japan running news

Since the start of JRN's collegiate development program in 2012, a partnership between the New York Road Runners and the Ageo City Half Marathon that brings two of the top male university half marathoners in the country to the United Airlines NYC Half every year, a total of 25 athletes have made the trip. For most of them it's been their first time racing outside Japan. 10 of the 25 have been from Komazawa University , including 4 of the 5 fastest times and 4 of the 5 best placings. Kenta Murayama 's 1:00:57 for 5th in 2017 leads both lists and still stands as the fastest half marathon ever run by a Japanese man on U.S. soil. This year two more Komazawa runners are in New York as numbers 24 and 25, Yudai Kiyama and Hibiki Murakami . At Ageo last November Kiyama and Murakami ran PBs of 1:01:59 and 1:02:04 for 2nd and 4th overall to pick up invites to the NYC Half. A 3rd-year, Kiyama was a national-level 1500 m runner in high school. At Komazawa he struggled to make its ...

Corporate women and junior high school students have already had their nationally-televised national championship ekidens, but tomorrow's National High School Ekiden in Kyoto kicks off the busiest part of the year, with 5 days of championship ekiden racing in the span of 10 days. NHK broadcasts high school Nationals live and ad-free on Dec. 25, with the girls' race starting at 10:20 a.m. and the boys at 12:30 p.m. local time. There's not likely to be any internationally-available streaming, but get a VPN and you should be good. With JRN's holiday travel plans canceled because of the weather in the PNW, we'll probably be covering both races live on @JRNLive . Buy us a coffee to help us get through the day. The top high school teams in Japan would do pretty well in the NCAA on both the girls' and boys' sides, meaning two high-level races. In the girls' race, 21.0975 km in five legs, Sendai Ikuei H.S. won in 1:07:16 by over a minute last year but is d...

Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. won its second-straight Hyogo Prefecture High School Ekiden Sunday in Tamba Sasayama, Hyogo to qualify for December's National High School Ekiden Championships . 3rd-year Sonata Nagashima , 3:44.87 for 1500 m in July, 2021 and 13:37.46 for 5000 m in May this year, led things off with a new 28:31 course record for the 10.0 km First Leg. The rest of the Nishiwaki Kogyo team road Nagashima's momentum to a 2:03:31 overall CR for the full 7-stage, 42.195 km course, its 28th time scoring Hyogo representation for Nationals. Runner-up Suma Gakuen H.S. was a kilometer back in 2:06:33, with 3rd-placer Hotoku Gakuen H.S. the only other team under 2:10 in 2:08:40. Nishiwaki Kogyo placed 7th at last year's National High School Ekiden Championships. Its last national title came in 2002, but its overall win record of eight titles still ranks it 2nd-best behind Hiroshima's Sera H.S. 's eleven wins. © 2022 Brett Larner, all rights reserved

A new event bringing together top high school, college, corporate league and club men's teams, the Okukuma Ekiden was held for the first time Sunday in Kumamoto. 42.195 km split into 7 stages for the high school boys' division and 4 stages for the others, the race saw Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. become the first team across its finish line in 2:07:16. The Toyota Kyushu corporate team was 2nd overall in 2:07:32, with local Kyushu Gakuin H.S. 3rd in 2:07:52. The new ekiden, which mirrors the format of the Kitakyushu Women's Invitational Ekiden, was originally scheduled to have taken place in 2020. But after two years of pandemic-era cancelations, the inaugural running didn't take place until this year. It was an impressive success. The high school boys' stage lengths were almost the same as those at December's National High School Ekiden, 10 km, 3 km, 8.25 km, 7.9 km, 3 km, 5 km, and 5.045 km. Other divisions ran stages 10 km, 11.25 km, 10.9 km, and 10.045 ...

Both the Sendai Ikuei H.S.  girls and the defending champ  Sera H.S.  boys led start-to-finish to win today's National High School Ekiden , Sendai Ikuei becoming the first team in the 33-year history of the girls' event to win the national title five times, and Sera extending its record as the only team in the boys' race's 72 years with double-digit wins to eleven. Cold and windy conditions with off and on snow meant no new stage records, but in both races there were  still fast times. 3rd last year, Sendai Ikuei put its three strongest runners first, leaving the last two stages to debuting first-years. Opening runner Nanaka Yonezawa  ran 19:15 for her 6.0 km stage to put Sendai Ikuei 30 seconds out front. Second runner Kokone Sugimori added 26 seconds to that, running 12:41 for 4.0975 km, with third runner Natsumi Yamanaka  putting in another 19 seconds with a 9:53 stage best on her 3.0 km leg. First-year Kurea Watanabe  added 1 last second on the 3....

