japan running news

The Daiichi Life women's corporate team announced last week on its official site that Paris Olympics 10000 m runner Haruka Kokai and teammate Yuka Masubuchi left the organization as of July 31. Kokai was born in 2003. Kokai rose to the national level while at Sendai Ikuei H.S. , winning the first leg at the National High School Ekiden her 2nd year to lead them to the overall national title. After graduating she joined Daiichi Life, then called Daiichi Seimei, in 2021. In March, 2023 she was the gold medalist in the women's 10000 m at the Asian Championships, and in December the same year she took 3rd in the National Championships 10000 m in an all-time Japanese #7 30:57.67 to score a place on the Paris Olympics team. In Paris she placed 19th. In a statement released by Daiichi Life Kokai said, "I want to thank the team, who always put the athletes first as they shared this journey, and all my teammates for so many good times together. There were times I got really disco...

Sunday is the Princess Ekiden , the official qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden, the season-ending national championship race for corporate women's teams. The top 8 placers at last year's Queens Ekiden, Sekisui Kagaku , Japan Post , Panasonic , Shiseido , Daihatsu , Daiichi Seimei , Tenmaya and Iwatani Sangyo , auto-qualified for 2024, leaving the rest of the league's teams to line up in Fukuoka at the Princess Ekiden in hopes of joining them. 30 teams will compete for 16 places at the Queens Ekiden, each with a team of 6 running a total of 42.195 km. TBS is broadcasting the race live starting at 11:50, with streaming on Youtube. 16th at Queens last year, Kyudenko has scratched from Sunday's race due to athlete injuries preventing them from having enough people ready to run. 22nd at Queens, Yamada Holdings is also out because it couldn't field 6 runners, one reason being the transfer of one of its star runners, Sakiho Tsutsui , to Universal Entertai...

Sunday's Queens Ekiden is the season-ending national championship race for corporate women's teams, 6 legs totaling 42.195 km through the Sendai countryside. It's a pretty interesting race up front this year. Last year Shiseido shook off revelations of a toxic team culture to win for the first time since 2006, with 2021 winner Sekisui Kagaku 2nd and 2020 champ Japan Post 3rd. Shiseido has had an exodus since then, including head coach Yoshitaka Iwamizu and star runner Tomoka Kimura , who jumped ship to go to Sekisui Kagaku. It still has at least half a quality team, including Olympic marathon trials runner-up Mao Ichiyama , Kenyan Judy Jepngetich , women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima and veteran Yuka Takashima , but the win will be tough. Sekisui Kagaku has the lineup to win, although that's due more to its budget that head coach Hidenori Noguchi 's abilities. Most of its A-team was either poached from other teams, Kimura from Shiseido and Rina Ku...

The Princess Ekiden , the official qualifying race for November's Queens Ekiden national corporate women's championships, happens Sunday in rural Fukuoka. 31 teams of 6 women will be racing 42.195 km in pursuit of 16 places at Queens alongside the top tier of podium placers from last year's national championships. TBS will be streaming the race live on Youtube starting at 12:10 p.m., and if you've got a VPN you should be all set. Live results will be posted here . There's a general sense that Japanese women aren't where they used to be, but counter to that trend are a lot of new women's ekiden teams trying to get off the ground. Along with some of the long-established powers like past national champions Universal Entertainment , Tenmaya and Mitsui Sumitomo Kaijo , there are relatively young teams like Nitori , Senko and Tokyo Metro trying to qualify for the first time, and newcomers like Bears Camellia making their debuts. Next year expect to see at leas...