japan running news

In what looked to have been his official 10000 m debut, Justus Soget (Honda) survived constant turnover to take the top spot in the fastest heat at this year's Hachioji Long Distance meet, winning it in 27:35.57. With everyone focused on getting ready for January's New Year Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden, 15 other men followed him under 28 minutes in the same heat. Among them, Shinobu Kubota (Toyota) following up his comeback run at last week's Chubu Region Corporate Ekiden with a 27:55.07 for 14th, his first time under 28 in six years..  Justus Soget being interviewed by JRN's Mika Tokairin post-race. Two other men went sub-28 in the previous heat, Silas Kingori (Hiramatsu Byoin) leading the way in 27:49.38. Kubota was the only Japanese man to go under 28, but nine others were under 28:15 including collegians Shunya Kikuchi (Josai Univ.), 5th behind Kingori in 28:08.25, and Shoya Kawase (Kogakkan Univ.), 21st in the fast heat in 28:10.41. Along with the 18 men to brea...

Takushoku University teammates Joseph Razini Lemeteki and Akira Akasaki dominated the 2019 Ageo City Half Marathon , alternating the lead throughout almost the entire race to go 1-2 in school record times. With invitations to the 2019 United Airlines NYC Half up for grabs to the top two Japanese collegiate finishers in the unofficial intramural tryout for Japan's most prestigious race, the 2020 Hakone Ekiden, things went out very conservatively by Ageo standards at just 3:00/km for the first 2 km. Not content with that, Akasaki, 3rd on his stage at both the Izumo Ekiden in October and the National University Ekiden earlier this month, picked up the race and carried it until 15 km. From 3 km to 8 km Akasaki split 14:33, pace for 1:01:24, condensing the pack behind him down to eight. After the 10 km turnaround Akasaki's teammate Lemeteki made a bold move to gain contact with the lead group, and when he did it shaved things down to seven serious contenders. The front...