japan running news

A quick summary of this weekend's major action.  Click any for detailed results and coverage. Suguru Osako (Team Nissin Shokuhin) set a 13:28.00 indoor 5000 m national record at the Millrose Games in New York. Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) ran a 1:00:18 debut to break the National Corporate Half Marathon course record.  Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta) tied the 20 km Japanese national record of 57:24 but missed the half marathon NR by 7 seconds as he took 3rd in 1:00:32.  Michi Numata (Team Toyota Jidoshokki) won the women's half marathon in 1:09:27, while Yuika Mori (Team Yamada Denki) won the 10 km in a course record 32:26. Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) ran 2:15:06 to win the Kochi Ryoma Marathon a week after running 2:15:16 in Nobeoka, his first time tackling back-to-back marathons.  Kawauchi set new world records with 35 career sub-2:16 marathons and 37 sub-2:17s. Collegiates Shin Kimura (Meiji Univ.) and Saori Noda (Osaka Gaku...

by Brett Larner On a busy weekend the Japanese racing calendar featured not one but two elite 30 km road races.  In western Japan, the Kumanichi 30 km staged its 59th running, its fourth edition since adding a mass-participation marathon to help keep the small elite-level 30 km afloat. The men's 30 km featured a pack of five up front featuring corporate teammates Sota Hoshi and Shota Yamaguchi (Team Fujitsu) and collegiates Shin Kimura (Meiji Univ.),  Shohei Otsuka (Komazawa Univ.) and Hazuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.), the younger brother of last year's winner Yuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.).  Kimura did most of the early leading before making a two-man break with Minato Oishi (Team Toyota) at 10 km, opening a 15-second lead by 15 km but swallowed back up by 20 km.  The pace slowed and the race turned tactical, and in a five-way sprint finish Kimura again pulled to the front for the win in 1:31:27, just ahead of 2013 national 5000 m champion Hoshi who clocked the sam...

http://kumanichi.com/fsports/marathon/2015/kiji/20150117001.xhtml translated and edited by Brett Larner On Jan. 16 the organizing committee of the Kumamotojo Marathon announced the 18 men and women making up the elite field for the 59th running of the Kanaguri Hai Kumanichi 30 km Road Race scheduled for Feb. 15.  The list is packed with talent from this year's New Year Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden. At the top of the corporate ladder are Minato Oishi , the Fifth Stage winner for New Year Ekiden national champion Toyota , and 2013's 5000 m national champion Sota Hoshi (Fujitsu).  Three-time Hofu Yomiuri Marathon winner Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (Mongolia, NTN) and Kyushu Gakuin H.S. graduate Daiichi Motomura (Nissin Shokuhin) are also on the list. At last year's Kumanichi 30 km Yuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.) won in a collegiate national record 1:28:52.  This year his younger brother Hazuma Hattori (Toyo Univ.) takes up the challenge, looking to establish a Hattori dynasty....

by Brett Larner Two of Japan's elite women-only ekidens founded after the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics celebrated their 30th anniversaries Sunday.  At the Fukui Super Ladies Ekiden , last year's top collegiate team Osaka Gakuin University staged a classic come-from-behind race to take its first Fukui title, covering the six-stage, 30.0 km course in 1:38:23.  Down by more than a minute behind leader Panasonic and in 15th place after the 6.55 km First Stage, each of Osaka Gakuin's next five runners moved up in both stage ranking and overall standing until Sakie Arai took the lead by four seconds over 2014 National University Women's Ekiden champion Ritsumeikan University and by six over Panasonic with a 16:10 stage best on the Fifth Stage.  Anchor Saori Noda then put both Ritsumeikan and Panasonic away with a 24:25 stage best for the 7.45 km Sixth Stage to win by nearly a minute.  Panasonic's anchor, 2014 Gold Coast Airport Marathon winner Asami Kato , overtook Ri...

by Brett Larner Check JRNLive for the detailed play-by-play. Sera H.S. wins the 2009 National High School Boys' Ekiden Championships. Click photo for video highlights. Toyokawa H.S. and Sera H.S. lived up to pre-race predictions, taking the win in the girls' and boys' races respectively at the 2009 National High School Ekiden Championships Dec. 20 in Kyoto. After an almost brutal first stage which saw three separate falls, Toyokawa, the defending champion in the girls' race, scored only its second-ever victory as it covered the five-stage, half-marathon distance in 1:08:27. With defending boys' champion Saku Chosei H.S. in a rebuilding year, Sera stepped up thanks in large part to Kenyan ace Bitan Karoki to take the seven-stage, marathon distance boys' race in 2:04:09. It was Sera's sixth victory in the ekiden's 60 year history and its first since 2006. Sera's strategy was relatively simple: its first two runners would just keep a decent positio...