japan running news

Alongside the National High School Girls Ekiden , the Nittai University Women's Long Distance Time Trials meet and Sanyo Ladies Road Race 10 km and half marathon made it a busy weekend for women's running in Japan. At Nittai, Momoka Kawaguchi (Uniqlo) was just off her PB in the 5000 m, winning the A-heat in 15:26.59 by almost 20 seconds over teammate Yume Goto . Nokoka Hosaka (SID Group) took the 3000 m A-heat in 9:25.42, leading the top 5 under 9:30. At Sanyo, a lead group of 4 went through 5 km in 16:09 in the 10 km before Lucy Nduta (Ehime Ginko) threw in a massive surge to win in a negative split 31:49. Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) held steady for 2nd in 32:17, with Mao Uesugi (Tokyo Metro) fading slightly but holding off the fast-closing Hikaru Kitagawa (Universal Entertainment) for 3rd 32:38 to 32:41. Part of the original lead quartet, Daisy Jerop (Josai Kokusai Univ.) blew up big time in the 2nd half, finishing 16th in 33:34. Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) just misse...

Margaret Akidor made it three in a row at the Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon, breaking the course record with a PB 1:07:45 for the win. Akidor was part of a lead quartet with Shiori Yoshizono , Nanaka Izawa and the debuting Tabitha Njeri Kamau that went through 5 km together in 15:55. Yoshizono and Izawa dropped back over the next 5 km, falling 12 seconds behind as Akidor and Kamau hit 10 km in 31:55. From there Akidor started to inch away from Kamau, rolling on alone the rest of the way to the win. Yoshizono and Izawa caught the fading Kamau just before 20 km and went right by, Yoshizono taking 2nd in 1:08:21 and Izawa 3rd in 1:08:25. Kamau was another 10 seconds back in 4th, almost 2 minutes up on 5th-placer Yuri Mitsune . Yoshizono and Izawa both broke into the Japanese all-time lists, Yoshizono coming in a 9th and Izawa at 10th. 3rd in the 10 km race last year, Kaede Kawamura got the win this time in 32:16, holding off Deborah Chemutai by 2 seconds in Chemutai's deb...

Last year Margaret Akidor ran a 2-minute PB of 1:09:29 to win the Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon. She's back Sunday to try to make it 3 in a row, but she's got serious competition from Pauline Kamulu , 1:07:22 in Marugame last year, and last year's 10 km CR breaker Agnes Mwikali , making her debut here. 31:17.40 runner Tabitha Njeri is also debuting. The domestic field is relatively weak, with no current sub-1:10 Japanese women and Rinka Hida topping the list at 1:10:10. 2nd and 3rd in the 10 km last year, Janet Nyiva and Kaede Kawamura are sticking to the shorter race again this year, and in place of Mwikali they've got Naomi Muthoni , 31:15 in Sanyo 3 years ago, to deal with. Sub-15 runner Susan Kamotho is also debuting. Sanyo Ladies Road Race Okayama, 15 Dec. 2024 complete entry list times listed are athletes' best in last 3 years except where noted Half Marathon Pauline Kamulu (Route Inn Hotels) - 1:07:22 (Marugame Half 2023) Margaret Akidor (Comodi...

Japan's last big non-ekiden road race of the year happened Sunday in Okayama at the Sanyo Ladies Road Race 10 km and half marathon. In the 10 km, CR holder Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) soloed a 31:09 CR for the win. 2 seconds up on rival Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) at 5 km in 15:34, Mwikali held steady over the second half to cut 2 seconds off her old CR of 31:11 from 2021. Nyiva faded to 31:57 but held on to 2nd, with Kaede Kawamura (Iwatani Sangyo) passing Eva Cherono (Toto) for 3rd in 32:22. In the half marathon, a lead group of four stayed together through 15 km before 2022 winner  Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) surged over the last 5 km. Taking almost 2 minutes off her PB, Akidor took the top spot in 1:09:29, beating #1-ranked Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (U.S.E.) by 18 seconds. Joanne Kipkemoi (Kyudenko) was 3rd in 1:10:01, with Yuri Karasawa (Kyudenko) scoring the top Japanese spot at 5th in 1:10:48. Also Sunday in Chiba was the 137th running of the Kanto 10-Miler. After a DNF at...

Japan's last major non-ekiden road race of the year happens Sunday in Okayama at the Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon and 10 km. Four women in the half marathon, Dolphine Nyaboke Omare (U.S.E.), Yuka Ando (Wacoal), Desta Burka (Denso) and Joanne Kipkemoi (Kyudenko) have recent sub-1:10 times, Omare leading the way with a 1:07:56 from her win at last year's National Corporate Half Marathon. Ando isn't far behind with a 1:08:13 in the same race, but at the Queens Ekiden three weeks ago she showed signs of heavy fatigue from October's Olympic marathon trials. Track specialist Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) is also in the race, only 1:11:19 in Sanyo last year but with potential to go a lot better. Eva Cherono (Toto) is the class of the 10 km field with a 30:33 road best from Lens two years ago. Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) and Janet Nyiva (Panasonic) were both under 31:30 minutes in Sanyo in 2021, with Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko) and Kaede Kawamura (Iwatani Sangyo)...

