japan running news

With a young team all aged from 20 to 25 but including two Olympians and a 2:06:26 marathoner, Honda  won its first-ever New Year Ekiden corporate men's national title Jan. 1 in Gunma.  Off to a slow start on the 7-stage, 100.0 km course, Honda went from 13th to 23rd in the field of 37 over the first two legs before third runner Naoki Koyama turned things around. With a strong tailwind that pushed the top 7 on his stage under the older course record, Koyama was 8th-fastest in 37:40 for 13.6 km to take Honda up to 14th. Tokyo Olympics 10000 m runner Tatsuhiko Ito handled the race's longest stage, 22.4 km, and with a 1:04:15 putting him at 5th-fastest Ito advanced Honda to 5th overall. Olympic 3000 mSC team member Ryoma Aoki  ran the 2nd-fastest time on the 15.8 km Fifth Stage, surviving a turn into the wind to take Honda to 3rd and setting up sixth man Ken Nakayama  to go for the top position. Initially working together with Tsukasa Koyama  (Subaru) to close ...

Day Two of Kanto Regionals dawned windy, bringing loads of performances that exceeded the meet records but missed the books thanks to a tailwind over the limit. The D1 men's 1500 m wasn't one of them. A slow 72 second first lap led to a 2:22 split at 800 m, a full 5 seconds slower than what the women's final went through it in. Yudai Noguchi (Juntendo Univ.) made a break for it from around 700 m out, but it wasn't until just into the last lap that former indoor mile national record holder and captain of 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University's Ryoji Tatezaw a went after him with rookie first-year teammate Kazuto Iizawa in tow. In the home straight Tatezawa reeled Noguchi in and looked to have a senior year title sealed up, but at the last second Iizawa pulled even with him. Both throwing their arms straight forward at the line and Tatezawa going into full dive mode, when the results came up on the screen Iizawa had taken his team captain down by the t...

Stanford Invitational - Japanese Results Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, U.S.A., 3/29/19 complete results Women's 10000 m Invite 1. Emily Sisson (New Balance) - 30:49.57 2. Molly Huddle (Saucony) - 30:58.46 3. Allie Ostrander (Boise State Univ.) - 32:06.71 ----- 6. Ayumi Hagiwara (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 32:09.87 8. Mizuki Matsuda (Daihatsu) - 32:15.47 23. Misaki Hayashida (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 33:04.12 Men's 10000 m Invite 1. Conner Mantz (Brigham Young Univ.) - 28:18.18 2. Clayton Young (Brigham Young Univ.) - 28:18.50 3. Gilbert Kigen (Univ. of Alabama) - 28:20.28 ----- 10. Jun Nobuto (Mazda) - 28:35.55 11. Kiseki Shiozawa (Tokai Univ.) - 28:37.15 16. Junnosuke Matsuo (Tokai Univ.) - 29:07.79 Women's 5000 m Invite 1. Jessice Hull (Univ. of Oregon) - 15:34.93 2. Shuang Shuang Xiu (CAA) - 15:36.48 3. Carrie Dimoff (Bowerman TC) - 15:36.32 ----- 10. Yuna Wada (Meijo Univ.) - 15:47.04 Men's 5000 m Invite 1. Kyle Mau (Univ. of In...

With both American and Japanese university students well into their fall seasons, two major events took place Saturday. Near Madison, Wisconsin, the D1 Pre-Nationals cross-country meet and in Tachikawa, Tokyo the Hakone Ekiden Qualifier half marathon. At Pre-Nats men ran 8 km on a looping XC course with a maximum elevation difference of around 30 m. The field was split into two main races, Cardinal and White, with a total of 69 teams, and an additional Grey race handling some overflow. Teams ran up to seven members, with the top five scoring on cumulative placing. A total of 474 athletes finished the two main races, with five DNF. At the Hakone Ekiden Qualifier , known as the Yosenkai, the distance was lengthened from 20 km to the half marathon distance this year, on a paved net-uphill course with a maximum elevation difference of about 20 m, most of that in the hilly final 8 km through Showa Kinen Park. 39 second-tier teams fielded up to twelve runners, with the top ten scoring ...

In his second pro season, junior and collegiate men's 10000 m racewalk national record holder Daisuke Matsunaga (Fujitsu) stepped up with his biggest performance yet, becoming the first Japanese man to break 38 minutes and coming in with a near miss on the world record to win the 10000 m racewalk in a national record 37:58.08 at Saturday's Hokuren Distance Challenge Kitami meet . A 2017 graduate of Toyo University, throughout the race Matsunaga had support from younger Toyo athletes Koki Ikeda and Masatori Kawano who ended up 2nd and 3rd 40 to 50 seconds back. Currently ranked 4th in the world over 20 km, Matsunaga may be just what Japan needs for Tokyo 2020: a legit gold medal contender in athletics. Speaking of Tokyo 2020, the JAAF is desperate to get some women under 15 minutes for 5000 m before, something only national record holder Kayoko Fukushi (Wacoal) has ever done. As a step toward that objective, for the second year in a row the Hokuren Distance Challenge fe...

