japan running news

One of the three big races happening this weekend in Japan, the Tokyo Legacy Half is a preview of the course for next year's Tokyo World Championships marathon, starting at the National Stadium, downhill in the first 5 km, flat in the middle, and then back up to the stadium for the finish. TBS-BS is broadcasting the race live starting at 8:00 a.m., with streaming of the finish line on YouTube and a tape delayed regular TV broadcast at 1:35 a.m. on Oct. 30. Fresh off a 30:13 road 10 km and with a 1:05:58 best Loice Chemnung is the heavy-duty favorite in the women's race, 4:34 up on her nearest competition, Mongolian NR holder Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh . The Tokyo Legacy Half reduces appearance fees by 20% for anyone who finishes over 5 minutes behind the winner, so for Galbadrakh and sub-1:11 Japanese women Yuki Nakamura and Mao Kiyota it's not just a race for 2nd but against whatever Chemnung brings to Tokyo. Amos Kurgat is the top man in the field at 58:47, and he...

The Tokyo Legacy Half happens Oct. 20 on what's basically the course just announced for next year's Tokyo World Championships marathon. With a 1:05:58 best Loice Chemnung is a mile ahead of the rest of the women's field led by Mongolian NR holder Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh , Gold Coast Marathon winner Yuki Nakamura and last year's 4th-placer Natsuki Ogawa . Last year's top 3 men Evans Keitany , Benard Kimeli and Bedan Karoki are all back along with sub-60 men Amos Kurgat ,  Cleophas Kandie and Andrew Lorot , top Japanese man Tomoki Ota at 1:00:08, and a million more. Straight from Paris, Paralympians Misato Michishita , Tsubasa Kina , Tomoki Suzuki , Kenya Karasawa and more lead the para half field. Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon Elite Field Highlights Tokyo, 20 Oct. 2024 complete field listing times listed are athletes' best in last 3 years except where noted Women Loice Chemnung (Kenya) - 1:05:58 (2024 Malaga Half) Khishigsaikhan Galbadrakh (Mongolia) - 1...

With Sunday's Tartan Ottawa International Marathon the qualifying window for the Oct. 15 MGC Race , Japan's marathon trials for the 2024 Paris Olympics, came to a close. When the JAAF introduced this format for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, a total of 15 women and 34 men made the tough standards. This time, with identical standards for women and even tougher ones for men , 29 women and 67 men made it, double the numbers on both sides. At the MGC Race, the top two finishers will earn guaranteed places on the Paris team. The 3rd placer will have a provisional spot, with the 4th and 5th placers named provisional alternates. If anyone runs under TBA time standards at one of the winter 2023-24 domestic marathons they'll have the chance to steal the 3rd spot on the team from the 3rd placer at the MGC Race, keeping those races relevant and the whole lead-up to the Olympics exciting. Among women, all three members of the Tokyo Olympics marathon team, Mao Ichiyama (Shiseido), Ayuko Su...

The Osaka International Women's Marathon jumps into the World Athletics platinum label pool Jan. 29 with its 42nd edition. A-group pacing it set to go at 3:19~20/km, 2:19:57 to 2:20:39 pace, with organizers opting to switch back to female pacers after two years with men. They've pulled in a trio of recent 2:20-level women, Kenyan Maurine Chepkemoi and Ethiopians Haven Hailu Desse and Sisay Meseret Gola , to try to max out the chances that the top Japanese women will be able to ride that in to something close to sub-2:20, and have tweaked the course a bit to do the same. Yuka Ando (Wacoal) is the only Japanese woman in the race to have gone sub-2:22 in her career, but in terms of times in the last three years she's one of three coming in with a 2:22, alongside last year's runner-up Mao Uesugi (Starts) and Sayaka Sato (Sekisui Kagaku). Tokyo Olympian Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) is in the mix too with a 2:23:30 in Osaka two years ago and some good half marathons last ye...

