawa) and 2014 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon winner Kazuki Tomaru (Team Toyota). Back home of familiar shores where laundry facilities are guaranteed to be close at hand, fall gets into full swing with the first two significant ekidens of the season, Saturday's Kansai Region University Women's Ekiden and Sunday's Kanto Region University Women's Ekiden.  Both qualify top-placing teams in the two highly competitive regions for October's National University Women's Ek...

by Brett Larner The biggest domestic road action of the weekend took place in Shizuoka at the Yaizu Minato Half Marathon where Yoshiki Koizumi  of 2013 Hakone Ekiden winner Nittai University  battled last year's winner Tomoyasu Matsui  (Meiji Univ.) from start to finish, both breaking the course record as Koizumi claimed the win in 1:03:26. 2013 National University Men's Ekiden champion Komazawa University  had the next two men across the line, both Kohei Futaoka  and Shoya Kurokawa  timed at 1:03:48.  Komazawa took the win in Yaizu's University Pair Marathon team scoring based on the combined times of its top two finishers, setting a new record of 2:07:36. Nittai was just a second behind, likewise clearing the old record in 2:07:37.  The top non-collegiate runner was Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't), 9th overall in 1:04:19 a week after his latest marathon course record win in Saga.  Almost simultaneously, his youngest brother Ko...

http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/bedan-karoki-edp-half-marathon-of-lisbon-iaaf Bedan Karoki is based in Tokyo where he runs for the DeNA Running Club corporate team coached by marathon legend Toshihiko Seko .  7th-placer Paul Tanui runs for the Kyushu-based Kyudenko Team alongside 2:08:00 marathoner Kazuhiro Maeda .  London Olympian Ryo Yamamoto  (Team SGH Group Sagawa) was 20th in a weak 1:05:50 .

by Brett Larner Yoshihiro Wakamatsu  (Team Nissin Shokuhin), a graduate of Hakone Ekiden course record holder  Toyo University , won the final running of the historic Himejijo Road Race men's 10 miler on Feb. 11. Throwing in a surge at 7 km he easily broke away from the field, which included London Olympics marathoner Ryo Yamamoto  (Team SGH Group Sagawa), two-time Himejijo winner Kazuyoshi Tokumoto  (Team Monteroza), and Norihisa Imai  of Toyo's 2014 Hakone-winning squad, to open a gap of 30 seconds and claim the win unchallenged in 47:38. Tsukasa Morita (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) was a solo 2nd in 48:08, his teammate Jun Shinoto , the 2006 national champion in the 3000 m steeplechase, winning a tight pack race for 3rd in 48:21. In the women's 5 km, Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.  went 1-2 with  Tomoka Iwai  winning in 16:24 over Tomoka Katada  in 16:28. The Himejijo Road Race is set to be transformed into a mass-participation marath...

by Brett Larner National championship ekiden season may be through, but across the country smaller regional and local ekidens continue.  Biggest among the dozen or so noteworthy ekidens this weekend was the 77th running of the Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden .  A moderate-length event at 7 stages and 84.4 km, Chugoku Yamaguchi featured six top corporate league teams from the central Japan region along with local universities and clubs.  Despite a one-two punch of 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau  (Kenya) and former Sera H.S. star Charles Ndirangu  (Kenya) the JFE Steel  team could not hold off rivals Mazda , the lead turning over twice during the course of the race before Mazda anchor Kenji Yamamoto , a member of Toyo University 's 2012 Hakone Ekiden course record-setting team, ran down JFE Steel's Yuki Moriwaki  to give Mazda the win by 20 seconds in 4:08:54.   Chugoku Denryoku , the top-ranked team in the region after finishi...

http://www.kobe-np.co.jp/news/sports/201309/0006363197.shtml translated by Brett Larner A favorite of athletes from junior high to the corporate leagues, Hyogo prefecture's Himeji Castle Road Race is set to be discontinued after February's 54th running.  With a new Himeji Castle World Heritage Site Marathon set to be launched in 2015, the 10-miler's race organization committee will be dismantled and the event's long history of hosting many of the country's best athletes will come to an end. According to the Hyogo Prefecture Track and Field Association's 50th anniversary commemorative magazine, in 1948 there was a move to inaugurate a series of 10-mile road races in January in all the major cities of the country, but in 1960 the series came to a halt.  With Hyogo's event having been held at Himeji Castle since 1954 and having already developed a reputation as a fast course, it was relaunched in 1961 as the first Himeji Castle Road Race with a certified ...

