japan running news

On July 21 the Uniqlo women's team announced that 2-time Olympic 10000 m runner Yuka Takashima had joined its lineup as of July 16. Born in Yamaguchi in 1998, Takashima anchored Okayama's Kojokan H.S. to its first-ever National High School Ekiden win in 2005. After graduating she joined the Denso corporate team, playing a key role in its 3-straight National Corporate Women's Ekiden titles. In 2015 she ran the 10000 m at the 2015 Beijing World Championships. In the spring of 2016 Takashima transferred to the Shiseido corporate team, where she made the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics team in the 10000 m. She played an important role for the team in its ekidens, and in 2022 anchored Shiseido to its first national title in 16 years. In 2023 she was 2nd in the 10000 m National Championships, securing her place on her 2nd Olympic team at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Takashima's PBs are 15:26.33 for 5000 m, 30:57.26 for 10000 m, and 2:26:13 for the marathon. In March this year T...

5th last year, Edion led almost start to finish to win its first-ever national title at the Queens Ekiden corporate women's national championship race Sunday in Sendai. Its lead-off runner Kana Mizumoto opened up a 16-second lead that it held until the 4th leg, when the talented Caroline Kariba from 2024 winner Japan Post ran down Edion's Saya Nakajima . It's hard to fault Nakajima, who was still the fastest Japanese woman on that leg, and in any case Edion's 5th runner Ai Hosoda , 6th at August's Sydney Marathon, caught Japan Post's Kotoka Ota late in the 10.0 km leg to put Edion out front again by 7 seconds. Both Edion anchor Miho Hiraoka and Japan Post's Mao Kogure ran identical times for the 6.795 km 6th leg, 21:24, Hiraoka bringing Edion in to its first-ever win in 2:13:50. It had to have been frustrating for Kogure, who just couldn't close the gap and had to accept 2nd in 2:13:57. 2023 winner Sekisui Kagaku was almost a minute back in 3rd...

Championship ekiden season kicks off Sunday with the Queens Ekiden , the corporate women's national championship race in Sendai, 42.195 km in 6 legs with 24 teams competing to make the 8-deep podium. TBS has the live broadcast starting at 11:50 a.m. local time, with streaming starting on Youtube at 12:10 p.m. Japan Post won its 4th national title last year, running down 2023 winner Sekisui Kagaku and CR holder Shiseido over the 2nd half of the race to take the win. Its entire lineup from last year returns, with a new addition to its 10-runner entry roster in former Meijo University captain Nanase Tanimoto . Sekisui Kagaku is missing one of its strongest people from last year, First Stage winner Erika Tanoura , but has picked up 2023 World University Games 5000 m bronze medalist Risa Yamazaki from Nittai University . A surprise 3rd last year, Shimamura also returns its entire lineup led by Anna Suzuki and Yuna Takahashi . Shiseido ended up 8th last year, the last place earnin...

Primarily known for his work in women's long distance, coach Manabu Kawagoe passed away suddenly on Aug. 22 after suffering a stroke. He was 63. A native of Kagoshima, in his days as an athlete Kawagoe ran at Kagoshima Minami H.S. and Waseda University . He was a member of 2 Hakone Ekiden champion teams at Waseda and won both the 5000 m and 10000 m at the National University Championships. After graduating from Waseda Kawagoe joined Shiseido , going on to serve as assistant coach and then head coach. He coached top female athletes like 2008 Chicago Marathon 3rd-placer Kiyoko Shimahara , 10000 m national champion Yoshiko Fujinaga and marathoners Yuri Kano and Akemi Ozaki , and in 2006 led Shiseido to its first National Corporate Women's Ekiden victory. In 2007 he left. Shiseido to form the Second Wind pro team, a new model that brought together his top pro women together with amateurs and junior athletes. In 2011 he became head coach of the Edion corporate team, and in 201...

