japan running news

by Brett Larner The world's largest women-only marathon, Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon is the end of the Japanese Olympic marathon selection saga, if not the end of the drama.  2015 World Championships marathon bronze medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain) is back to defend her title, and will, her last race a 1:08:06 win last month at Japan's Marugame Half in national record time.  Formerly-Japan based Betelhem Moges (Ethiopia) is her only real international competition, but it would take an off day from Kirwa for Moges to really stand a chance. At the 2014 Asian Games Kirwa beat Japan's Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) for gold.  Kizaki comes to Nagoya with the best time in the last three years among Japanese women, 2:23:34 in Nagoya in 2013, but while Kirwa's star has only risen since then Kizaki's hit a brick wall.  In 2015 she only raced once, placing only 13th on her stage at December's National Corporate Women's Marathon.  There's nothing ...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20160212-OHT1T50034.html translated and edited by Brett Larner On Feb. 11 it was learned that Kaori Yoshida (34, Runners Pulse), the top Japanese woman at 2nd overall in the first Rio Olympics domestic selection race at last November's Saitama International Women's Marathon , has entered the final Rio selection race, the Mar. 13 Nagoya Women's Marathon.  Also entered is Kayoko Fukushi (33, Wacoal), who ran 2:22:17 to break the JAAF-mandated sub-2:22:30 Olympic standard and win the second Rio selection race, January's Osaka International Women's Marathon .  With both already in contention for the Rio team the pair's entries creates a highly unusual situation at the final selection race. The final selection race for the Olympic women's marathon team looks set to become a one-shot battle.  Appearing as part of a radio event in Tokyo on the 11th, Yoshida said, "I've been planning all along to run either Tokyo or...

by Brett Larner Update: Kizaki has withdrawn. The Nagoya Women's Marathon is one of the Japanese races taking steps to adapt to the mass-participation boom, changing from an elite-only format but still keeping its identity by incorporating a mass field that makes it the largest women-only marathon in the world.  At the front end, like last week's Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon for the men Nagoya is the last chance for Japanese women to qualify for the 2015 Beijing World Championships marathon team.  While Japanese men's marathoning has grown over the last five years, women's marathoning has been hit by an absence of new top level-names, today's top women running 2:23-2:25 where they would have been 4 minutes faster 10-15 years ago. But Nagoya has done a great job of pulling together most of the best current women and future hopefuls for some kind of return to past success.  In the house are the fastest Japanese woman of 2013-14, Asian Games silver medalist Ryoko...

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2015/02/20/kiji/K20150220009838930.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Twenty Japanese and international elite athletes are scheduled to run Sunday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , the final selection race for the 2015 Beijing World Championships marathon team.  Among them is 23-year-old Sairi Maeda (Team Daihatsu), who in her debut marathon at last year's Osaka International Women's Marathon as a senior at Bukkyo University finished 4th overall in 2:26:46 to better the national university record by 4 minutes.  Running in the same race in the general division, her mother Junko Maeda ran 2:55:24 for a combined time of 5:22:10, a new mother-daughter world record by more than 8 minutes.  Now 52, Junko will again line up behind her daughter in the general division in Nagoya looking for another fast family outing. Also in the field are 2014 Asian Games silver medalist Ryoko Kizaki (29, Team Daihatsu), under-20 national record ...

by Brett Larner The Nagoya Women's Marathon , the world's largest women-only marathon, features a good matchup for this year's race on Mar. 8, bringing back together 2014 Asian Games marathon gold medalist Eunice Kirwa (Bahrain, nominally) and silver medalist Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu).  The pair's battle was one of the highlights of the Asian Games, and with any luck Nagoya will get a replay.  Their main competition is 40-year-old Mariya Konovalova , with a 2:22:46 PB at age 39 one of the seemingly few elite Russians to have escaped current doping revelations so far. One of the notable things about the field for is its evenness, with a steady progression of PBs all the way from Kirwa's 2:21:41 to the 2:31 level.  Aheza Kiros (Ethiopia), Anna Incerti (Italy), Olena Burkovska (Ukraine) and others fill out the international component, but evenly mixed in with them is the best Japanese women's field in any of the three Beijing World Championships races a...

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...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20141214-1409007.html translated and edited by Brett Larner 26 teams ran the 34th edition of the 6-stage, 42.195 km National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships in cold and windy conditions Dec. 14 in Sendai, Miyagi.  The Denso team dominated, breaking its own course record in 2:16:12 to score its second-straight win, the first time that a team has defending its national title since Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo completed a hat trick in 2005. Denso started off slow, 29 seconds down from the lead in 12th after the First Stage.  Second Stage runner Naoko Koizumi celebrated her 22nd birthday by running the second-best time on the stage to move Denso up to 3rd.  Up against each team's best Japanese athlete on the Third Stage, Yuka Takashima , 26, ran down leaders Toyota Jidoshokki and Yamada Denki in stage record time to put Denso into the lead.  Takashima ran 34:40 for the 10.9 km stage to beat multiple n...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20141126-1401292.html translated by Brett Larner Rosters for the 26 teams entered in the Dec. 14 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships were announced Nov. 26.  Both 2014 Yokohama International Women's Marathon winner Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei) and 2013 Moscow World Championships women's marathon bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) feature on the entry list. Also entered are 2012 London Olympics marathoners Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) and Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), along with 19-year-old Reia Iwade (Team Noritz), who finished 3rd in Yokohama on Nov. 16 in her marathon debut.  2004 Athens Olympics marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi was not entered on the Sysmex team roster. The National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships will be held on a six-stage, 42.195 km course from the Matsushima Culture and Tourism Exchange Center to Sendai Municipal Field.

