japan running news

by Brett Larner The Hokkaido Marathon has released the elite field for its 30th anniversary running on Aug. 28. The men's field features Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), a 2:09:10 performer at the 2014 Tokyo Marathon but with little success since then, and Ryo Yamamoto (Team SGH Group), a member of the 2012 London Olympics marathon squad with a 2:08:37 best from 2012. An interesting dark horse is the Barcelona Olympics silver medalist Koichi Morishita -coached 2:13 man Yuki Oshikawa (Team Toyota Kyushu), winner of February's tough Ome 30 km and 2nd at last month's Shibetsu Half Marathon.  Something of an eyebrow raiser is Kenyan Cyrus Njui (SEV Sports), who underwent a six-month suspension after testing positive at last year's Hokkaido Marathon when he took cold medicine from a local pharmacists a few days before the race.  In today's environment it's hard to imagine many races inviting back someone who tested positive at the same race a year earlier, bu...

http://www.dailycamera.com/sports/ci_29957340/bolder-boulder-at-long-last-amane-gobena-winner 2016 Bolder Boulder 10 km Boulder, CO, U.S.A., 5/30/16 click here for complete results Women 1. Amane Gobena (Ethiopia) - 33:40 2. Miyuki Uehara (Japan) - 34:16 3. Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui (Kenya) - 34:19 4. Risper Gesabwa (Kenya) - 34:28 5. Margarita Hernandez Flores (Mexico) - 34:36 ----- 6. Sakiko Matsumi (Japan) - 34:39 12. Sayaka Kuwahara (Japan) - 35:12 Men 1. Isaac Mukundi (Kenya) - 29:13 2. Terefe Debela (Ethiopia) - 29:23 3. Diego Estrada (U.S.A.) - 29:41 4. MacDonald Ondara (Kenya) - 29:49 5. Tsegay Tuemay (Eritrea) - 29:53 ----- 18. Suehiro Ishikawa (Japan) - 30:46 25. Yuki Matsumura (Japan) - 31:29 31. Shohei Tomita (Japan) - 32:39

by Brett Larner 熊日30キロ優勝は設楽啓太くんでした！ pic.twitter.com/u4ZG27xFjf — つきこ (@t_tsuki) February 21, 2016 Former national university record holder Keita Shitara (Team Konica Minolta) returned to Japan's biggest 30 km, the Kumanichi Road Race , for the first time in three years to pick up the win in Kumanichi's 60th edition.  A graduate of 2014 Hakone Ekiden winner Toyo University , Shitara took the race in hand from the start, leading through 5 km in 14:38 just 2 seconds off the pace for the 1:28:52 course record set in 2014 by Toyo's Yuma Hattori .  Early company included Shitara's Konica Minolta teammate Masato Kikuchi , Toyo grad Kento Otsu (Team Toyota Kyushu) and current Toyo students Ryo Kuchimachi and Shun Sakuraoka .  Over the next 10 km the pack whittled down to just Shitara and Sakuraoka, 20 seconds off CR pace at 15 km in 44:15 with Otsu another 20 seconds back. Around 21 km Shitara got a few strides on Sakuraoka, who began to fade rapidly and was overtaken...

http://kumanichi.com/fsports/marathon/2016/kiji/20160116001.xhtml http://kumanichi.com/fsports/marathon/2016/kiji/20160127001.xhtml translated and edited by Brett Larner The organizers of the 5th Kumamoto-jo Marathon have announced the elite field for the Feb. 21 Kanaguri Memorial Kumanichi 30 km Road Race , held alongside the Kumamoto-jo Marathon as its elite race. Celebrating Kumanichi's 60th anniversary running, this year’s elite men’s field features strong young athletes who made an impact on the competitive Third and Fourth Stages at the New Year Ekiden corporate men’s national championships on Jan. 1. With university runners having won Kumanichi the last two years the corporate runners’ battle to get back on top will be one of the main draws this year. The fresh young corporate league contingent is led by two members of the New Year Ekiden runner-up team Konica Minolta , Masato Kikuchi and Keita Shitara , along with local Chiharadai H.S. graduate Kento Otsu of New...

by Brett Larner Yuka Mukai , an 11th-grader at Hiroshima's Sera High School ran a world youth leading time of 15:31.92 to win Saturday's Challenge Games in Oita women's 5000 m.  Mukai led the race together with 12th-grade teammate Shinobu Koyoshigawa unchallenged by the university and corporate runners in the field, and both were rewarded with places in the all-time Japanese high school top ten.  Mukai's winning time was good for all-time #6, with Koyoshigawa's 15:36.96 coming at all-time #9. The Sera H.S. boys, the defending National High School Ekiden champions, likewise led the way in the 5000 m A-heat, sweeping the top five and taking seven of the top nine places.  12th-grader Paul Kamais was 1st with a meet record 13:42.90, but 11th-grader Keita Yoshida made bigger news in 3rd place with his time of 13:50.67, all-time #10 on the Japanese high school lists.  Sera H.S. now has a top seven runner 5000 m average of 14:01.96, putting them in range of the le...

