japan running news

The fastest Japanese man inside the qualifying window for October's MGC Race Olympic marathon trials not to have hit any of the qualifying criteria, Kento Nishi (Osaka Gas) got it done with a 2:10:01 win at the Nagano Marathon less than two months after his 2:08:11 PB at February's Osaka Marathon. Nishi, Kensuke Horio (Kyudenko) and Kenji Yamamoto (Mazda) all needed to run in the mid-2:11 range to qualify via the two-race sub-2:10 average route, and when 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Michael Githae (Suzuki) took the race out on mid-2:10 pace it was exactly what they could have hoped for. Githae did all the work as others in range of qualifying like Reo Kuniyuki (Otsuka Seiyaku), Shogo Kanezane (Chugoku Denryoku) and Daisuke Hosomori (YKK) dropped off the lead pack. A surge from Horio after halfway cut the lead group down to just Githae, the three qualifying hopefuls, and Yamamoto's teammate Shun Sadakata (Mazda), and it stayed that way until Githae attack...

Behind Kenenisa Bekele 's near-miss on the men's marathon world record, half marathon talent Kenta Murayama (Asahi Kasei) gave the Japanese national record another go at the Berlin Marathon. Almost dead even through halfway in 1:02:21, Murayama began to slip slightly over the second half before things started to fall apart after 30 km. Run down by China's Guo Jian Dong just before the finish, Murayama took 9th in 2:08:56, a PB by about a minute but far off his plans. Not far behind him, Yuichi Yasui (Toyota), a training partner of MGC race runner-up Yuma Hattori , negative splitted a 2:10:26 for 11th, adding to Toyota's claim as Japan's top current marathon team. Berlin Marathon Berlin, Germany, 9/29/19 complete results Men 1. Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) - 2:01:41 - NR 2. Birhanu Legese (Ethiopia) - 2:02:48 3. Sisay Lemma (Ethiopia) - 2:03:36 4. Jonathan Korir (Kenya) - 2:06:45 5. Felix Kandie (Kenya) - 2:08:07 ----- 9. Kenta Murayama (Japan) - 2:08:...

Most of the real contenders for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics men's and women's marathon teams qualified for the MGC Race, Japan's new Olympic trials race coming up Sept. 15, with ease. Even more barely made it, some qualifying by just a few seconds, and for every one of those there was someone who missed by just as close a margin. Here are a few who came just short of achieving a place on the MGC starting line and realizing their dreams of representing Japan in a home soil Olympic marathon. Women Yuka Takashima  (Shiseido) 2:26:13, 8th, 2018 Paris Marathon DNF, 2019 Tokyo Marathon DNF, 2019 Hamburg Marathon Solid on the track, Takashima ran the fastest-ever Japanese women's debut outside Japan with a 2:26:13 in Paris last year. That didn't come close to the 2:24:00 requirement for one-shot qualification outside the big three domestic women's marathons but did give her an easy target of 2:29:47 for her next marathon to qualify via the two-race 2:28:00 avera...

Just over three weeks out from the race the Hokkaido Marathon organizers have released the elite field for this year's edition. Scheduled for Aug. 25, Hokkaido was in a tough position this year, just three weeks out from the MGC Race 2020 Olympic marathon trials and a few more from the Doha World Championships. Only three women answered the call, but despite the two higher priority races just around the corner the men's field is decent quality. On the women's side, 38-year-old Kaori Yoshida (Team RxL), a past Hokkaido winner, is the top seed with a 2:28:24 best in Nagoya two years ago. Alongside her are relative newcomers Chika Ihara (Higo Ginko) and Mirai Waku (Univ. Ent.) both with times in the low-2:30 range earlier this year. On the men's side, Japan-based Kenyan Michael Githae (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) leads the way with a 2:09:21 for 4th at Lake Biwa last year. Top-ranked Japanese man Shogo Kanezane (Chugoku Denryoku) was one of the people who came closest...

At the same time as Suguru Osako 's breakthrough 3rd-place finish at Sunday's Fukuoka International Marathon , his Saku Chosei H.S. teammate Kenta Chiba (Fujitsu) ran the Macao International Marathon . A specialist on the same Hakone Ekiden downhill stage that produced marathon greats Hiromi Taniguchi and Yuki Kawauchi , Chiba took 6th in 2:16:33 in a race won by Kenyan Felix Kiptoo Kirwa in a Macao all-comers record 2:10:01. Chiba's time was the fastest ever by a Japanese man in Macao, taking three minutes off the previous record. A week earlier at the Asian Marathon Championships held in conjunction with China's Dongguan Marathon, Keiko Nogami (Juhachi Ginko), runner up at the 2015 Gold Coast Marathon and 2017 Hokkaido Marathon, added another 2nd-place finish to her resume as she took the silver medal 30 seconds behind North Korean Hye Gyong Kim . Surprisingly, Nogami's time of 2:29:05 was the fastest ever by a Japanese woman on Chinese soil, bettering th...