video highlights by NHK For the second time in the last 6 years, Hiroshima's Sera H.S.  swept the girls' and boys' titles at the National High School Ekiden , both performances driven by world-class runs by Kenyan student athletes.  In the girls' race, 21.0975 km divided in five stages, #3-ranked Kitakyushu Municipal H.S.  led the first three stages thanks in large part to an incredibly brave opening leg by 3rd-year Miku Sakai , who led start to finish to open a 22-second lead over the course of 6.0 km. Kitskyushu fell to 3rd on the Fourth Stage behind Ritsumeikan Uji H.S.  and Suma Gakuen H.S. , but with favorite Kamimura Gakuen H.S.  in 5th just 19 seconds out of the lead and set to hand off to Kenyan 3rd-year anchor Cynthia Baire  it seemed like it was over. Baire said pre-race that her goal was to break the 15:04 course record for the 5.0 km anchor leg, and she wasted no time in going to the front. But as fast as she was, from behind Sera 3rd-year ...

At Sunday's National High School Ekiden  in Kyoto, Hiroshima's Sera H.S.  boys will be aiming for their tenth victory in fifty appearances. In their last win five years ago, the Sera boys set the current course record of 2:01:18 for 42.195 km in seven stages. With a 5000 m average time that makes it the fastest Sera team in history, can Sera mark its 50th National High School Ekiden with a milestone achievement? 3rd-year captain Konosuke Shintani and 2nd-years Cosmas Mwangi , Shota Morishita and Shota Shiode have all broken 14 minutes for 5000 m, the benchmark for a top national-level high school time . The average 5000 m PB of its seven fastest runners, 14:01.64, is the best in its fifty appearances to date. "The entire team has raised its level," commented head coach Shoji Shintaku . "There is no weak link. All they need is strength to go with their speed." But Sera's main rivals are just as strong. Defending champion Sendai Ikuei H.S.  of Miyagi r...

With the National High School Ekiden Championships looking like a go for Dec. 20 at this point, the main action across Japan this weekend came in prefectural high school ekiden championships. In each of Japan's 47 prefectures boys typically raced 42.195 km in seven stages and girls 21.0975 km in five stages, with the top-placing boys' team and top girls' team in the prefectural race set to go on to represent their prefecture at Nationals. Not every prefecture held its qualifying race this weekend or just before, but among those that did here's a quick rundown on the winners. In Hiroshima , the video above, due to the coronavirus crisis the race was held on a 400 m track instead of its regular road course. The Sera H.S. boys and girls both won, the boys winning the prefectural title for the 17th year in a row and the girls for the 15th. Both teams last won the national title in 2015, when the boys set the still-standing Nationals course record of 2:01:18, but at last...

The high school season-opening Nihonkai Ekiden and Kurayoshi Women's Ekiden took place Oct. 6 in Kurayoshi, Tottori. A total of 226 high school teams took part in the two events, both of which delivered heated battles. In the boys' race, the 39th edition of the Nihonkai Ekiden covering 42.195 km in seven stages starting and finishing at Kurayoshi Municipal Field, Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. emerged victorious for the second time with a time of 2:04:40 after taking control on the opening stage. After getting off to a weak start, Sera H.S. took 2nd, with Toyokawa H.S. 3rd after briefly leading mid-race. The top team from Hyogo prefecture, Suma Gakuen H.S. was 6th in 2:06:43, with rivals Hotoku H.S. 8th in 2:07:02 and Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. 10th in 2:07:41. Held the same day, the girls competed in the 34th running of the 21.0975 km Kurayoshi Women's Ekiden, likewise starting and finishing at Kurayoshi Municipal Field. Defending champion team Osaka Kunei Joshi G...

Takuya Fujikawa age: 26 sponsor: Chugoku Denryoku graduated from: Sera H.S., Aoyama Gakuin University best time inside MGC window: 2:10:35, 7th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon PB: 2:10:35, 7th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon other PBs: 5000 m: 13:51.40 (2013) 10000 m: 27:58.87 (2018) half marathon: 1:01:46 (2019) marathons inside MGC window (Aug. 1 2017 – April 30 2019) 7th, 2019 Tokyo Marathon, 2:10:35 12th, 2018 Gold Coast Marathon, 2:15:59 6th, 2018 Beppu-Oita Marathon, 2:11:59 other major results: 5th, 2019 New Year Ekiden Third Stage (13.6 km), 38:29 8th, 2019 Marugame Half Marathon, 1:01:46 – PB 4th, 2018 Hachioji Long Distance Meet 10000 m, 27:58.87 – PB 1st, 2015 Hakone Ekiden Ninth Stage (23.2 km), 1:08:04 3rd, 2014 Hakone Ekiden Ninth Stage (23.2 km), 1:09:23 Fujikawa has followed a super-elite path through the Japanese ekiden world for most of his career. Alongside Bedan Karoki (Kenya), he was part of Sera High School ’s 2011 National High School Ekiden Championships ...

