japan running news

Ryota Komano just misses Masato Imai 's course record by 8 seconds on the Hakone Ekiden's famous uphill Fifth Stage, bringing Waseda University home for the Day One win.

Part four in a series of republished interviews. If you've never been in Japan on Jan. 2nd and 3rd it's hard to appreciate just how big the Hakone Ekiden is. The 200 men who make up the 20 university teams in each year's 10-stage long distance relay are the best of the best, the ones who stood out in high school enough to be recruited by one of the Kanto-region Hakone powerhouse universities, survived the year-long training and remained among the top 10 of their 30-50 strong team. It is no exaggeration to call the Hakone Ekiden the world's most competitive university men's race. For better or worse every teenaged boy who runs in Japan is thinking about Hakone, but only a handful will ever get the chance of that dream coming true. Eiji Kobayashi was one of the many who dedicated themselves to this dream but fell short, a member of Josai University's ekiden squad during the school's rise following its hiring of former Waseda University aces Jun Hiratsuka ...

by Brett Larner Updated 3/21/09 to reflect athlete withdrawals. The 2009 Tokyo Marathon is the first marathon in Japan to publicly announce significant prize money, the first A-level marathon to host both elite men's and women's fields, and the final domestic selection race for the 2009 World Championships men's marathon team. On paper the men's race has attracted a respectable field, with four runners posting best times under 2:07 and ten under 2:09. The reality is that almost all are aging veterans, with only four runners in the field having broken 2:10 within the last two years. The chance may be there for a first-timer or little-known name to step up for the win. Among the overseas entrants, most eyes will be on Sammy Korir (Kenya). Korir is the third-fastest man ever in the marathon with a PB of 2:04:56 from Berlin 2003. A past winner of the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon, he ran the 2007 Tokyo Marathon but dropped out near 16 km, sitting out the rest of the year w...

by Brett Larner The 2nd place finishers at this year's Hakone Ekiden have made a major advance toward returning to the winner's podium after a 15-year absence. On Jan. 4, Waseda University announced that the top three runners from this year's crop of high school graduates will enter Waseda this April.* The new recruits include Yuki Yagi of Nishiwaki Kogyo High School, Yusuke Mita of Toyokawa Kogyo High School, and Takuya Nakayama of Suma Gakuen High School. Yagi, Mita and Nakayama finished 1-2-3 in the 2007 National High School 5000 m Championships and, along with fellow recruit Taro Inoue of Yawatahama High School, represent a major coup for Waseda. In the 2008 Hakone Ekiden Waseda suffered from weak performances by its injured star Kensuke Takezawa and several of its runners on the last few stages. Nevertheless, thanks in large part to outstanding mountain stage performances by Ryuta Komano and Sota Kota it won Day One and did not give up the lead to eventual winners Ko...

by Brett Larner As usual, the most exciting distance running of the year in Japan took place today with Day One of the 84th annual Hakone Ekiden delivering a wide range of inspiring performances and surprise upsets. Twenty teams made up of the best university runners in Japan raced over the five stage, 108 km championship course. Waseda University won Day One for the first time in twelve years thanks to a stage best time on the 3rd leg by the seriously injured Kensuke Takezawa and a titanic run on the uphill 5th stage by Ryuta Komano, who shocked commentators and spectators alike by coming within seconds of the great Masato Imai`s ‘untouchable’ stage record. Mekubo Mogusu of Yamanashi Gakuin University finally scored the stage record on the ace 2nd leg in his 3rd attempt, while Masato Kihara of Chuo Gakuin University finished as top Japanese on the 2nd stage to confirm that he is the brightest star in the next generation of Japanese distance runners. The biggest shock in many years of ...

by Brett Larner 1st Stage: 21.4 km The 1st stage began with a slow pace of 3:06 per km. 5 km passed in 15:21, 10 km in 31:06 and 15 km in 46:16 with all twenty runners still together. As the 16th km escalated to 2:53, rookie *** of defending champions Juntendo University was the first to drop off with leg pains which almost caused him to stop around 17.5 km. Toyo University`s Tomoya Onishi launched the first attack at 16.5 km, dropping four teams besides Juntendo. Over the next 4 km attacks by East Japan Select Team member *** of *** University, Naoki Sato of Josai University and *** of Komazawa University whittled the pack down to 10. Onishi made his final move with 700 m to go, but Sato was able to respond, taking 1st with 200 m left. (Koma) and *** of Waseda University took the exhausted Onishi just before the handoff zone. 1. Josai: 1:04:37 (Naoki Sato, 2nd yr.) 2. Komazawa: 1:04:40 (***) 3. Waseda: 1:04:41 (***) 4. Toyo: 1:04:41 (Tomoya Onishi, 3rd yr.) 5. Chuo: 1:04:42 (***) 2nd ...