japan running news

On April 19 the Hitachi women's corporate team announced that its athlete Cynthia Mbaire had passed away on April 14. A statement from head coach Satoru Kitamura said that Mbaire had been suffering from an unspecified illness since last year, and that she had faced it with strength and had fully expected to make a comeback. "She was always kind and considerate of those around her, and she brightened the mood on the team and gave us all courage," Kitamura wrote. "She made us all smile, and we are saddened to the depth of our hearts." Mbaire attended Kamimura Gakuen H.S. in Kagoshima. She was best known for her 8:49.72 meet record in the 2019 South Kyushu High School Championships 3000 m at age 16. Mbaire went on to win both the 1500 m and 3000 m at the National High School Championships that year, then won the 1500 m at the 2021 East Japan Corporate Championships her first season with Hitachi. Her best performance following that was a 9:01.66 for 3000 m in ...

by Brett Larner The Osaka International Women's Marathon and Osaka Half Marathon were the weekend's main races, but across the country there was plenty of other action on the roads.  Highlights: In Yamagata, Sakata Minami High School 10th-grader Masato Arao ran 29:27 for 2nd at the  Yamagata Prefecture Winter Road Race 10 km, one second behind winner Shuhei Moriya .  Arao's time was 21 seconds faster than the best-ever track 10000 m time by a Japanese 10th-grade boy, Keigo Iijima 's 29:48.25. Now in semi-retirement and working as an assistant coach for the Hitachi women's corporate team, former high school star Satoru Kitamura won the men's 10 km at Ibaraki's 65th Katsuta Marathon in 30:06.  Hitachi women defended their titles in both the 10 km and marathon, Ryo Koido winning the 10 km in 33:16 and Kana Kurosawa the marathon in 2:43:03 and both slightly faster than last year.  The men's marathon, by contrast, was very slow.  After a 2:13:15 ...

by Brett Larner For years the worldwide fall elite marathon season has gotten underway with Sapporo's Hokkaido Marathon on the last Sunday of August.  Two years organizers did away with their elite fields, leaving top amateurs Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) and Yuri Yoshizumi (Osaka Nagai AC) to win in two of the slowest winning times in event history.  Last year the elite fields returned with a small international contingent that proved mostly superfluous.  With the release of this year's elite fields today it's clear that organizers have trimmed the fat to focus on a good domestic field that on paper any other country outside Africa would have a tough time matching. Leading the men's field is the 4th-fastest Japanese man of the year, Masanori Sakai (Team Kyudenko), who ran 2:09:10 in Tokyo in February.  Named to the federation's new marathon National Team program on the strength of that performance, with Hokkaido's always-hot conditions Sakai...

by Brett Larner Alongside its post-National Championships announcement of the 41-member Japanese team for August's Moscow World Championships, the Japanese Federation announced the teams it has selected for July's Asian Athletics Championships in Pune, India and October's East Asian Games in Tianjin, China. 26 men and 26 women will make up the Asian Athletics Championships team, with sprinters Chisato Fukushima (Hokkaido Hi-Tec AC),  Yuzo Kanemaru  (Team Otsuka Seiyaku), Yuichi Kobayashi  (Team NTN) and Kei Takase  (Team Fujitsu), hurdlers Yasuhiro Fueki  (Team Aima), Satomi Kubokura  (Niigata Albirex RC) and Hitomi Shimura  (Saga T&F Assoc.) and high jumper Miyuki Fukumoto  (Konan Gakuen AC) doubling there and in Moscow. The East Asian Games team includes 30 men and 28 women, led by 2013 national champions Yuki Ebhiara  (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC),  Sota Hoshi  (Team Fujitsu),  Shota Iizuka  (Chuo Univ.), Sho Kawam...

by Brett Larner With the emergence of India's superb double track medalists Preeja Sreeharan and Kavita Raut and nearly all of the remaining medals in the men's and women's distance medals going to Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes running in the colors of Qatar and Bahrain, Japanese athletes were virtually shut out of the distance medals at the 2010 Asian Games in Guanzhou, China. In just his second marathon, Yukihiro Kitaoka (Team NTN) delivered one of Japan's only distance medals of the Games, outkicking the defending gold medalist, Kenyan Richard Yatich running as Mubarak Hussan Shami of Qatar, in the final meters of the race to take silver behind an outstanding if unsportsmanlike gold medal run from South Korea's Youngjun Ji . In taking silver Kitaoka likely earned himself one of the five spots up for grabs on the Japanese marathon squad for next summer's World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. By contrast the Japanese women marathoners came up empty-han...