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/sports/athletic/all/2013/columndtl/201303040002-spnavi?page=1 by Yoshimichi Nakao translated and edited by Brett Larner The finale has come and gone for the series of domestic selection races for the Japanese men's marathon team for August's Moscow World Championships.  At the last of the domestic races, the Mar. 3 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon, general division entrant Masakazu Fujiwara  (Team Honda) ran 2:08:51 to finish 4th overall as the top Japanese man, ten years and one day since his last 2:08, the longest any man has ever gone between successive sub-2:10 marathons.  Although he missed hitting the Federation's 2:07:59 standard for automatic Worlds team selection Fujiwara's performance still went a long way toward getting his name on the shortlist. 2012 London Olympian Ryo Yamamoto (Team Sagawa Express) was 5th in 2:09:06, with Fujiwara's teammate Suehiro Ishikawa  (Team Honda) achieving his first sub-2:10, 6th in 2:09:10. ...

by Brett Larner A cold northern wind kept the 68th running of the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon slower than planned, but Kenyan winner Vincent Kipruto 's 2:08:34 meant the race stayed tight and exciting until the last corner of the track, where Kipruto outkicked Ethiopian Tariku Jufar  to take it by 3 seconds.  Longtime Japan resident James Mwangi  (Team NTN) was 3rd in 2:08:48 in his final race before moving back to Kenya, while 2010 Tokyo Marathon winner Masakazu Fujiwara  (Team Honda) cleared 2:09 for the first time since his 2003 debut and collegiate national record 2:08:12, taking 4th in 2:08:51 and getting on to the short list for the Moscow World Championships team. Twin pacers  Kota  and  Kenta Otani  (Team JFE Steel) tried to get things going over the first 15 km, but accompanied only by the debuting  Shinobu Kubota  (Komazawa Univ.) they were left looking over their shoulders until they finished their stint up front.  T...

by Brett Larner The end of the Japanese road season approaches with three big races on Sunday.  First is the last of the domestic selection races for Japan's World Championships marathon team, the Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon .  With 2:05:13 man  Vincent Kipruto  (Kenya), 30 km world record holder  Peter Kirui  (Kenya) and 2012 Houston Marathon winner  Tariku Jufar  (Ethiopia) in the field Wilson Kipsang 's 2:06:13 course record may be in reach, or at least the 2:06:50 winning time last weekend in Tokyo.  For the Japanese men the Federation has set a 2:07:59 hoop for a guaranteed place on the Moscow team, and the men have been jumping.  The main candidates for the team so far are: Kazuhiro Maeda  (Team Kyudenko) - 2:08:00 - PB  (4th, Tokyo) Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref.) - 2:08:15 - PB  (1st, Beppu-Oita) Hiroyuki Horibata  (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:08:24 - PB  (2nd, Fukuoka) Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Y...

by Brett Larner The Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon , Biwako for short, has finally announced the elite field for this year's 68th running.  While it lacks the sub-2:05 punch that Tokyo was able to pull in this year as a fledgling major, Biwako has put together the deepest field of any domestic Japanese marathon in the 2012-2013 season.  Up front, a small but high-quality international group including 2:05 man Vincent Kipruto  (Kenya), 30 km world record holder Peter Kirui  (Kenya) and 2012 Houston Marathon winner Tariku Jufar (Ethiopia) to go up against Wilson Kipsang 's 2:06:13 course record. In pursuit of both them and the Federation's sub-2:08 time requirement for a guaranteed spot on the 2013 World Championships is a solid field including four of the five Japanese men to break 2:10 at last year's Biwako, namely London Olympian Ryo Yamamoto  (Team Sagawa Express), Tomoyuki Morita  (Team Kanebo), Takashi Horiguchi  (Team Honda) and Masashi Hayashi ...