At a pre-race press conference at Tokyo's New National Stadium on Oct. 14, the Tokyo Marathon Foundation announced the list of withdrawals from Sunday's inaugural Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon . On the women's side, #1-ranked Fiona O'Keeffe (U.S.A.) and collegiate marathon NR holder Sairi Maeda (Daihatsu) were the two biggest names to pull out, O'Keeffe listed as sick and Maeda with injury. On the men's side, Tokyo Olympic marathoners Yuma Hattori (Toyota) and Shogo Nakamura (Fujitsu) were the biggest losses given the event's intent of commemorating the Olympic and Paralympic races, both athletes listed as injured. Other prominent withdrawals include former NR holder Yuta Shitara (Honda), 2022 National Corporate 10000 m champion Emmanuel Maru (Toyota Boshoku), 2021 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Michael Githae (Suzuki), 2022 Twin Cities Marathon winner Yuya Yoshida (GMO) and Mongolian NR holder Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Shin Nihon Jusetsu). Para athlet...

Track season in Japan goes almost year-round, with the fall time trial meets acting mostly as tune-ups for ekiden season. Both of the big meets this weekend played that role. At the Chugoku Corporate Time Trials meet Saturday in Hiroshima, the top five men, all Kenyan, broke the old 5000 m meet record of 13:36.36 thanks in part to the presence of a large number of teams from the Kyushu region. Emmanuel Kiplagat (Mitsubishi Juko) got the win in 13:19.05. Africans took the top seven spots, Shunya Kikuchi (Chugoku Denryoku) the first Japanese man at 8th in 13:53.33. Kenyans went 1-3 in the women's 3000 m, Teresiah Muthoni (Daiso) taking 1st in 9:03.11 over teammate Rebecca Mwangi , 2nd in 9:03.47, and Rose Wangui (Sera H.S.), 3rd in 9:04.40. Honoka Tanaike (Otsuka Seiyaku) was the top Japanese woman at 4th in 9:30.52. The 298th Nittai University Time Trials meet in Yokohama was smaller than usual, with only twelve heats of men's 5000 m on Sunday. Saturday saw newcomer Nelso...

Part of the qualification process for this summer's Oregon World Championships and the 2024 Paris Olympics marathon trials, the Nagoya Women's Marathon takes place this Sunday, Mar. 13. One of the women who will be lining up is star 22-year-old collegiate distance runner Yuka Suzuki . A 4th-year at Daito Bunka University  with a best of 31:37.88 for 10000 m, Suzuki won the gold medal in the World University Games half marathon her 2nd year of college. Ever since then, the Olympics have been a clear target. "I want to go for the Paris Olympics, and even higher goals," she says. "That's why I want to run my first marathon before I graduate."  Suzuki also has an artistic side. Holding up a picture she drew she says, "This is the scene of entering Nagoya Dome right before the finish. When I was young I wanted to be a manga or anime artist." She has painted since she was a child, and sometimes she gives teammates drawings or paintings for their bir...

Sairi Maeda age: 27 sponsor: Daihatsu graduated from: Kumamoto Shinai Joshi Gakuin H.S., Bukkyo University best time inside MGC window: 2:25:25, 10th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon PB: 2:22:48, 2nd, 2015 Nagoya Women’s Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 15:32.22 (2012) 10000 m: 32:03.43 (2014) half marathon: 1:10:24 (2015) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 10th, 2019 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:25:25 2nd, 2018 Hokkaido Marathon, 2:30:56 15th, 2018 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:30:54 other major results: 13th, 2015 Beijing World Championships Marathon, 2:31:46 1st, 2015 Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:10:24 – PB 2nd, 2015 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:22:48 – PB 3rd, 2014 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:26:46 – Univ. NR One of only two women in the field to have gone to university, Maeda set the collegiate national record of 2:26:46 at the Osaka International Women’s Marathon her senior year at Kyoto’s Bukkyo University . In the same rac...

