japan running news

Ekiden season saw two of its first important races happen this weekend. Modeled after January's Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden, Sunday's Okukuma Ekiden in Kumamoto put corporate, collegiate and high school teams together on a marathon-length course with teams of 4 all running double-digit distances and high schoolers with teams of 7 and all but the 10.0 km First Stage split into two parts. Tosu Kogyo H.S. starting runner Taiyo Iwasa led corporate leaguer Tomoya Ogikubo (Hiramatsu Byoin) by 2 seconds on the First Stage, with Omuta H.S. third runner Yuma Matsuda passing both teams to take the lead. It took until the anchor stage for Hiramatsu Byoin's Yeneblo Biyazen to catch Omuta, crossing the line in 2:06:39 with Omuta anchor Nobuyuki Anai 7 seconds back for 1st in the high school division. Soka University was the only other team to go under 2:07, 3rd overall and 2nd in the college/corporate division in 2:06:57. Rakunan H.S. was next in 2:07:07, with e...

A large number of universities that raced last month's Hakone Ekiden competed in the 46th Kanagawa Half Marathon Feb. 4 in Yokohama, with Chuo University 3rd-year Kazusa Takanuma taking the win in a PB 1:02:19. A graduate of Shizuoka's Fujieda Meijo H.S. , Takanuma has never made Chuo's starting roster for any of the major university ekidens, his main achievement to date having been a 22nd-place finish in last May's Kanto Regionals half marathon. Before Kanagawa his best was a 1:03:35 from the 2022 Ageo City Half Marathon, and with another 63-minute time last year he showed the potential he has over long distances. His PB in Kanagawa showed the realization of that potential. 2nd in 2023, Chuo had a disappointing 13th-place finish at Hakone this year. Next month star seniors Yamato Yoshii , Shota Nakano and Jin Yuasa will all graduate. On Jan. 30 Takumi Sano was named captain of Chuo's 2024-25 team, and 3rd-years without ekiden experience like Takanuma are expe...