japan running news

The top Japanese finisher in the 2024 Paris Olympics women's marathon at 6th, Yuka Suzuki , 26, announced this week on her social media that she has left the Daiichi Seimei corporate team to transfer to Kraftia . "I'm really grateful to everyone who's helped me get where I am, and I know it's a level not everyone can get to," she wrote. Suzuki joined Daiichi Seimei in 2022 after graduating from Daito Bunka University . "The last few years I came to realize how incredible the fan support is in the corporate leagues and at the Olympics," she wrote. "My memories of the MGC Race and Paris Olympics really stand out. Even when the weather wasn't great or the race was far away there were always people there to cheer for me. That's not something you should take for granted, and I want to take the time to put my thanks to all of you into words." Talking about what comes next, Suzuki wrote, "I had a lot of options, and I wanted to be in...

On Oct. 1 the Daiichi Seimei corporate team announced that executive advisor and special head coach Sachiko Yamashita had retired from the company at the end of October. Yamashita, 61, was born in 1964. After working as a teacher she joined the corporate leagues as an athlete, going on to take silver in the marathon at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships. A year later she was 4th in the Barcelona Olympics marathon. Yamashita joined Daiichi Seimei as an athlete and coach n 1994, and after retiring from competition in 1996 became the team's head coach. As the team's coach she developed Olympians Yoshimi Ozaki , Tomomi Tanaka , Miyuki Uehara and Yuka Suzuki , and led the team to two Queens Ekiden national titles. In 2024 she stepped back from her leadership role to focus on coaching Suzuki. "For 31 years I've had the opportunity to take on a wide range of challenges in this sport that I love so much, and that was thanks to the support of many people," she said in p...

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao...

The second edition of the Marathon Grand Championship race, Japan's marathon trials for the 2024 Paris Olympics, happened Sunday in less than ideal conditions in Tokyo, with heavy rain throughout the race, temps in the mid-teens, and even a tornado warning in Chiba east of the city as the race went on. The top two in each race earned guaranteed spots on the Paris team, with the 3rd-placers earning provisional places and a target on their backs in the upcoming winter domestic marathon season. The winner at the first MGC in 2019, Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) took the race out on 2:23 pace with a pack of 14 in tow. Most of the favorites were there, including her Tokyo Olympics teammates Mao Ichiyama (Shiseido) and Ayuko Suzuki (Japan Post), newcomers Ai Hosoda (Edion) and Rika Kaseda (Daihatsu) and more. One surprise was that Maeda's Tenmaya teammates Natsuki Matsushita and Mizuki Tanimoto , both sub-2:23:15 runners, hung back in the second pack in the early going, and it wasn...

Yuko Arimori wins Japan's first Olympic women's marathon medal, with Sachiko Yamashita 4th at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Last month Hitomi Niiya published her training log for the 100 days leading up to her national record at January's Houston Half Marathonn  on her coach Masato Yokota 's blog in three parts . Receiving dozens of questions about it after posting, the two of them took a stab at answering some of them in an Ekiden News-moderated Q&A format on the same blog. JRN will be publishing it in translation over the next four days. Q. What were the main differences in reaction from elite athletes and amateur runners to what you posted? Coach : Top-level athletes pretty much never publish their training programs in detail, so there was a lot of interest, both inside Japan and elsewhere. Q.  Daichi Seimei corporate team coach Sachiko Yamashita said thanks for Twitter for posting it. Coach:  I replied and told her reading it would cost her, but in all seriousness I'd like to hear what people thought of it. In particular, I wonder what corporate league and Hakone Ekiden ...

Miyuki Uehara age: 23 sponsor: Daiichi Seimei graduated from: Kagoshima Joshi H.S. best time inside MGC window: 2:24:19, 9th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon PB: 2:24:19, 9th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 15:21.40 (2015) 10000 m: 31:38.80 (2016) half marathon: 1:09:13 (2017) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 9th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:24:19 – PB 9th, 2018 Berlin Marathon, 2:25:46 other major results: 6th, 2019 Hakodate Half Marathon, 1:12:07 6th, 2019 Gifu Seiryu Half Marathon, 1:11:03 21st, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Third Stage (10.9 km), 37:17 5th, 2018 National Championships 5000 m, 15:36.33 2nd, 2017 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:13 – PB 24th, 2017 London World Championships 10000 m, 32:31.58 3rd, 2017 National Championships 10000 m, 31:48.81 15th, 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics 5000 m final, 15:34.99 2nd, 2016 Bolder Boulder 10 km, 34:16 Just 20 at the time, Uehara became only the s...