At a press conference in Hiroshima on Mar. 20 national 100 yen shop chain Daiso Sangyo announced its sponsorship of the new Daiso women's ekiden team beginning Apr. 1 this year. The new team's inaugural head coach will be local Sera H.S. coaching legend Shinya Iwamoto , 53. The team's initial roster will include five 18-year-old athletes who graduated from high school this month, three of them from Sera including the team's star runner Koto Hiramura . Iwamoto was born in Higashi Hiroshima. As a senior at Sera H.S. he won the Fourth Stage at the National High School Ekiden, going on to attend Fukuoka University. After graduating he became a junior high school teacher before becoming head coach of the Sera boys in 2004. In 2006 Sera won the National High School Ekiden for the first time in 32 years. In 2010 Iwamoto became the Sera girls' head coach as well, and in 2015 the school became only the second in history to win both the boys' and girls' nati...

One of the highlights of the new year, the Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden took place Jan. 27, with the Mazda corporate team winning the open division for the fourth year in a row. Including the open, municipal and high school divisions a total of 46 teams took part in the Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden's 82nd running, covering 84.4 km in seven stages starting in front of Ube City Hall, passing the Yamaguchi Prefectural Government offices and finishing in front of Shunan City Hall. Mazda's Shiferaw Bekele set a new stage record of 43:35 on the 15.1 km First Stage, outrunning the Chudenko team's lead runner Amos Kipruto by 3 seconds and establishing a lead that was never broken all the way to the finish. In the high school division, 2018 National High School Ekiden champion Kurashiki H.S. of Okayama won for the second-straight year, with the Sera T&F Association team winning the municipal division for the first time thanks in part to stage record runs by its second man Jo...

On Jan. 23 the JFE Steel men's corporate team announced the hiring of former Kanebo head coach Kumimitsu Ito , 63, as its new head coach effective Feb. 1. During his days as an athlete Ito was named to the 1980 Moscow Olympic team prior to Japan's boycott of the Games. At the 1986 Beijing Marathon he ran 2:07:57 for 2nd, breaking the then-national record along with winner Taisuke Kodama . As a coach he led Toshinari Takaoka to set the current Japanese national record of 2:06:16 in the marathon. Takaoka later succeeded him as head coach at Kanebo. JFE Steel's roster features 12 athletes including Kenyan Charles Ndirangu , a graduate of Sera H.S. , and Yudai Okamoto , an Okayama Kogyo H.S. and   Chuo Gakuin University graduate. This season the team failed to qualify for the New Year Ekiden national championships for the first time in 42 years. Hired as head coach in 2014, Takashi Matsuyama , 44, will step down from his position on Jan. 31. source article:   http://w...

by Brett Larner Championship ekiden season has come and gone, but Sunday saw high-level action at two popular and long-running ekidens at opposite ends of Japan.  In western Japan, course record-setting 2015 National High School Ekiden champion Sera H.S. of Hiroshima definitively took the win at the 79th Chugoku Yamaguchi Ekiden , beating Mazda , Chugoku Denryoku , JFE Steel , Chudenko and other corporate team competition with ease.  Sera third-year Paul Kamais opened a lead of over two minutes with a course record 42:04 for the 15.1 km First Stage, and from there Sera never lost the top position.  Mazda came the closest, closing to within 3 seconds by the end of the Fourth Stage, but a Fifth Stage win by Sera's Taiju Nakashima put them back out front with a margin that Sera's remaining two runners held onto until the end.  Sera covered the seven-stage, 84.4 km course in 4:07:29, the best-ever by a high school team, with Mazda ending up nearly two minutes back ...

by Brett Larner video highlights courtesy of broadcaster NHK The shadow of the late Samuel Wanjiru still looms large over the National High School Boys Ekiden Championships , his 2004 stage record-setting run powering Sendai Ikuei H.S. to a course record 2:01:32 win that no team since has ever approached.  The buzz was in the air this year that defending champion Sera H.S. was ready to do it, its seven starters averaging 14:01.95 for 5000 m , enough to compete at the university level.  Before the race captain Shiki Shinsako made it clear, saying, "This team is good enough to break 2:01." For that to happen the race, 7 stages totalling 42.195 km, had to start fast on its longest stage, the 10.0 km First Stage.  Luck was with Sera as the talented Takuya Hanyu (Yachiyo Shoin H.S.) was happy to oblige, dropping a 2:47 opening km, 27:50 pace, and pulling the whole field with him.  The entire way Hanyu kept things moving, shaking the front end competition down ...