Japan's National Track and Field Championships are happening this weekend in Yamaguchi. Somebody is always being selected for something at Nationals, and this year it's the Jakarta Asian Games . Most of the action will be streamed live on the JAAF site Friday through Sunday, with some breaks for the major events which will only be shown on TV. In three of the biggest events the defending champs are absent. 100 and 200 m winner Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Univ. of Florida) and 10000 m champ Suguru Osako (NOP), both U.S.-based, having bowed out with injury in Sani Brown's case and purportedly to prepare for the Chicago Marathon in Osako's. In the 100 m and 200 m the door is open for the other members of Japan's medal-winning relay squad to take home a national title, national record holder  Yoshihide Kiryu (Nihon Seimei) the #1 seed in the 100 m and Shota Iizuka (Mizuno) ranked #1 in the 200 m. The men's 10000 m is surprisingly weak this year, with no Japa...

Always a big draw on the springtime Japanese schedule, this year's Payton Jordan Invitational at California's Stanford University produced year-leading Japanese women's 5000 m and 10000 m marks. In the 5000 m, 2018 National Corporate Road 10 km Championships winner Yui Fukuda (Toyota Jidoshokki) ran 15:20.08 for 8th overall to replace Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera) on top the 5000 m list. In the 10000 m, Mao Ichiyama (Wacoal) returned from placing as the top Japanese woman at March's World Half Marathon Championships to finish 5th overall in 31:57.91, the first Japanese woman to break 32 minutes so far this year. On the men's side, after a solid run at December's Fukuoka International Marathon the U.S.-based Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) passed on a springtime marathon in favor of a shot at the Japanese national record in the 10000 m. At Stanford Osako came up short, dropping out just after 6000 m. In the 1500 m, Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) continued...

Weekend Japanese track action kicked off at the Bryan Clay Invitational at California's Azusa Pacific University. Passing on a spring marathon in favor of a shot at the 10000 m national record this season, 5000 m national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) ran 13:29.11 for 3rd in the 5000 m, the best time so far this year by a Japanese man. Bigger news came in the men's 1500 m, where  Shoma Funatsu  (Chuo Univ.) capped a residency in Oregon with a 3:38.65 to move up to all-time Japanese #5 and collegiate #2. Hiroki Matsueda (Fujitsu) also ran 3:41.51, with U.S.-based Yusuke Uchikoshi (Boise State Univ.) going 3:44.50, Funatsu's Chuo teammate Kazuyoshi Tamogami 3:45.84, another U.S. transplant Yasunari Kusu (AMAC) 3:46.98 and Hirotaka Nakatani (Uchida Chiryoin AC) 3:49.28. At the nearby Mt. SAC Relays Yui Fukuda (Toyota Jidoshokki) won the women's 1500 m in 4:16.64. Mai Shoji (Denso) was slightly off her season best in the 5000 m in 15:56.99, ...

Stanford Invitational Palo Alto, U.S.A., 3/30/18 click here for complete results Women's 10000 m Invitational 1. Gwen Jorgensen (Bowerman TC) - 31:55.68 2. Carrie Dimoff (Bowerman TC) - 31:57.85 3. Karissa Schweizer (Missouri) - 32:00.55 4. Alice Wright (New Mexico) - 32:15.73 5. Sharon Lokedi (Kansas) - 32:21.19 ----- 18. Misaki Hayashida (Toyota Jidoshokki) - 33:46.16 Men's 5000 m Invitational 1. Zach Long (Tennessee) - 13:39.22 2. Luc Bruchet (Canada) - 13:39.62 3. Tyler Day (Northern Arizona) - 13:40.22 4. Cole Rockhold (Colorado St.) - 13:40.29 5. George Parsons (Adidas) - 13:40.37 ------ 8. Shota Onizuka (Tokai Univ.) - 13:43.54 11. Hayato Seki (Tokai Univ.) - 13:51.45 Men's 3000 m SC Invitational 1. Yusuke Uchikoshi (Boise State) - 8:38.32 2. Matt Owens (BYU) - 8:39.41 3. Daniel Carney (BYU) - 8:42.17 4. Jamaine Coleman (Eastern Kentucky) - 8:42.21 5. Jacob Heslington (BYU) - 8:43.41 ----- 11. Ryohei Sakaguchi (Tokai Univ.) - 9:01.34 ...

After a DNF in the final round knocked it out of contention last year, Kanagawa University led the qualifiers for November's National University Men's Ekiden from the most competitive region in Japan to win the Kanto Region Qualifier Sunday in Urawa, Saitama. With six schools from Kanto already seeded for Nationals after taking the top six spots last year twenty more lined up in Urawa for four heats of 10000 m on the track, two runners from each school per heat. The combined times of each school's eight runners would determine who would stay and who would go come November, the top nine teams on aggregate time making the cut. With the four heats graded by time the first heat established the early favorites, runners from Kanagawa, Tokai University and Daito Bunka University taking the top three spots. Heat 2 went out bafflingly slow, with one exception. Running alone, Juntendo University senior Kento Hanazawa fearlessly went it alone, opening up a 300 m lead at on...