http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2010110300284 http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20101103-697806.html translated and edited by Brett Larner The 21st Women's and 51st Men's East Japan Jitsugyodan Ekiden Championships , the regional qualifiers for the year-end National Ekiden Championships, took place Nov. 3 in Saitama prefecture. Led by 2009 World Championships marathon silver medalist Yoshimi Ozaki , Team Daiichi Seimei took its first win in the women's race with a time of 2:18:46 for the six-stage, 42.195 km course. The top thirteen teams qualified for the Dec. 19 national championships in Gifu. Team Panasonic placed 2nd, while defending champion Team Toyota Jidoshoki could do no better than 9th. Former nine-time champion Team Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo was 6th. Leading them for the first time in a year was 10000 m national record holder Yoko Shibui , who placed 3rd on the anchor stage. After nearly two years of injury setbacks Shibui told report...

by Brett Larner National record holders Minori Hayakari (Kyoto Koka AC) and Masato Yokota (Team Fujitsu) led the performances by the Japanese contingent at the July 15 Lappeenranta Games in Finland with wins in the women's 3000 m steeplechase and men's 800 m. The veteran Hayakari led start to finish after setting the race off at national record pace. For Yokota it was his second European win in less than a week, both wins clocking just off his national record. 2010 Lappeenranta Games - Top Results click here for complete results Men's 3000 m 1. Geoffrey Kipsang (Kenya) - 7:59.57 2. Matti Rasanen (Finland) - 8:02.18 3. Jukka Keskisalo (Finland) - 8:02.23 ----- 6. Satoru Kitamura (Team Nissin Shokuhin) - 8:14.92 Women's 3000 mSC 1. Minori Hayakari (Kyoto Koka AC) - 9:52.10 2. Livia Toth (Hungary) - 9:54.16 3. Valeria Mara (Ukraine) - 9:54.98 Men's 1500 m 1. Kiprono Menjo (Kenya) - 3:38.40 2. Niclas Sandells (Germany) - 3:41.62 3. Mikael Bergdahl (Germany) - 3:42.5...

by Brett Larner Men's 800 m national record holder Masato Yokota (Team Fujitsu) had the best result of the day for the Japanese contingent at this year's KBC Nacht meet in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium on July 10. Less than half a second off his national record of 1:46:16, Yokota won the 800 m in 1:46.63 by the narrowest of margins over South African Jonas Windy . Among the other Japanese participants in the meet, Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) was perhaps the most disappointing as he fell well short in his attempt on the Japanese 5000 m national record, running only 13:27.36 for 9th. A summary of results is included below. 2010 KBC Nacht - Top Results click here for complete results Men's 800 m 1. Masato Yokota (Team Fujitsu) - 1:46.63 2. Jonas Windy (South Africa) - 1:46.64 3. Ludolph Siren (Germany) - 1:47.29 Men's 1500 m B-heat 1. Mthobisi Baloyi (South Africa) - 3:41.58 2. Gregory Beugnet (France) - 3:31.99 3. Niels Verwer (Netherlands) - 3:42.75 ----- 4. Yasunor...

by Brett Larner Unstoppably talented in university, Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) has had an off-and-on career since joining the corporate world last year. Last year he ran 3 seconds off the Japanese national record for 10000 m to become the all-time #3 Japanese man at that distance, but then went on to miss out on qualifying for the Berlin World Championships. On July 3rd this year he pulled off one of his best accomplishments so far, running 7:44.63 for 3000 m at the Memorial Leon Buyle meet in Belgium. Sato finished 3rd behind Kenyans John Kemboi Cheruiyot and Yusef Biwott , the top two 3000 m runners thus far in 2010. His time, a PB by 9 seconds, was less than 3 seconds off Toshinari Takaoka 's 11 year-old national record of 7:41.87 and shows that he is in excellent form as he kicks off a summer stint on the European circuit. A similar improvement over 5000 m would put Sato 1 second off the relatively weak Japanese national record of 13:13.20, a mark which may well fall w...

by Brett Larner The 2010 Japanese National Track and Field Championships got underway June 4 in Marugame, Kagawa prefecture. At stake for competitors this year are places on the Japanese national team for November's Asian Games. The first day of competition saw the women's and men's 10000 m. In the women's 10000 m, multiple past national champion Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) returned to the top for the first time in three years. Fukushi ran the entire race alone and unchallenged, taking it out in 3:06 for the first km with no one even near. Fukushi finished in 31:47.56, her closest competition over half a lap behind as Ryoko Kizaki (Team Daihatsu) came 2nd in 32:31.64. Defending champion Yukiko Akaba (Team Hokuren), still working her way back from a marathon PB in London at the end of April, was 3rd in 32:36.32. The men's 10000 m was more dramatic if slower. Young pro Naoki Okamoto (Team Chugoku Denryoku) and university star Ryuji Kashiwabara (Toyo Univ.) alte...