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/other/athletic/headlines/20130115-00000028-kyodo_sp-spo.html translated by Brett Larner The domestic and international elite fields for the Feb. 3 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon were released on Jan. 15.  Headlining the men's field is London Olympics marathon silver medalist Abel Kirui  (Kenya), who will be joined by Japanese Olympic marathoners Arata Fujiwara  (Miki House) and Ryo Yamamoto  (Team Sagawa Express).  London Olympics women's marathon gold medalist and defending Marugame champion Tiki Gelana  (Ethiopia) returns to face off against 2011 Daegu World Championships marathon 5th-placer Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) and last year's National Championships 10000 m 5th-place finisher Yuko Shimizu  (Team Sekisui Kagaku). 2013 Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon Entry List Highlights Marugame, Kagawa, 2/3/13 click here for complete field listing Women Kim Smith (New Zealand) - 1:07:11...

by Brett Larner Along with weekend's major domestic races, the Ageo City Half Marathon and Yokohama International Women's Marathon, no less than five major ekidens took place across the country. At Saturday's cold and rainy 74th Biwako University Ekiden , the eight stage, 83.6 km year-end championship for men's university teams from western Japan, Kyoto Sangyo University pulled off a third-straight win after a disappointing 2012 season. Never far from the front, Kyoto Sangyo took the lead on the 7.3 km Second Stage, losing it momentarily on the 11.0 km Third Stage to rival Daiichi Kogyo University 's Kenyan ringer John Kariuki but returning on the next leg thanks to a stage win by Naoto Nakai . Kyoto Sangyo's next two runners built the team's lead up to 2:18, but a weak run by seventh man Makoto Kan cut the margin by a minute and left anchor Naoya Yoshioka with 1:16 to try to hold off Ritsumeikan University 's 1500 m specialist Toshiki Imazeki o...

by Brett Larner 2012 Tokyo Marathon 3rd-placer Stephen Kiprotich  (Uganda) staged a surprise upset in the London Olympics men's marathon, dropping two-time world champion Abel Kirui (Kenya) and 2011 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon winner Wilson Kipsang  (Kenya) with 5 km to go to give Uganda its first-ever marathon gold and prevent a Kenyan repeat of the late great Samuel Wanjiru 's victory in Beijing four years ago.  Despite the unexpected loss, Kirui and Kipsang became the first-ever Kenyan runners without Japanese coaching to win Olympic marathon medals. Japanese favorite Arata Fujiwara  ran tough in the first two-thirds of the race, teaming up with 2012 Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon runner-up Henryk Szost  (Poland) to reel in stragglers from the lead pack, but making contact with the chase pack he settled into a slower than hoped for pace that allowed his former Takushoku University roommate Kentaro Nakamoto  to catch up.  Where Fujiwara locked on t...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2012/08/12/kiji/K20120812003885720.html translated by Brett Larner To prepare himself to tackle the 100+ corner London Olympic marathon course,  Ryo Yamamoto  (28, Team Sagawa Express) has avoided steady-pace training and instead focused on running in a shifting-pace style, matching his rhythm to the demands of the terrain.  A three-loop route through the heart of the city, the Olympic marathon course is said to have 100 corners.  "In Sugadaira I did a lot of cross-country training, and in both my speedwork and my long runs I focused on changing the pace," he said, showing confidence in the outcome of his training since June, which included periodic visits to view the course. Yamamoto's monthly mileage has been around 1200 km, the same as before this year's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon where he earned his place at the Olympics.  "It won't be easy, but I'm aiming for the top eight," he said.  "Whenever ...