Sunday is the first big race of championship ekiden season, the Queens Ekiden in Sendai, the season-ending national championship for corporate women. 24 teams race 42.195 km in 6 legs, with the top 8 scoring places for 2025. TBS' live nationwide broadcast starts at 11:50, with multi-camera streaming on Youtube above. Last year Sekisui Kagaku won by almost a minute and a half, and with Paris Olympian Yuma Yamamoto , 2023 World Championships marathoner Sayaka Sato on its entry list and collegiate 1500 m record holder Mizuki Michishita having come on board this season it looks like a contender for another win. But last year's runner-up Japan Post got a big boost this season with the addition of its first non-Japanese member, two-time double 1500 m and 3000 m high school champion Caroline Kariba . The Queens Ekiden limits non-Japanese athletes to a 3.8 km leg, so it'd be tough for Kariba to bridge a 1:25 gap by herself with that little ground to work with. But what she can...

In some ways there weren't really any surprises at this year's Queens Ekiden , the corporate women's national championships. Favorite Sekisui Kagaku , the 2021 national champ, moved into the lead by the 3rd of the 42.195 km race's six legs and stayed there the rest of the way, taking the 2023 national title in 2:13:33. The other three teams that have won every national title the last seven years, 2016, 2019 and 2020 winner Japan Post , 2017 and 2018 champ Panasonic , and 2022 winner Shiseido , took the next three spots with only a 9-second spread between them. Most of the people who ran last month's Paris Olympic marathon trials looked tired. Princess Ekiden qualifier winner Iwatani Sangyo made the podium for the first time. Last year's 6th-placer Toyota Jidoshokki plummeted from grace to finish last. All pretty predictable. But there were some great highlights. Women-only half marathon NR holder and 5th leg CR holder Rino Goshima (Shiseido) was stellar on th...

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...

Shinya Wada 's T11 marathon world record, 24-year-old duo Kazuya Nishiyama and Yohei Ikeda running the two fastest Japanese debut marathons ever, and South African Stephen Mokoka and Mongolian Jamsran Olonbayar each coming within 10 seconds of their NR made the Osaka Marathon something special this year. But they weren't the only records and near-misses on the Japanese scene this weekend. In Spain, women-only half marathon NR holder Rino Goshima of 2022 National Corporate Women's Ekiden champ team Shiseido ran a 30:55 road 10 km NR for 3rd in the Maraton de Castellon's mixed-gender 10 km race . With the previous record having stood at just 31:44 for a women-only race and 31:49 for a mixed race it was a pretty soft record to break, but given how often top-level Japanese women run under that, even under 31 minutes, on the long stages at ekidens it was good to see someone take a serious swing at putting a quality mark in the books. Her teammates Tomoka Kimura and ...

The 9-stage, 42.195 km National Women's Ekiden takes place Jan. 15 in Kyoto starting and finishing at Takebishi Stadium. Absent from the stage entry list published Jan. 14 was the Gunma prefecture team's Seira Fuwa , 19, the collegiate 10000 m national record holder and a 2nd-year at Takushoku University . Her high school coach Hatsuo Kitada is serving as the Gunma team's coach this year. "We're looking toward her future," he said. "Now's not the time to overdo it." At last year's National Women's Ekiden Fuwa passed 13 people on the 4.0 km 4th leg, breaking its course record. Following that performance she sustained an Achilles tendon injury that kept her out of competition for most of 2022. In October she won her stage at the Morinomiyako Ekiden, but in order to ensure her continued recovery she did not run in December's Mt. Fuji Women's Ekiden national championships. Wakana Kabasawa of 2022 National Corporate Women's Eki...

Men's rankings here For the second year in a row 5000 m NR holder Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) took the top spot in JRN's overall Japanese women's rankings, and she got there the same way. After running her 5000 m NR and a 10000 m PB at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Hironaka ran big again at the 2022 Oregon World Championships. Her 30:39.71 in the 10000 m was a 21-second improvement on her PB and the 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese woman. This time she missed making the 5000 m final, but her 15:02.03 in her heat still ended up being the 2nd-fastest Japanese time of the year. Post-Worlds Hironaka dropped off a bit, unable to break 15 minutes in the fall track time trial season. But at November's National Corporate Women's Ekiden she delivered the women's ekiden performance of the year, fighting off tough competition to hang onto the lead for the Japan Post team on the race's most competitive stage. Given her lack of experience with the 10000 m, her big jump up in...