by Brett Larner Update: With 2 1/2 hours to go until the start the weather and forecast are terrible. 6 degrees, wind, and moderate to heavy rain. The 2010 Tokyo Marathon takes place this Sunday, Feb. 28. With a potentially dramatic men's race lined up it's a shame that media coverage of this year's race has to have taken a back seat to the Winter Olympics, but the unfortunate timing does nothing to diminish what could be a course record year if the storm front threatening the Tokyo area passes in time. Both men's and women's defending champions Salim Kipsang (Kenya) and Mizuho Nasukawa (Team Universal Entertainment) return but neither stands an unbreakable chance of repeating. Kipsang's PB of 2:07:29 puts him towards the top of the field, but he will have plenty of competition at that level. Six other men in the field have run under 2:08 within roughly the last two years. Rachid Kisri (Morocco) will wear bib #1 thanks to his 2:06:48 PB at last year's P...

by Brett Larner click here for complete elite field details On Jan. 25 the Tokyo Marathon announced its elite field for the race's fourth edition on Feb. 28. Last year's winners Salim Kipsang (Kenya) and Mizuho Nasukawa (Team Universal Entertainment) return to defend their titles. Tokyo's organizers have done a good job of putting together a solid men's field at the start of the crowded spring marathon season. Kipsang may be back, but the 2:06:48 by Rachid Kisri (Morocco) at last year's Paris Marathon makes him a potential favorite despite a lack of other comparable performances. Six other men in the field have run under 2:08 within the last two or three years, meaning the course record of 2:07:23 should be in danger. Domestic hopes lie with half-marathon national record holder Atsushi Sato (Team Chugoku Denryoku). Sato's 2:07:13 PB against Samuel Wanjiru (Kenya) and Deriba Merga (Ethiopia) in Fukuoka '07 makes him the third-fastest man in the field, an...

by Brett Larner Lost in the shuffle following Tsegaye Kebede's record-breaking run at today's Fukuoka International Marathon, the world's most competitive 10-miler took place across Kyushu at the 2009 Kumamoto Kosa 10 Mile Road Race . A total of 90 men broke 50 minutes at the race, a tune-up for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national corporate championships. In the "International Division," made up of Japan-based foreigners who run for Japanese corporate teams and are given an inscrutable one-minute headstart, 2007 World Championships 10000 m bronze medalist Martin Mathathi (Team Suzuki) won in 44:52, just one second off his course and world junior record of 44:51. In the Japanese Division, former Juntendo University Hakone Ekiden "God of the Mountain" 5th Stage record breaker Masato Imai (Team Toyota Kyushu) scored the first big result of his pro career with a 46:40 win by one second over university-era Hakone 5th stage rival Satoru Kitamura (Team Nissin S...

by Brett Larner Sunday's Fukuoka International Marathon isn't the only major race happening on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu that day. Across the island in Kumamoto is the 34th Kumamoto Kosa 10 Mile Road Race . What the Ageo City Half Marathon is to half marathons, Kumamoto Kosa is to 10-milers: the deepest, toughest in the world . Where Ageo sees university men lining up by the hundreds to prove to their coaches that they are worthy of running in the Hakone Ekiden, Japan's corporate jitsugyodan runners do Kumamoto Kosa as a selection and tune-up race for the Jan. 1 New Year Ekiden national championships. Almost everybody who's not running Fukuoka is on the starting line. It's a Japanese-only time trial, thank you very much, as foreign runners are politely given a one-minute head start and scored in a separate "International Division" even though all are based in Japan and run for the same teams as the Japanese runners. Looking at the...

by Brett Larner Like rival Kensuke Takezawa (Team S&B) in Spain just 24 hours earlier, the prodigious Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) couldn't crack the barrier in his last attempt at earning a World Championships A-standard in the 5000 m. A week after running a 3000 m PB Sato ran the 5000 m at the July 26 Flanders Cup meet in Brasschaat, Belgium . Sato needed to attain the A-standard of 13:20.00 to join his former high school teammate Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) in the 5000 m on the national team for next month's World Championships. His time of 13:35.32 was good for 2nd in the Flanders Cup race but fell short of even the B-standard. A small group of other Japanese runners also ran the Flanders 5000 m, with Sato's training partner Satoru Kitamura (Team Nissin Shokuhin) landing 12th in 13:41.44. In April Sato ran 27:38.25 for 10000 m, the third-best ever by a Japanese man and comfortably clearing the World Championships A-standard. Injury troubles held him back at Jun...