http://www.wyff4.com/article/russian-marathon-runner-mayorova-banned-for-doping/9549591 Albina Mayorova won the 2005 and 2006 Nagano Marathon, the 2012 Nagoya Women's Marathon , and the 2013 Yokohama International Women's Marathon . The runners-up in Nagoya and Yokohama were  Yoshimi Ozaki and Azusa Nojiri , both of whom had been coached by 1991 Tokyo World Championships silver medalist Sachiko Yamashita . Ozaki, the 2009 Berlin World Championships silver medalist, made the London Olympic team in Nagoya. A victory there might have put her in more of  a winner's mindset going into the Olympic Games, where she ran badly . After not making the London Olympics Nojiri left the Daiichi Seimei corporate team to go the private sponsor route. A win in Yokohama would have had an enormous impact on her sponsorship opportunities and could have led to her running for Japan at the 2014 Asian Games. At the time of Mayorova's Nagoya win over five years ago, JRN wrote : Russia...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1803811.html translated by Brett Larner On Apr. 6 the JAAF announced that it will hold a women's marathoning development training camp within Tokyo in late August.  Looking toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the camp will be held in similar summer heat and will focus on exploring hydration timing and other measures for dealing with the hot conditions.  Long distance runs will be carried out as part of the camp starting at around 7:00 a.m., the expected start time of the Olympic marathon.  The brains behind the project, JAAF women's marathoning development coach Sachiko Yamashita commented, "You can't get experience running in heat without daring to actually do it.  We have to try everything that we can."

by Brett Larner 20-year-old Miyuki Uehara (Team Daiichi Seimei) became only the second Japanese woman ever to qualify for an Olympic 5000 m final, boldly fruntrunning her heat to make it through on the fifth day of athletics competition at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.  Just 6th at June's National Championships, her 15:21.40 PB was enough to put her on the Olympic team over three athletes ahead of her without the Olympic standard.  Pre-race her coach Sachiko Yamashita , the 1991 Tokyo World Championships marathon silver medalist and 1992 Barcelona Olympics marathon 4th-placer, told her simply , "Be aggressive."  Uehara took that to heart. Rocketing out at sub-15 pace close to the Japanese national record while the rest of the field completely ignored her, she quickly had a lead of at least 50 m. It's been relatively common in recent years to see Japanese runners frontrun on the track at world-level championships but rarely so dramatically.  Leading past 3000 m w...

http://www.asahi.com/articles/DA3S12316787.html translated by Brett Larner The JAAF has decided to take measures against the widespread use of iron injections by long distance athletes to combat anemia, saying that they undermine the athletes' bodies.  Beginning this spring it is sending documents to high school, university and corporate teams under the governance of the various local prefectural athletics associations to warn of the risks posed by iron injections, following up with a survey to help understand the scale of the actual situation.  The JAAF considers this problem central to the stagnation of distance running and marathoning, particularly with regard to women's performances. Iron injections were already conventionally known to have deleterious effects upon athletes, but because there are situations in which the injections are a legitimate medical practice they have continued to be allowed.  However, amid a sense of crisis the JAAF has opted to take a st...

