japan running news

Nittai University captain Shota Hattori tackles powerful winds at the peak of the mountain on the uphill Fifth Stage at the end of the first day of the 2013 Hakone Ekiden.

Following within 24 hours of Yuki Kawauchi 's win at the BMW Oslo Marathon and Yuta Shitara 's national record at the Usti nad Labem Half Marathon , Shota Hattori (Honda) made it an overseas hat trick for men from Japan's Saitama prefecture when he won the Sydney Marathon in 2:15:16. Having debuted at February's Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon with a 2:14:19 for 2nd, Hattori outlasted Ethiopian Werkuneh Seyoum Aboye , Kenyan Sammy Kigen Korir (Kenya) and compatriot Ryoma Takeuchi (Hitachi Butsuryu) to become the third-straight Japanese men's Sydney champ, winning by a margin of 20 seconds over Aboye. Congratulations to Shota Hattori, male winner of the Blackmores Marathon – with a time of 02:15:16. #SydneyRunningFestival pic.twitter.com/R47w8TCG2X — SydneyRunFestival (@officialbsrf) September 17, 2017 No Japanese women made the podium in the marathon, but in the accompanying half marathon both the men's and women's races saw Japanese runners-up. I...

by Brett Larner In his first marathon of 2017 and the last one he will run before turning 30 Yuki  Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) made history as he won the 55th edition of the Ehime Marathon in 2:09:54, taking almost seven minutes off Ehime's 2:16:49 CR set in 1965. Saying pre-race that he thought he was in shape to run 2:13, Kawauchi split 15:11 for the first 5 km off a slow opening km, 2:08:08 pace.  Unexpectedly, he got company from Waseda University fourth-year and Ehime native Yohei Suzuki, a 1:02:16 half marathoner making his marathon debut before graduating next month.  Kawauchi responded by upping the pace to 15:08 through the next 5 km, putting the pair on track for 2:07:55 at 10 km and holding on to sub-2:09 pace through 25 km.  Suzuki lost touch near 20 km, hitting halfway in 1:04:30 to Kawauchi's 1:04:18, and from there it was a completely solo run to the end for both, with no pacers and no other competition in sight. Ever since his solo 2...

by Brett Larner This time of year there are multiple high-level races in Japan every weekend, this one being no exception.  Sunday's Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon is one of the main developmental races for Japanese men, the place where future Olympic marathoners including  Hisanori Kitajima , Kentaro Nakamoto , Shinji Kawajima and Shigeru Soh  made their marathon debuts. Last year's winner Ryoichi Matsuo (Team Asahi Kasei) returns to face debuting 1:01:25 half marathoner Shota Hattori (Team Honda) and teammates Kenta Matsumoto and Kenta Matsubara (Team Toyota), training partners of Minato Oishi whose successful debut at last Sunday's Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon saw him land 4th in 2:10:39. In parallel to Nobeoka, Yuki Kawauchi (Saitama Pref. Gov't) will run his first marathon of 2017 at the Ehime Marathon .  Kawauchi's goal is to run 2:13, three minutes under the current Ehime course record.  His main competition is Waseda University fourth-year ...

by Brett Larner The Feb. 12 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon is one of Japan's main developmental races for men, not counting directly in national team selection but serving as a springboard to future success.  Much of the field is making its debut each year or looking for a step up after showing potential in Nagano, Hokkaido or Osaka.  Rio Olympian Hisanori Kitajima (Team Yasukawa Denki) got his start in Nobeoka with a win in 2015, and Nobeoka has seen 2:11 winning times three times in its 55-year history including twice in the last five years. Last year's winner Ryoichi Matsuo (Team Asahi Kasei) returns as the top seed, the only man in the field to have broken 2:13 in the last three years.  If he wins he will be the first man since 1986 to win Nobeoka in back-to-back years. His main competition among those with experience comes from Sora Tsukada (Team SG Holdings), Junji Katakawa (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) and Yuji Murota (Team JFE Steel), all 2:15 in minor domestic r...

http://kumanichi.com/fsports/marathon/2016/kiji/20160116001.xhtml http://kumanichi.com/fsports/marathon/2016/kiji/20160127001.xhtml translated and edited by Brett Larner The organizers of the 5th Kumamoto-jo Marathon have announced the elite field for the Feb. 21 Kanaguri Memorial Kumanichi 30 km Road Race , held alongside the Kumamoto-jo Marathon as its elite race. Celebrating Kumanichi's 60th anniversary running, this year’s elite men’s field features strong young athletes who made an impact on the competitive Third and Fourth Stages at the New Year Ekiden corporate men’s national championships on Jan. 1. With university runners having won Kumanichi the last two years the corporate runners’ battle to get back on top will be one of the main draws this year. The fresh young corporate league contingent is led by two members of the New Year Ekiden runner-up team Konica Minolta , Masato Kikuchi and Keita Shitara , along with local Chiharadai H.S. graduate Kento Otsu of New...