2nd last year, the Shiseido team won today's Queens Ekiden , its first victory at the National Corporate Women's Ekiden  since 2006. First the entire way except for a brief drop to 3rd after a mediocre run from new recruit and women-only marathon NR holder Mao Ichiyama on the race's longest stage, Shiseido was more than 2 minutes ahead of last year's winner Sekisui Kagaku in a course record 2:12:28 for the complete 6-stage, 42.195 km course. Sekisui Kagaku was never better than 2nd, where it finished in 2:14:29. 2021 champ Japan Post was the only team to get into the lead ahead of Shiseido thanks to a brilliant run from Olympian Ririka Hironaka on the 10.9 km Third Stage, ultimately finishing 3rd in 2:15:15. 5th last year, Daihatsu was the only other team from last year's 8-deep podium to make it there again, 5th once more in 2:15:49. Edion , Toyota Jidoshokki , and Daiichi Seimei all moved up from double-digit placings last year onto the podium, with Panaso...

This weekend's main event is Saturday's Hachioji Long Distance meet at western Tokyo's Gion Stadium. The main program features seven heats of men's 10000 m, finely graded as top corporate and collegiate runners tune up for January's New Year Ekiden and Hakone Ekiden. The whole meet will be streamed live above starting at 14:00 local time, with the fastest heat kicking off at 18:20. 29 top Japan-based Kenyans are on the list including Gideon Rono (GMO) and Jonathan Ndiku (Hitachi Butsuryu), both sub-27:15 this season. 10 Japanese men are also in the fast heat in hopes of getting as close to the 27:10.00 World Championships qualifying standard as they can, notably featuring national champion Komazawa University power duo Ren Tazawa and Mebuki Suzuki and Hakone Ekiden First Stage CR holder Yamato Yoshii (Chuo Univ.) Tazawa's all-time JPN #2 27:23.44 is still a long way from the standard, but with #4 Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko), 27:28.92, and #8 Tomoki Ot...

The 41st edition of the 6-stage, 42.195 km National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships took place Nov. 28 in Sendai, Miyagi. 28 teams took part, with Sekisui Kagaku  running a course record 2:13:03 to win its first national title. Shiseido was 52 seconds behind in 2nd and Denso  3rd, with 2-time defending champ Japan Post  coming up short of a three-peat at 4th. On the race's longest and most competitive stage, the 10.9 km Third Stage, Sekisui Kagaku's Sayaka Sato  took over the lead, and solid runs from the rest of its runners helped protect the team's lead all the way to the end.  Queens Ekiden 41st National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships Sendai, Miyagi, 28 Nov., 2021 28 teams, 6 stages, 42.195 km complete results Top Individual Stage Performances First Stage  (7.6 km) - Harumi Okamoto (Yamada Holdings) - 23:52 Second Stage  (3.3 km) - Ran Urabe (Sekisui Kagaku) - 10:07 - CR Third Stage  (10.9 km) - Ririka Hironaka (Japan Post) - 3...

Coming back from a scandal earlier this year in which a non-Japanese former team member spoke out about abusive behavior by male coaches toward the team's female athletes,  Shiseido  was back with what looked like a more positive team culture, dominating Sunday's Princess Ekiden with a course record win. Shiseido didn't quite lead start-to-finish, but it came close. Tomoka Kimura got it rolling with a 21:44 stage record on the 7.0 km opening leg, 38 seconds under the old record.  Former national champ Daiichi Seimei 's Hibiki Sakuragawa  broke the course record on the Second Stage to put her team 5 seconds ahead of Shiseido, but it didn't last long as on the next stage Shiseido's Naruha Sato  retook the lead and built up a margin that Shiseido's last three runners held. Anchor Kain Maeda  brought the team home in 2:16:41 for the full 42.195 km distance, 21 seconds under the previous course record and securing the team's place at next month's Queen...