Strong winds prevented the kind of times usually seen at the Sanyo Ladies Road Race , the last major non-ekiden race on the Japanese calendar every year. Running as a tuneup for pacing January's Osaka International Women's Marathon, 3000 m JPN all-comers record holder Margaret Akidor (Comodi Iida) won a four-way sprint finish to take 1st in the half marathon in 1:11:19. 3rd last year, Joan Kipkemoi (Kyudenko) was 2nd in 1:11:20, reversing places with Desta Burka (Denso) who dropped from 2nd last year to 3rd in 1:11:21. Unable to keep up in the last kick, 2-time champ Zeyituna Husan (Denso) was 4th in 1:11:25. Yuri Karasawa (Kyudenko) was the top Japanese woman at 5th in 1:12:01. In the 10 km division, Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) won a slightly less close sprint finish over Tabitha Njeri Kamau (Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo) and Janet Nyiva (Kurashiki H.S.) in 31:56 to Njeri' 31:59 and Nyiva's 32:00. Top Japanese woman Misaki Hayashida (Kyudenko) was 4th in 33:14. The 136t...

The 41st Sanyo Ladies Road Race takes place Dec. 18 in Okayama. 119 athletes including qualifiers for the MGC Race 2024 Olympic marathon trials are entered in the half marathon, with another 155 in the 10 km bringing the total to 274 entrants. MGC qualifiers Kanako Takemoto (Daihatsu), Reia Iwade (Denso) and Mirai Waku (Universal Ent.) lead the half marathon field. Other top names include last year's first Japanese finisher Yumi Yoshikawa (Uniqlo), 5000 m U18 NR holder Shuri Ogasawara (Denso), and local Tenmaya team members Rei Ohara and Shiori Yoshizono . Last year foreign athletes swept the podium. This year all three are set to return, with Zeyituna Husan (Denso) going for the first threepeat in event history. In the 10 km Agnes Mwikali (Kyocera) will likewise being going for the first-ever threepeat, with pressure from 2021 runner-up Naomi Muthoni (Universal Ent.) and others. MGC qualifier Mao Uesugi (Starts) and Tenmaya rookie Shiho Tachizako are also in the field...

Sunday had the last two big non-ekiden Japanese road races of the year, the 52nd Hofu Yomiuri Marathon and 40th Sanyo Ladies Road Race half marathon and 10 km. In Hofu, as expected the race was all about whether former Hakone Ekiden uphill star Daichi Kamino  (Cell Source), now coached by 2:07 Olympian and past Hofu winner Arata Fujiwara , could finally pull off a good marathon. Despite strong winds, pacers Titus Wambua  and Michael Githae , the winner in Fukuoka two weeks ago and Kamino's training partner under Fujiwara, did a stellar job through 30 km, their projected finish time never varying by more than a few seconds at each 5 km split and hitting halfway in 1:04:47. When they stopped, the debuting Dominic Nyairo  (NTT Nishi Nihon), winner of Hakone's most competitive stage in 2018 while at Yamanashi Gakuin University , went to the front. Kamino was the only one to go with him, and they stayed locked together until Nyairo made a break at 41 km. It looked over, but ...

This weekend sees the last big marathon of the year, the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon . A longtime lesser cousin to the dearly departed Fukuoka International Marathon, Hofu is set to step up in importance after the demise of both Fukuoka and the Saitama International Women's Marathon. The Kobe Marathon may come back, but especially for women Hofu should take on a bigger role on the calendar in the years to come. The women's race is still small at this stage but has some decent talent led by Japan's fastest woman of 2019, Reia Iwade  (Adidas). 7-time winner Hisae Yoshimatsu  (Shunan City Hall) is on the list but tells JRN that she is injured and will not run, instead refocusing on February's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon. The men's race, featuring pacing by Fukuoka winner Michael Githae  (Suzuki) is mostly about whether former Hakone Ekiden uphill great Daichi Kamino (Cell Source) can finally pull off a good marathon. Now coached by Olympian and 2:07 marathoner Arata Fuji...

The National High School Ekiden Championships were the weekend's main event, but across Japan there were at least three other high-level road races. And one abroad. Benefitting from the Taiwanese government's early steps to get control of the COVID-19 situation and its population's responsibility in sticking to the protocols, the Taipei Marathon achieved what no other large-scale race could: a full-sized mass-participation field with 9,000 marathoners and 19,000 half-marathoners, and an international elite field, all within the 2020 calendar year. Not a reduced field, not a micro race, but a big city marathon the way we used to know them.  International athletes had to undergo a two-week quarantine in their hotel rooms, which organizers had fitted out with treadmills, but while most of them including Japan's Hiroko Baino  (Memolead) reported negative effects from the treadmill running on their performances there was still a new men's course record of 2:09:18 from...