Göteborg, Sweden, 5/23/15 click here for complete results Women 1. Worknesh Degefa (Ethiopia) - 1:08:13 2. Isabella Ochichi (Kenya) - 1:09:45 3. Beatrice Mutai (Kenya) - 1:09:46 4. Michi Numata (Japan/Toyota Jidoshokki) - 1:11:37 5. Viola Jepchumba (Kenya) - 1:11:46 6. Reia Iwade (Japan/Noritz) - 1:12:33 Men 1. Richard Mengich (Kenya) - 1:00:44 2. Hizkial Tewelde (Eritrea) - 1:01:19 3. Josphat Kiptis (Kenya) - 1:01:30 4. Henry Kiplagat (Kenya) - 1:01:46 5. Sisay Lemma (Ethiopia) - 1:02:06 ----- 13. Keita Shitara (Japan/Konica Minolta) - 1:05:18 15. Shota Hattori (Japan/Honda) - 1:07:18 Note: Both Shitara and Hattori have run under 1:01:30 this year.  The women's world record for the half marathon is 1:05:09.

by Brett Larner A week after winning a muddy Chiba XC, Charles Ndirangu (Kenya/Team JFE Steel) was back for his half marathon debut at the National Corporate Half Marathon Championships.  The successor to 2015 Kenyan national XC champion Bedan Karoki (DeNA RC) at Hiroshima's Sera H.S. , Ndirangu sat near the rear of the lead pack through a relatively conservative 14:29 opening split on the 30 m uphill first 5 km.  As the downhill started Masato Kikuchi (Team Konica Minolta), the top non-African at last year's World Half Marathon Championships who ran an all-time Japanese #5 1:00:57 two weeks ago in Marugame, began to push the pace, covering the next 5 km in 14:19.  Ndirangu temporarily lost contact with the lead group in Kikuchi's wake but came back in a hurry, surging at 11 km to go to the front and break up the pack. Initially only Kikuchi and his teammate Keita Shitara (Team Konica Minolta), who likewise ran a PB 1:01:20 in Marugame two weeks ago, followed, but...

by Brett Larner Following up on a disappointing showing at last weekend's Great North Run and Prague Grand Prix 10 km, Japan's corporate league runners underwhelmed again at Sunday's Köln Marathon and Usti nad Labem Half Marathon.  In a race won by Kenya's Anthony Maritim in 2:10:26 in Köln, 2:09:18 marathoner Yuko Matsumiya (Team Hitachi Butsuryu), the twin brother of 5000 m and 30 km national record holder Takayuki Matsumiya (Team Konica Minolta), could do no better than 2:18:41 for 3rd.  2:15:05 man Kenta Iinuma (Team Sagawa Group) fell well below the professional level, running only 2:23:12 for 4th.  Formerly Japan-based Kenyan Julia Mumbi took the women's race in 2:28:00. Further east, Japanese results at the Czech Republic's Usti nad Labem mirrored those at the Great North Run, with 1:02 half marathoners Yuya Ito (Team Toyota) and Masamichi Yasuda (Team Aichi Seiko) and their 1:03 counterpart Atsushi Yamazaki (Team Subaru) all clocked leisurel...

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/etc/20140821-OHT1T50125.html translated and edited by Brett Larner University runners aiming for the Hakone Ekiden spend their harsh summers building a base of around 40 km a day.  They have a saying about the importance of their summer training camps: "Those who win the summer win the winter."  To protect its legacy of ten overall Hakone wins, the prestigious Nittai University is not afraid of new challenges that take it even beyond. As usual, Nittai arrived in Yamagata on Aug. 8 for primary training at Zhao Onsen and Zhao Bodaira, breaking camp after morning practice on Aug. 18.  Team members had the rest of the day to spend as they like and to figure out how to get themselves to their scheduled assembly at Sendai Port at 6:30 p.m.  "If you can't think about everything for yourself as an athlete, you'll never be strong," says head coach Kenji Beppu , 48.  From Sendai the team boarded a ferry bound for Hokkaido, where i...

by Brett Larner photos by Kazuyuki Sugimatsu click here for Hakone Ekiden Day Two results and report After losing to Nittai University  in tough conditions last year,  Hakone Ekiden course record holder  Toyo University took a big step toward a return to the top, winning Day One of the 90th Hakone Ekiden in 5:27:13, the second-fastest time ever for the five stage, 108.0 km Day One Course behind only Toyo's own 5:24:45 course record.  Critical to the team's success were sub-28 / sub-62 identical twin seniors Keita  and Yuta Shitara , each of who won his stage in its all-time 4th-fastest mark.  Rival Komazawa University , on a quest to become just the fourth school to complete the triple crown after winning this season's Izumo Ekiden and National University Ekiden Championships, was only 59 seconds behind in 5:28:12 to become the second-fastest team ever on the Day One course and leaving plenty of room for it to challenge Toyo for the overall win on...