by Brett Larner Team Nissin Shokuhin's Yuki Sato, a university star who struggled through injury his senior year looked set for the World Championships when he ran 27:38 earlier this spring in the second race of his pro career. Injuries returned shortly afterwards and a disastrous showing in the 10000 m at June's National Championships left him empty-handed, but since then Sato has edged closer and closer back toward some measure of his full fitness. On July 21 he took another step toward earning the World Championhips 5000 m A-standard when he finished 2nd overall in 7:53.56 in the 3000 m at the Gentse Feesten Meet in Ghent, Belgium, part of the Flanders Cup series. Sato's time was a PB by nearly 3 seconds but was well short of his university-era and now cross-town Team S&B rival Kensuke Takezawa's PB of 7:49.26 at last week's Gobierno de Aragon meet in Saragossa, Spain. Two other runners, Yusei Nakao of Team Toyota Boshoku and Sato's teammate Satoru Kitam...

by Brett Larner A number of top pro Japanese men competed in the 2009 Lappeenranta Games in Finland on July 12. The biggest results came in the 5000 m, where 2008 World Half Marathon 5th place finisher Yusei Nakao (Team Toyota Boshoku) was 3rd and Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin), who earlier this season ran a PB of 27:38 in the 10000 m, was a DNF. Below are the top results of races featuring Japanese runners. For complete results click here . 2009 Lappeenranta Games - Top Results Men's 5000 m 1. Lewis Korir (Kenya) - 13:36.23 2. Jukka Keskisalo (Finland) - 13:39.81 3. Yusei Nakao (Japan) - 13:44.92 ----- 5. Satoru Kitamura (Japan) - 13:50.33 6. Naoki Okamoto (Japan) - 13:50.88 7. Suehiro Ishikawa (Japan) - 13:52.15 9. Seigo Ikegami (Japan) - 14:14.19 DNF - Yuki Sato (Japan) Men's 1500 m 1. Mohammed Shahween (Saudia Arabia) - 3:42.81 2. Niclas Sandells (Finland) - 3:43.72 3. Jonas Hamm (Finland) - 3:44.39 ----- 7. Yuki Matsuoka (Japan) - 3:46.72 12. Yasunori Murakami (Japan) -...

by Brett Larner After a year of injury disappointments which kept him out of the Beijing Olympics, Yuki Sato (Team Nissin Shokuhin) has made a definitive comeback. A week after his professional debut in the 5000 m B-heat at the Mt. SAC Relays, the former Tokai University star ran a 13-second 10000 m PB of 27:38.25 to finish 3rd in the New York Road Runners-sponsored Brutus Hamilton Invitational on Apr. 24 in Berkeley, CA. Sato's time was just over 3 seconds off the Japanese national record and is the third-fastest ever run by a Japanese man. Prior to leaving for California he wrote on the Team Nissin Shokuhin blog , "Since these will be my first races as a pro and they're overseas I want to be myself again and do something special." Consider that goal accomplished: the two men ahead of him on the all-time list, Toshinari Takaoka and Takeyuki Nakayama, were both 10000 m and marathon national record holders. The 22 year-old Sato's future looks very bright. Click pi...

by Brett Larner Four distance races featured Japanese and Japan-based athletes on the second day of the Mt. SAC Relays meet in Walnut, CA. Former high school and university star Yuichiro Ueno (Team S&B) showed that he has finally overcome the illness which kept him under medical treatment for most of 2008, running a PB of 3:42.51 to finish 5th in the men's invitational 1500 m . Ueno was also entered in the invitational 5000 m but wisely sat it out. Kenyan Philes Ongori (Team Hokuren) easily dominated the women's invitational 5000 m , starting slowly and gradually accelerating to grind down her competitors. She finished in 15:23.33 nearly 11 seconds ahead of 2nd place finisher Christin Wurth-Thomas (Nike). Over 30 seconds off her PB, the run amounted to little more than a buildup practice run for the talented Ongori. In Ueno's absence, Honda teammates Suehiro Ishikawa and Seigo Ikegami, the top Japanese men in last month's World Cross-Country Championships, were the...

The Mt. SAC Relays meet in Walnut, CA takes place this Friday to Sunday, Japan time, with a fair number of Japanese athletes and at least one Japan-based Kenyan starting off their track seasons at the meet. At least two sites are promising live webcasts, offering a rare chance to see Japanese athletes in overseas track competition. Below is a schedule of events featuring Japanese athletes. All dates and times are Japan time. Italicized events are major distance events which do not include Japanese runners but will be worth watching. A complete event schedule is available here . Please note that the dates and times on the official schedule are local California time. Click here for the official Mt. SAC webcast. Click here for the Flotrack webcast. Friday, April 17 10:15 a.m. – Women’s Invitational 3000m SC: Minori Hayakari 10:40 a.m. – Men’s Invitational 3000m SC 11:35 a.m. – Women’s Invitational 10000m 12:10 p.m. – Men’s Invitational 10000m Saturday, April 18 4:00 a.m. – Men’s Ol...