by Brett Larner Japan picked up 3 gold medals, 12 silver and 7 bronze at the 2014 Asian Games, far short of the Federation's target of ten golds but for many of the silvers agonizing close to having crossed over to the top.  Chisato Fukushima by 0.01 seconds in the women's 100 m, Kohei Matsumura 1 second away in the men's marathon, Suguru Osako 0.74 out of gold in the men's 10000 m after leading until the final straight, Takayuki Kishimoto out by 0.10 in the men's 400 mH and pole vaulter Daichi Sawano clearing the same height, 5.55 m, as gold medalist Changrui Xue (China).  If things had gone just slightly differently the gold haul could have been very close to target. The three gold medals Japan did win all came from the men on the team.  Takayuki Tanii 's was the biggest, a meet record 3:40:19 in the 50 km racewalk, along with favorite Keisuke Ushiro 's 8088 win in the decathlon and the 4x400 m relay team's 3:01.88 gold less than 0.20 off Jap...

by Brett Larner The Incheon Asian Games women's marathon played out almost to script, with the four fastest women in its field finishing almost perfectly in PB order.  After a very slow first 5 km of 18:49, 2:38:48 pace, Kenyan-born Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa (Bahrain), the #1-ranked woman in the race, began a series of small surges to cover the next 5 km in 17:27 and open a gap over a chase pack of eight led by her teammate, #4-ranked Ethiopian-born Lishan Dula Gemechu (Bahrain), and #2-ranked Japanese favorite Ryoko Kizaki , the 4th-place finisher in last year's Moscow World Championships marathon. From there Kirwa simply exploded, covering the distance from 10 to 15 km in 16:28, 2:18:58 pace, with Kizaki and Gemechu close behind.  As Kirwa relaxed slightly Kizaki picked it up to get into contact, leaving Gemechu to run the rest of the race alone.  Once Kizaki was next to Kirwa they stayed side-by-side virtually until 37 km, their splits constant and hovering around ...

Representing four billion people, more than half the world's population, the 2014 Asian Games get underway Sept. 19 in Incheon, South Korea, athletics competition running from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3.  With 2013 Moscow World Championships marathon 4th-placer Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu), veteran Eri Hayakawa (Team Toto) and 2:08 men Kohei Matsumura (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) and Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) Japan has serious medal prospects in both the Oct. 2 women's marathon and Oct. 3 men's marathon, and you have the chance to show your support and win some quality schwag by predicting how they do in JRN's Asian Games Marathon prediction contest. To enter, click here to send JRN an email with the subject line 'Asian Games prediction contest.'   Look at the official start lists below featuring Japan's main competition and email your prediction for each Japanese runner's overall finishing place and time including seconds. List '...

by Brett Larner Click here to enter JRN's Asian Games marathon prediction contest for a chance to win some quality limited-edition prizes. With over half the world's population represented making it the biggest of the world's regional championships, track and field events kick off September 27 at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.  It's a reality of the region that Bahrain and Qatar field distance teams virtually entirely made up of Ethiopian and Kenyan athletes who duly take home most of the medals, but with Japan hosting the 2020 Olympics it is not screwing around, sending its best talent to what Japanese broadcaster TBS is hyping as "The Asian Olympics." Saturday, Sept. 27: Women's 10000 m, Men's 5000 m, Women's 3000 mSC The women's 10000 m, men's 5000 m and women's 30000 m steeplechase get things moving on the 27th.  Complete start lists are as yet unavailable, meaning updates to this preview in coming days, b...

by Brett Larner On June 9 the Japanese Federation released the 54 athlete lineup for its national team at the Sept. 27 - Oct. 3 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.  Where in the past it has allowed top talent to blow the Asian Games off, with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics hanging in the distance this time the Federation is taking a serious and long view, fielding an A-squad of national record holders, collegiate national record holders and junior national record holders in fifteen events, at least a half dozen more in the all-time Japanese top three in their events, and incorporating high-potential high school and university athletes with an eye toward their development pre-2020. Major names on the men's list of 31 include teen sprint star Yoshihide Kiryu (Toyo Univ.), 2010 World Junior 200 m gold medalist  Shota Iizuka  (Mizuno), Berlin World Championships javelin bronze medalist Yukifumi Murakami  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC), the Alberto Salazar -coached Suguru Osak...

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/news/140331/oth14033120080011-n1.htm http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/news/140331/oth14033120100012-n1.htm translated and edited by Brett Larner The Japanese Federation has announced the creation of a National Marathon Team geared toward preparing for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.  The team is made up of twelve men and nine women including Yuki Kawauchi  (Saitama Pref. Gov't), Moscow World Championships women's marathon 4th-place Ryoko Kizaki  (Team Daihatsu) and the other two members of this fall's Asian Games marathon team, Moscow women's marathon bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi  (Team Wacoal), men's marathon 5th-placer Kentaro Nakamoto  (Team Yasukawa Denki), 2004 Athens Olympics women's marathon gold medalist and national record holder Mizuki Noguchi  (Team Sysmex). The goal of the team is to win medals and land other athletes near the podium at the Rio Olympics.  Athletes' membership will be reviewed on an ...