by Brett Larner The Osaka International Women's Marathon holds its 34th running Sunday, with two-time winner Tetiana Gamera (Ukraine) going for a third-straight win and Japanese women going for places on the 2015 Beijing World Championships team.  Gamera's best of 2:23:58 came in Osaka two years ago, and with the withdrawal of Kenyan Margaret Agai it means that if Gamera is anywhere near the same shape this time then her main competition is likely to be 38-year-old Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia) whose best of 2:22:56 also came in Osaka a decade ago but is still running strong with a 2:24:07 in Nagoya last spring. Japanese women are facing a sub-2:22:30 requirement for Beijing representation, more realistic than the laughable sub-2:06:30 requirement for men but still a time no Japanese woman has run since 2007.  Risa Shigetomo (Team Tenmaya) has the fastest time since then with a 2:23:23 in Osaka three years ago, but with nothing under 2:30 since then there's not much r...

http://www.sankei.com/sports/news/141103/spo1411030028-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner At the Nov. 3 East Japan Corporate Ekiden from Saitama to Kumagaya Sports Park Field, Konica Minolta won its third-straight and eighth overall title in the 7-stage, 77.5 km men's race in 3:49:34.  Universal Entertainment likewise won a third-straight title in 6-stage, 42.195 km women's race in 2:18:36. Konica Minolta took the lead on the Second Stage thanks to rookie Keita Shitara , with Fifth Stage winner Hiroyuki Yamamoto opening a major lead.  Nissin Shokuhin was 2nd, with Honda 3rd.  Nanyo City Hall beat the classic Kanebo team for 13th, the last qualifying position for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national corporate men's championships. In the women's race, Universal Entertainment anchor Mizuho Nasukawa shook off Daiichi Seimei' s Sakiko Matsumi for the win after the pair started almost even.  Daiichi Seimei took 2nd, with Panasonic 3rd.  The to...

by Brett Larner The Nagoya Women's Marathon continues on in its new format as the world's largest women-only marathon, having added a mass-participation field to its longstanding small elite race to stay relevant in the booming Japanese amateur marathon market.  This year sports one of the better elite fields in Nagoya history, with five sub-2:24 women, a solid sub-2:30 second pack, and a small group of noteworthy first-timers. The #1 seed is Russian Mariya Konovalova  with a best of 2:22:46 Chicago 2013, and it looks pretty clear that she and Kenyan trio  Helena Kirop , Agnes Kiprop  and Agnes Barsosio  are there to pull Moscow World Championships 4th-placer Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) along to something better than her 2:23:34 winning time from last year. There's a gap back to the next group at the 2:25-2:27 level, where Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia), the eyebrow-raising  Zivile Balciunaite  (Lithuania), Miranda Boonstra (Netherlands) and Ashet...

by Brett Larner Four major races this weekend mark the end of Japan's winter road season, two domestic and two foreign.  On the home front, the National Corporate Half Marathon Championships lead the way.  2008 Kenyan national XC champion Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) is the favorite, followed closely by last year's runner-up Jacob Wanjuki (Team Aichi Seiko) and, making a return to the half following a long injury, 2010 World Half Marathon Championships 9th-place Tomoya Onishi  (Team Asahi Kasei).  Ten other men have PBs under 62 minutes, making for a thick front pack.  Notable debuts will come from track champions Yuichiro Ueno  (Team S&B) and Taku Fujimoto  (Team Toyota). Course record holder Yukiko Akaba  (Team Hokuren) is the favorite in the women's race as she tunes up for next month's London Marathon.  She faces young competition from Sakiko Matsumi  (Team Daiichi Seimei) and Yuka Tokuda  (Team Starts), with...

by Brett Larner The organizers of the Mar. 17 National Corporate Half Marathon and 10 km Championships , Japan's last major road race before track season, released its 2013 entry lists on Mar. 5.  With no World Half Marathon Championships this year there are no national team places on the line, but the fields are deep nevertheless. Having struggled in recent years, 2008 Kenyan national XC champion Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) heads the men's list along with last year's runner-up  Jacob Wanjuki (Team Aichi Seiko), 2010 World Half Marathon 9th-place Tomoya Onishi  (Team Asahi Kasei),  Micah Njeru  (Team Toyota Boshoku) and 2012 Sendai International Half Marathon winner  Johana Maina  (Team Fujitsu).  Besides Onishi eight other Japanese men with sub-62 bests are close behind, led by Yuta Igarashi  (Team JR Higashi Nihon) and Daisuke Matsufuji (Team Kanebo).  2012 national 5000 m champion Kazuya Deguchi  (Team Asahi Kase...

http://www.newsandsentinelhalfmarathon.com/page/content.detail/id/505260/Kato-becomes-first-Japanese-runner-to-win-half-marathon.html?nav=5014 JRN arranged for Kato & Matsumi's participation in this race. Parkersburg News & Sentinel Half Marathon Parkersburg, West Virginia, 8/18/12 click here for complete results Women 1. Asami Kato (Team Panasonic) - 1:12:58 2. Malika Mejdoub (Morocco) - 1:13:15 3. Yesimebet Tades Bifa (Ethiopia) - 1:13:27 4. Hellen Jemutai (Kenya) - 1:13:46 5. Hirut Dangul (Ethiopia) - 1:14:44 ----- 8. Sakiko Matsumi (Team Daiichi Seimei) - 1:17:03 Men 1. Julius Kogo (Kenya) - 1:03:36 2. Alene Reta (Ethiopia) - 1:04:25 3. Nicholas Kurgat (Kenya) - 1:06:00 4. Dereji Woldegiyorgis (Ethiopia) - 1:06:37 5. Josh Ordway (U.S.A.) - 1:08:06

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