by Brett Larner video highlights courtesy of broadcaster NHK The Sera H.S. girls won their first-ever National High School Ekiden Championships Sunday in Kyoto thanks to a solid team performance and a stunning run from 2nd-year anchor Yuka Mukai . Ranked #1, defending champion Osaka Kunei Joshi Gakuin H.S. was handicapped from the start by the loss of its #2 member Kanami Sagayama to injury and was far behind on the 6.0 km First Stage.  In Sagayama's absence Nishiwaki Kogyo H.S. first-year Nozomi Tanaka , daughter of sub-2:30 amateur marathoner Chihiro Tanaka , led almost the entire way from her opening 3:10 km to the final stretch where she was outkicked by Sera's Shinobu Koyoshigawa .  The two handed off almost simultaneously and over the 4.0975 km Second Stage little changed in their teams' relative positions, Nishiwaki Kogyo handing off to its third runner one second ahead of Sera.  Behind them Tokiwa H.S. and Osaka Kunei drew closer, Osaka Kunei thanks t...

by Brett Larner Sunday is the next stop on the national championship ekiden season calendar, the National High School Ekiden Championships in Kyoto, both the boys’ and girls’ races broadcast live nationwide to millions of fans starting at 10:20 for the girls’ race and 12:30 for the boys. JRN will cover both races live on @JRNLive . The seven-stage, 42.195 km boys’ race is about one thing and one thing only: can defending champion Sera H.S. of Hiroshima take down the legendary 2:01:32 course record set in 2004 by future Olympic marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru and his Sendai Ikuei H.S. teammates? Last year Sera ran the fifth-fastest time in Nationals history, winning easily in 2:03:18. This year they return even better, with a lineup that could compete against many of the best university teams over 5000 m. How good are they? Judge for yourself. None of the other 55 teams even comes close. Their strongest competition Gakuho Ishikawa H.S. of Fukushima, led by #1-r...

https://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/local/news/article.php?comment_id=201224&comment_sub_id=0&category_id=112 translated and edited by Brett Larner The local Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Sera, Hiroshima has put up a display of festive colored lights in support of the Sera H.S. boys' and girls' ekiden teams on the roof of its offices facing Route 432.  Both teams will run the Dec. 20 National High School Ekiden Championships where the boys are the defending national champions.  The display will be illuminated from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

by Brett Larner Okayama prefecture's Kurashiki H.S. and Aichi's Okazaki Gakuen H.S. took their first-ever wins at the season's first big nationwide high school ekiden in Kurayoshi, Tottori on October 4.  In the 35th edition of the boys' race , Kurashiki, splitting its team into A and B squads, started slow, its B-squad 21st and A-squad 25th after the 10.0 km First Stage.  The A-squad moved up to 14th on the 3.0 km Second Stage, and with a stage best by its third runner Maeda it moved up to 3rd at halfway.  Kurashiki A's next three runners juggled between 1st and 2nd places, and with a 38-second lead over Kyushu Gakuin H.S. for the 5.0 km anchor stage it looked safe for the win. Safe, that is, until Kurashiki A anchor Koga ran only the 12th-best time on the final stage, while behind him Kyushu Gakuin anchor Ueda bore down with a stage best 15:15.  It looked like it would be close, but in the end Koga had the margin he needed and broke the tape in 2:06:55, Kur...

interview and photo by Brett Larner On Jan. 2-3 Aoyama Gakuin University won the biggest title in Japan for the first time, setting an incredible new course record at the 91st running of the Hakone Ekiden in large part thanks to a spectacular run up the mountain on the Fifth Stage by third-year Daichi Kamino and more outstanding runs by his fellow  third-years Kazuma Kubota and Yusuke Ogura .   Back in the spring of 2012 JRN interviewed then-Aoyama Gakuin third-year Takehiro Deki and head coach Susumu Hara ahead of Deki's marathon debut at Lake Biwa, where he ran 2:10:02 .  Hara, a graduate of 2014 National High School Ekiden champion Sera H.S. , went to school outside the Kanto region at Aichi's Chukyo University and never ran the Hakone Ekiden, going on to a short-lived and unsuccessful career at the Chugoku Denryoku corporate team before leaving the sports world for an office job.  Years later he returned to take over at Aoyama Gakuin, at the time...