Australian Melissa Duncan , the 2019 Oceanian 5000 m champion, is one of only a handful of non-African foreign athletes ever to run in the Japanese corporate team system. From early 2019 to January, 2021 she ran for the Shiseido corporate team, responsible for handling the international stage for the team at both the 2019 and 2020 Queens Ekiden, the corporate women’s national championship race. Now back home, she looked back on the highs and lows of her experience.  Update: We've reached out to a party involved with the team for comment but have not received a response. We will update further should there be one. I’ll never forget my first team meeting after joining the Shiseido Running Club.  The staff were revealing the training for the following day. “Morning training will be..., 11 a.m. training is..., For afternoon training….” I thought to myself, “I’m sorry...What? We’re training three times tomorrow?!” I thought it was a little excessive, but when I learnt that this sc...

  A 2016 Rio Olympian in the women's 3000 m steeplechase while still in university, Anju Takamizawa , 24, has announced her retirement through a statement issued by her corporate team Shiseido  on Dec. 24. While at Matsuyama University  Takamizawa won the steeplechase at the 2015 and 2016 National Championships. In Rio she was eliminated in the qualifying round. Since then Takamizawa has struggled with injury. On the Shiseido team site Takamizawa commented, "Thank you to everyone who kept supporting me even though I couldn't produce the results I wanted to. I hope that my experiences as an athlete will help inform my future life."  A day later on the 25th, the Japan Post  corporate team announced that Takamizawa's Rio Olympics teammate Hanami Sekine , 24, was also retiring. A native of Tokyo, Sekine ran for Toyokawa H.S.  before joining the brand-new Japan Post team in 2014 as one of its star athletes. She ran the 10000 m in Rio, and in 2018 she made ...

National championship ekiden season looks like it's going to mostly happen, and this will be the first full weekend of qualifying action for the winter's main events. Following Saturday's Hakone Ekiden qualifier is Sunday's Princess Ekiden , the qualifying race for the Nov. 22 National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships. This is the first major ekiden to be held on public streets during the coronavirus era, so there is a lot of attention, good and bad, to how it goes and the organizers have banned cheering groups from the different teams in the race and asked fans not to come cheer along the course. It's a test drive to see how the rest of championship season will go to be sure. Last year's top 8 teams at Nationals are guaranteed the return trip this year, The top 14 teams at the Princess Ekiden will qualify to join them, and with 28 teams entered following scratches from Aichi Denki and Daiso that means a decently competitive race to make it. Last yea...

Born Dec. 22, 1976 in Yamaguchi. Graduated from Kokushikan University and joined the Shiseido corporate team. Left Shiseido in 2007 with head coach Manabu Kawagoe and three teammates to form the independent Second Wind AC. Hot-weather specialist. After a good marathon debut off the beaten path at the 2003 Katsuta Marathon, Shimahara had a remarkably consistent run of 2:26 performances from 2004 to 2006. The streak ended with her silver medal performance at the hot 2006 Asian Games, and for the next three years she was more consistently in the 2:30-2:31 range. In August, 2009 Shimahara ran a PB of 2:25:10 at the Hokkaido Marathon, her first sub-2:30 in three years, a new course record, and faster than the winning time at the previous week's World Championships in tougher conditions. In just over 100 days following Hokkaido Shimahara went on to break 2:30 twice more, both in warm weather. In part one of her interview with JRN Shimahara talked about that fall season, what went...

The 71st Towada Hachimantai Ekiden took place August 7 in Kazuno, Akita on a course from Lake Towada to Hachimantai. For the first time the Towada Hachimantai Ekiden featured a women's race. Four teams competed over the five stage, 28.1 km course, with the  Shiseido  team taking 1st in 1:36:02. 21 teams raced the five stage, 71.6 km men's race, where Komori Corporation ran 3:45:16 to score its first win in 9 years and fifth title in event history. The top placing team from Akita was the Akita T&F Association at 11th. 71st Towada Hachimantai Ekiden Kazuno, Akita, 8/7/18 complete women's results complete men's results Women - 4 teams, 5 stages, 28.1 km Top Team Results 1. Shiseido - 1:36:02 2. Tohoku Fukushi Univ. - 1:36:13 3. Team Tohoku Fukushi - 1:39:49 Stage Best Performances First Stage (5.5 km) - Aoi Makara (Shiseido) - 17:44 Second Stage (7.4 km) - Yumi Yoshikawa (Shiseido) - 23:50 Third Stage (3.1 km) - Kana Miura (Tohoku Fukushi Un...