Rei Ohara age: 29 sponsor: Tenmaya graduated from: Kojokan H.S. best time inside MGC window: 2:25:46, 2nd, 2019 Osaka International Women’s Marathon PB: 2:23:20, 3rd, 2016 Nagoya Women’s Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 15:39.47 (2016) 10000 m: 31:48.31 (2015) half marathon: 1:09:17 (2015) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 2nd, 2019 Osaka International Women’s Marathon, 2:25:46 10th, 2018 Berlin Marathon, 2:27:29 8th, 2018 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:27:44 other major results: 2nd, 2019 Sendai International Half Marathon, 1:10:25 4th, 2018 National Corporate Women’s Ekiden Sixth Stage (6.795 km), 21:54 3rd, 2018 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:10:37 5th, 2017 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:26 1st, 2017 Osaka Half Marathon, 1:10:02 1st, 2016 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:10:04 3rd, 2016 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2:23:20 – PB 2nd, 2015 Sanyo Ladies Half Marathon, 1:09:17 – PB 22nd, 2015 Beijing World Championships 10000 m, 32:47.74 3rd, 201...

It's one month to go until what's bound to be the best marathon of 2019, Japan's 2020 Tokyo Olympics marathon trials, the Sept. 15  Marathon Grand Championship Race . Up to now Japan has typically picked its Olympic and World Championships marathon teams based on performances in a series of specific races, primarily the Fukuoka International Marathon, Tokyo Marathon and Lake Biwa Marathon for men, and the Saitama International Marathon, Osaka International Women's Marathon and Nagoya Women's Marathon for women. This time around they're going with a U.S.-style one-shot trials race, the MGC Race . People had a nearly two-year window from August, 2017 to April this year to hit tough standards to qualify. Only 34 men and 15 women made it, and after withdrawals for the Doha World Championships the MGC Race's final entry list is just 31 men and 12 women. Swedish Athletics Federation official Lorenzo Nesi called it "the most difficult marathon race ever...

A veteran and a first-timer made the headlines from the opposite ends of the spectrum at Sunday's Hokkaido Marathon in Sapporo, Hokkaido, the first race in the second season of qualifying for the MGC Race, Japan's new 2020 Olympic trials race to be held in September next year. A passing typhoon brought cooler than usual weather to Hokkaido and a better-than-usual chance of hitting the sub-2:13 and sub-2:30 qualifying marks most Olympic aspirants would have to clear. The men's race was simply a race of attrition, with no dramatic changes in pace or sudden moves, just a large pack of motivated people going out mid-2:11 pace in a race where only two men have ever cleared 2:12, neither of them Japanese. In the pack, 59:47 Kenyan Paul Kuira (Konica Minolta), the promising young Shohei Otsuka (Kyedenko), championships marathoner extraordinaire Kentaro Nakamoto (Yasukawa Denki),2016 Sydney Marathon winner Tomohiro Tanigawa (Konica Minolta), luckless veteran Naoki Okamoto ...

Last year the Hokkaido Marathon saw the first pair of Japanese athletes qualify for the new MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials event , with winners Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) and Akinobu Murasawa (Nissin Shokuhin) winning under the time standards they needed for MGC qualification. Since then the numbers have grown to 13 men and 6 women on the qualifier list with another 16 women and 34 men halfway there thanks to an option for qualifying via a two-race average time standard. As an August event Hokkaido is always on the hot side, but success there might predict success in Tokyo 2020 and easier time standards than any of the other domestic options for MGC qualification there's no shortage of top-level Japanese talent lining up to give it a go this year. The winning Japanese woman in Hokkaido will qualify for the MGC race if under 2:32:00, with up to 5 more qualifying if under 2:30:00. London World Championships team member Mao Kiyota (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) leads the women's...

Japan’s domestic elite marathon season wraps up Sunday with the Nagoya Women’s Marathon , the final race in the first season of qualification for the MGC Race , Japan’s new 2020 Olympic trials marathon to be held in late 2019. In its first season the MGC Race has succeeded in unifying Japan’s disparate national team selection races into what feels like an actual series, one that fans have gotten excited about and which has, at least on the men’s side, driven performances to a higher level. As of right now, thirteen Japanese men have met the MGC Race’s strict qualification criteria, six of them at the Tokyo Marathon alone. Heading into Nagoya only three women have qualified . Will we see another rush of qualifiers this weekend? On paper it could happen. Since its rebranding as the world’s largest women-only marathon, Nagoya has consistently produced among the best depth-at-quality in the world, its course, weather and fields conducive to seeing a lot of people running fast times. In...