2015 Hofu Yomiuri Marathon winner Arata Fujiwara (Toyama T&F Assoc.) and 2012 / 2014 winner Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) return to lead the field for the Dec. 17 edition of the race. Fujiwara comes in three weeks after a win at the Tsukuba Marathon, which itself came just four weeks after a course record win at the Toyama Marathon. Kawauchi cuts it even closer, running both Fukuoka and Hofu as usual but adding a third marathon, the Jan. 1 Marshfield New Year's Day Marathon, just two weeks later. The pair's main competition comes from the Toshinari Takaoka -coached Hiroki Kadota (Kanebo) and former Hakone Ekiden star Tadashi Isshiki (GMO). At least three other members of the elite field will be emulating the past champs' high-volume racing, Tatsunori Hamasaki (Nanjo City Hall) having run the Oct. 15 Buenos Aires Marathon in Argentina, Shogo Kanezane (Chugoku Denryoku) the Nov. 26 Asian Marathon Championships in Dongguan, China, and Yusuke Tobimatsu ...

Keiko Nogami , star runner of the Juhachi Ginko women's ekiden team, will represent Japan in the 16th Asian Marathon Championships Nov. 26 in Dongguan, China. Excited about her first time wearing the Japanese national colors, Nogami said, "I've been given a great opportunity. I'm really targeting a domestic race next year, but since I'm running this one I'll be aiming for the top." Nogami's training this season has been going well and she is in good shape. At October's Ehime National Sports Festival she finished 3rd in the women's 5000 m, and later the same month at the National Corporate Women's Ekiden Championships qualifying race she took 2nd on its toughest stage, the 10.7 km Third Stage, just 2 seconds from winning it. Nogami was selected for the Asian Marathon Championships based on her results including August's Hokkaido Marathon, where she finished 2nd in 2:30:11 in just her fourth career marathon. The race takes place t...

by Brett Larner photo by Dr. Helmut Winter 2013 World Championships bronze medalist and half marathon national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Team Wacoal) ran arguably her most confident marathon to date in Chicago, hanging with the lead pack throughout the race and doing her share of pushing the tempo but ultimately unable to handle winner Florence Kiplagat 's big move.  Kiplagat took the win in 2:23:33 over Ethiopian Yebrgual Melese , with Fukushi coming up just short of Ethiopian Birhane Dibaba , 2:24:24 to 2:24:25, just 4 seconds off Fukushi's best from Osaka Women's two years ago.  Contemporary Japanese women's marathoning being what it is, Fukushi's time was still good for #2 this year behind the 2:22:48 run by Sairi Maeda (Daihatsu) in Nagoya in March. Chicago Marathon Chicago, U.S.A., 10/11/15 click here for complete results Women 1. Florence Kiplagat (Kenya) - 2:23:33 2. Yebrgual Melese (Ethiopia) - 2:23:43 3. Birhane Dibaba (Ethiopia) - 2:24...

by Brett Larner Despite weeks of heavy rains that brought fatal landslides across the Hiroshima region, the 2014 Hiroshima Cross-Country Meet went ahead as planned under relatively good conditions.  Charles Ndirangu (Team JFE Steel), a graduate of the local Sera H.S. ekiden program that previously produced the likes of sub-27 man Bedan Karoki (DeNA RC) and 2012 Fukuoka International Marathon winner Joseph Gitau (Team JFE Steel), had an easy time adding a win to his resume, finishing more than 30 seconds up on the rest of the men's 8 km field in 24:24.  Little-known Shogo Kanezane (Team Chugoku Denryoku) outran the rest of the Japanese field for 2nd, at 24:55 the only Japanese man to go under 25 minutes. His teammate Kaido Kita filled out the podium in 25:01.  The top man from the third corporate team at the meet, Chudenko's Naoya Hashimoto , was 6th in 25:16 in the midst of the chase pack's blanket finish. 2014 Hiroshima XC Meet Men's 8 km Hiroshima, 8/23/14 ...