by Brett Larner University ekiden season kicks off in style Monday, October 14 as the world’s best collegiate teams take to the roads for the 25th running of the Izumo Ekiden . The first of the nationally-televised Big Three University Ekidens and a prelude to November’s National University Ekiden Championships , the six-stage Izumo is something of an anomaly with an average stage length of only 7.42 km, a race with an emphasis on speed over the kind of stamina required at the season-ending Hakone Ekiden . Japanese university men’s distance running has seen an explosion in talent and performance over the last five years, something made clear by looking over the rosters of the top bracket of the twenty-two teams entered for this year’s Izumo. With only ten full-strength teams from the Kanto Region, six of them feature a six-man 5000 m average under 14:00 and five a six-man 10000 m average under 29:00. Two schools include under-23 Japanese men with 5000 m bests better than 13:3...

http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/athletics/news/f-sp-tp0-20130218-1087016.html translated by Brett Larner 2013 Hakone Ekiden winners Nittai University  held a banquet at Tokyo's Hotel New Otani on Feb. 18 to celebrate their first Hakone title in 30 years.  More than 1200 guests and dignitaries attended the banquet, including former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori , 75, holder of an honorary doctorate from Nittai.  A lifelong Hakone Ekiden fan, Prime Minister Mori praised team captain and Fifth Stage winner Shota Hattori , telling the banquet attendees,  "On TV he looks so strong and powerful, but seeing him in person he is an adorable little munchkin, that Hattori."  Hattori, looking nervous onstage up to that point, laughed and relaxed. The members of Hattori's last Hakone-winning team from 30 years ago were also in attendance and gathered onstage for a commemorative photo.  Among them were 1991 Tokyo World Championships marathon gold medalist Hir...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20130127-OHT1T00211.htm translated by Brett Larner On Jan. 27, 2013 Hakone Ekiden winners Nittai University  held a victory parade in Aoba, Yokohama to celebrate their first Hakone title in 30 years .  35000 fans, the most ever for a Hakone victory parade, turned out to share the team's joy.  All ten members of this year's winning team including captain Shota Hattori  road in three open cars along with head coach Kenji Beppu , with the Nittai brass band and cheerleaders riding behind the team in two four-ton trucks and the Booster Club in a bus.  People were lined up six-deep along both sides of the road for the entire 3.1 km parade route from Aobadai Station to the university's Kenshidai campus.  An organizer laughed, "There are so many people it's like a replay of the Hakone Ekiden.  I'm totally surprised.  Things are going to get out of hand!" Riding in the lead car and carrying the victor...

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20130122-OHT1T00194.htm translated by Brett Larner Nittai University , who earlier this month scored their first Hakone Ekiden win in 30 years , announced on Jan. 22 that it will hold a victory parade in Yokohama this Sunday, Jan. 27.  Beginning at 1:00 p.m. at Aobadai Station on the Tokyu Denentoshi line, the parade will cover a 3 km course to the university's Kenshidai campus and will feature three open cars, two four-ton trucks.  The Nittai University Booster Club, the university brass band and cheerleader squad will help create a spectacular atmosphere, with uphill Fifth Stage star and team captain Shota Hattori  leading the team in showing their appreciation of fans' support.  After the parade there will be a party on the university campus celebrating the team's win, with a ceremonial cracking open of a sake barrel, pounding of mochi, and each team member talking about his goals and ambitions for 2013-14.

by Brett Larner click here for video highlights courtesy of NTV The early going near Shinagawa Stn. on the First Stage. Photo by Phil Suh. With headwinds gusting to over 70 kph  near the Fifth Stage handoff marking the windiest January day in recorded history, Day One of the 2013 Hakone Ekiden saw defending champion and course record holder Toyo University  fall short of making history of its own as Nittai University  captain Shota Hattori  ran down Toyo anchor Toshiki Sadakata  two-thirds of the way through the nearly 900 m uphill, 23.4 km Fifth Stage to give Nittai its first Day One win in 26 years in 5:40:15.  Toyo was in search of a first-ever fifth-straight Day One win, but along with 2011 winner Waseda University and fellow contender  Meiji University  finished the day within range of Nittai for the overall win tomorrow.  2012 Izumo Ekiden course record-setter Aoyama Gakuin University was 6th and 2012 National University Ekid...