by Brett Larner Japan's qualification process for the Rio Olympics marathon wrapped up with a bang at yesterday's Nagoya Women's Marathon , with Tomomi Tanaka (Daiichi Seimei) getting payback for being left off of last year's Beijing World Championships team in favor of a runner from the Tenmaya corporate team by beating Tenmaya's Rei Ohara by one second in 2:23:19 to take what is almost definitely the last place on the Rio team.  Last week JRN detailed the situation regarding the Rio men's team candidates .  The women's situation looks more clear-cut but it's worth a quick review to see who the most likely names are for Thursday's Olympic team lineup announcement.  Click any race for detailed results. Beijing World Championships Women's Marathon, Aug. 30 7. Mai Ito (Otsuka Seiyaku) - 2:29:48 13. Sairi Maeda (Daihatsu) - 2:31:46 14. Risa Shigetomo (Tenmaya) - 2:32:37 Under the JAAF's selection criteria this time around the only ch...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/1456012.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Following a meeting of the JAAF's Development Committee in Tokyo on Apr. 2, Vice Chairman of Development Katsumi Sakai , 55, commented on the controversy surrounding the selection for the women's marathon team for August's Beijing World Championships.  "You absolutely have to go with the lead group from the beginning.  It's not about winning.  It's about trying to run the target time that we determine.  That is the message we have sent," he said of the Federation's exclusion of Tomomi Tanaka (Team Daiichi Seimei), winner of November's Yokohama International Women's Marathon in 2:26:57, in favor of Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya), who ran 2:26:39 for 3rd more than 4 minutes behind winner Tetiana Gamera (Ukraine) after going through halfway with Gamera in 1:11:15, and who is coached by Federation Director of Women's Marathoning Developmen...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/running/news/20140322-OYT8T00326.htm?cx_thumbnail=01 translated by Brett Larner The winner of Japan's first women's marathon and other dignitaries took part in a ceremony at Lake Tama in Higashiyamato, Tokyo on Mar. 21 unveiling a monument commemorating the race held at the site 36 years ago.  According to city officials, the first women-only full marathon, the "First National Women's Turtle Marathon Race" took place in April, 1978, sponsored by the Japan Turtle Association .  On a course covering three laps around the banks of Lake Tama, 49 women started the race, the oldest among them 71 years old.  46 finished. The Higashiyamato city government planned the monument in connection with its sports promotion and local revitalization initiatives.  Including the base the monument measures 1.8 m tall, with a width of 0.5 m.  According to Musashino Art University lecturer Yasuyuki Nishio , 47, tying the monument's design to it...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20130217-00000003-mai-spo translated by Brett Larner 2009 World Championships women's marathon silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki  (31, Team Daiichi Seimei) announced Feb. 16 that she will retire from competitive running following the Feb. 24 Tokyo Marathon.  Ozaki realized her dream of making the Olympics, finishing 19th at last summer's London Olympics.  After that, she said, "I didn't have any goals left in the marathon."  She plans to leave the Daiichi Seimei team to take some time off. Ozaki joined Daiichi Seimei in 2000 after graduating from Soyo H.S. in Kanagawa.  She began running marathons in 2008, and in her second shot at the distance she won the 2008 Tokyo International Women's Marathon in what remained her PB, 2:23:30.  Of her nine marathons she won twice and finished 2nd four times, earning a reputation for consistency.  In addition to the Olympics she ran in the 2009 and 2011 World Championships.  ...

by Brett Larner For many a long year Japanese women's marathoning has gotten far more media attention and public respect than the men; at the 2010 London Marathon the Japanese broadcast only followed the women and never mentioned that 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya  (Team Konica Minolta) and two-time World Championships team member Satoshi Irifune  (Team Kanebo) were in the men's race, even when they were inadvertently on-camera.  It's telling, then, of expectations of this year's Japanese women's marathon team that government broadcaster NHK's pre-Olympic preview of six events for Japanese fans to follow prominently featured the men's marathon but said nothing about the women's marathon. To give credit where it's due it's a good squad, featuring 2009 Berlin World Championships silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki  (Daiichi Seimei), 2012 Osaka International Women's Marathon winner Risa Shigetomo  (Team Tenmaya), whose...

by Brett Larner A few months ago JRN had dinner with an executive member of an IAAF gold label overseas marathon.  "The World Championships marathon doesn't matter," this colleague told us.  "Nobody cares about it."  That may be true many places, but in Japan, where most athletes receive regular salaries and do not have agents pushing them into overseas big money races, patriotism still counts for more than the shot at a big payday and the country's best marathoners regularly line up for the chance to represent their country at the World Championships.  Even more so in years like this which precede an Olympics because if a Japanese athlete scores an individual marathon medal at Worlds their place on the Olympic team is secure.  The results speak for themselves.  In the last 20 years Japanese women have scored nine individual marathon medals at eight out of ten World Championships and the men at three along with team medals from both sides virtually every ...

http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/news/20110808k0000m050080000c.html http://www.47news.jp/CN/201108/CN2011080701000696.html translated and edited by Brett Larner Daegu World Championships women's marathon team members Yoshimi Ozaki  and Azusa Nojiri  (both Team Daiichi Seimei) returned to Japan on Aug. 7 after two months of altitude training in Boulder, Colorado.  The pair talked to the media at Tokyo's Narita International Airport along with their coach, '91 World Championships women's marathon silver medalist Sachiko Yamashita  (Team Daiichi Seimei).  Ozaki, the '09 Berlin World Championships marathon silver medalist, was in good spirits and looked cheerful as she gave herself a self-evaluation of "about 70%." The Boulder training camp put an emphasis on mileage, with the pair training at the 800 km/month level and completing their first-ever 50 km run.  Ozaki looked confident as she commented, "I was able to pick up the pace in last part of the...