The Nagoya Women's Marathon is the largest women-only marathon in the world, one with a long history as an elite race and adapting to the times with a mass-participation field of 20,000. The last few years it has seen a series of dynamic, high-level performances by top Japanese women, from Sairi Maeda 's 2:22:48 in 2015 to the 2:23:19 to 2:23:20 sprint finish battle between Tomomi Tanaka and Rei Ohara in 2016 to Yuka Ando 's stellar 2:21:36 debut and teammate Mao Kiyota 's 2:23:47 breakthrough last year. Maeda, Ohara and Kiyota all return this year to face the Kenyan trio of Lucy Kabuu , Valary Jemeli and Flomena Cheyech Daniel . Kabuu went to high school in Japan before moving on to the big leagues, but she hasn't finished a marathon since her 2:20:21 in Dubai 2015. Cheyech also used to be based in Japan as is a familiar face here, winning the last two Saitama International Marathons. Jemeli is making her Japanese debut, and with a 2:21:57 win in Prague and ...

2012 national champions Universal Entertainment returned to the top Sunday in Sendai, running down breakaway leader Panasonic late in the race to win the 2017 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships . Panasonic was an unexpected highlight, winning the first three stages and building a 42-second lead by the start of the 3.6 km Fourth Stage, the race's shortest leg. There Panasonic's Chiaki Tobe struggled, losing ground to Universal Entertainment, defending national champ Japan Post , and Shiseido , who drew within 10 seconds. On the 10.0 km Fifth Stage Universal's Moeno Nakamura , a member of its 2012 national champion squad, took her time closing on Panasonic's Shiori Morita , not fully closing the gap until exactly halfway through the stage and then pushing ahead to open a 12-second lead of her own. Behind her, marathon university national record holder Sairi Maeda  of the Daihatsu team delivered what was no doubt the run of the day, making a supe...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160204-00000096-mai-spo translated and edited by Brett Larner A member of last summer's Beijing World Championships women's marathon team, Sairi Maeda (24, Team Daihatsu) has withdrawn from the Mar. 13 Nagoya Women's Marathon Rio de Janeiro Olympic team selection race, with a leg injury.  With Nagoya serving as the final selection race for the women's marathon team her withdrawal means that Maeda will miss the Rio Olympics. After setting the national university record of 2:26:46 in her 2014 debut at the Osaka International Women's Marathon Maeda ran 2:22:48 in Nagoya last year, at the time making her the all-time 8th-fastest Japanese woman.  Heading to Beijing as the star of the Japanese team she finished only 13th, missing a chance to score a place in Rio by finishing in the top 8.  Following Beijing Maeda planned to run Osaka in January but was forced to change plans after an injury.  Nagoya became her target, but accordi...

by Brett Larner click here for 2015 top 25 rankings by distance There was plenty to be excited about in Japanese distance running in 2015.  For the men especially it looked like the next generation was finally starting to break through.  Race-making corporate debuts from former university stars Shinobu Kubota , Suguru Osako and twins Keita and Yuta Shitara at the New Year Ekiden.  A legend-making win by Aoyama Gakuin University and new Fifth Stage star Daichi Kamino at the Hakone Ekiden and again at the Izumo Ekiden .  World record-setting depth at the National University Half Marathon Championships , Yosenkai 20 km , Kumamoto Kosa 10-Miler and seemingly everywhere else.  University men breaking 28 minutes for 10000 m and 1:02:00 for the half marathon .  And national records.  Lots of national records: indoor 3000 m : Suguru Osako - 7:45.62 (en route) (NYC, 1/31/15) indoor 2 miles : Suguru Osako - 8:16.47 (NYC, 1/31/15) indoor 5000 m ...