japan running news

Real estate company Makes has announced on its team website that its men's corporate team will be disbanded at the end of March. The team was launched in April, 2021 with the twin missions of "becoming #1 in the world in the marathon" and "getting society excited." Based in Yoga in suburban Tokyo, Makes currently has 7 athletes on its roster. Its coaching staff includes head coach Tsukasa Endo , a 1988 Seoul Olympics 10000 m runner, and assistant coaches Julius Gitahi , a 2000 Sydney Olympian in the 5000 m, and former Meiji University and Konica Minolta standout Masato Kikuchi . Original team members included Tokai University grad Shota Onizuka , who later transferred to M&A Best Partners . Current member Ryosuke Harada took 6th at last May's East Japan Corporate Track and Field Championships, but despite success there and in other road races, Makes didn't run November's East Japan Corporate Ekiden, the regional qualifying race for the Jan....

After giving World XC a miss, Kazuki Tamura (Sumitomo Denko) got his outdoor season off to a good start with a 13:33.70 PB for 5th at California's Mt. SAC Relays . His teammate Yuki Nakamura ran only 14:34.97, while the U.S.-based Takeshi Okada (UC Berkeley) ran 9:02.75 for 12th in the 3000 mSC. Toyota Jidoshokki teammates Momoka Kawaguchi and Nao Yamamoto ran the women's 5000 m, Kawaguchi the faster of the two at 15:54.82. Back home, Bernard Kibet (Kyudenko) ran an early season world-leading time of 27:36.24 to win the Hyogo Relay Carnival Grand Prix men's 10000 m, beating the 27:43.34 by Macharia Ndirangu (Aichi Seiko) a day earlier in Hyogo's Asics Challenge men's 10000 m, at the time also a world-leader. Kibet's teammate Shohei Otsuka was the fastest Japanese man of the weekend at 28:25.42 in the Asics Challenge race. Women's Grand Prix 10000 m winner Rosemary Monica Wanjiru (Starts) came up short of a world-leading time but was just a fe...

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...

Team captain Haruki Minatoya , Second Stage runner Shun Yuzawa and other 4th--years who helped lead Tokai University to its first-ever win at the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden graduated from Tokai at a ceremony at the university's Shonan Campus in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa on Mar. 25. "My greatest memory of these four years was, of course, winning the Hakone Ekiden this year," said Minatoya as Yuzawa smiled widely in agreement. Tokai beat four-time defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University by a margin of 3:41to take Japan's biggest win for the first time. The pair capped their four years pursuing Hakone dreams with the grandest of finales, but for both Minatoya and Yuzawa there were tough times along the way. "After I was named captain I couldn't run at all," said Minatoya. "It was really hard, and I was very sorry for what it meant for everyone else." At November's National University Ekiden Championships Minatoya started the Seventh Stage ...

Entry lists were announced Feb. 6 for the 2019 National Cross Country Championships , to be held Feb. 23 in Fukuoka's Uminonakamichi Kaihin Park. The senior men's 10 km field of 165 is led by last year's 5000 m national champion Hazuma Hattori (Toenec), 2019 Marugame Half Marathon 4th-placer and new Aoyama Gakuin University captain Takato Suzuki , and Fukuoka native Shota Onizuka who ran the First Stage on 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion Tokai University's winning team. The senior women's 8 km features Yuka Hori , Fifth Stage record breaker at last year's National Corporate Women's Ekiden for national champion Panasonic, her teammate and Third Stage winner Nanami Watanabe and 2018 Asian Games 5000 m 6th-placer Minami Yamanouchi (Kyocera). 102 women are scheduled to run. The national championships will also include junior men's 8 km and junior women's 6 km races. JAAF marathon development project leader Toshihiko Seko commented, "The...

On Jan. 29 three members of 2019 Hakone Ekiden champion team Tokai University , new captain Ryoji Tatezawa (3rd yr.), Shota Onizuka (3rd yr.) and Kiseki Shiozawa (2nd yr.), visited Shunya Takeuchi , 19, in a Chiba hospital. Takeuchi had planned to enter Tokai as a first-year last April, but in October, 2017 the day before the Chiba Prefecture High School Ekiden he suffered a stroke that has left him hospitalized and struggling to recover ever since. Tatezawa brought Takeuchi, who would have been completing his first year right now if not for the stroke, a Tokai University uniform and the team's tasuki, the sash each member wore in the ekiden. Takeuchi is currently undergoing rehabilitation and cannot speak full words yet, but he smiled widely when presented with the uniform and tasuki. Tatezawa, who last year broke the indoor mile national record and won his second-straight 1500 m national title, told him, "This year I'm going to break the 1500 m national record ...

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 ...

Another day, another national record. Two weeks after Ryoji Tatezawa broke the longstanding Japanese indoor mile national record with a 4:01.56 at the Husky Classic meet in the U.S., he and three other members of 2017 Izumo Ekiden winner Tokai University raced the indoor mile at the Boston University Last Chance Meet . Chopping four seconds off his Husky Classic time, Tatezawa became the fastest-ever Japanese miler indoor or outdoor as he took 5th in 3:57:43. Teammate Hayato Seki also cleared 4 minutes for the first time in 3:59.03 for 8th, with Ryohei Sakaguchi and Shota Onizuka running 4:05.51 and 4:06.93. https://t.co/a8YynxHiEp — Ian Anderson (@IAndersonWrites) February 25, 2018 Tokai head coach Hayashi Morozumi was a pioneer of cross-country-based training in the Japanese ekiden circuit while coach at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. , athletes he cultivated there including 5000 m national record holder and 2:07:19 marathoner Suguru Osako (NOP) and current Nissin ...

Entry lists are out for Japan's biggest and best road race, the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden . 21 university teams from around the Tokyo area will field ten runners from the sixteen on their entry list, each runner taking on roughly a half marathon length over the ten-stage race. 2017 Izumo Ekiden winner Tokai University is the class of the field, one of only five teams to enter all ten of its best athletes and the only one with ten-runner averages under 14 minutes for 5000 m, under 29 for 10000 m and 1:03 for the half marathon. At all three distances its averages are slightly better than Aoyama Gakuin University 's were last year when AGU won its third-straight Hakone title, and no other school even comes closer over the most relevant distance, the half marathon. It has never won Hakone, but this year it's Tokai's race to lose. AGU has been hit by injury troubles this year, losing in both Izumo and the National University Ekiden and missing several key members from ...

Kanagawa's Tokai University outran two-time defending champion Aoyama Gakuin University to win the 2017 Izumo Ekiden , its first win at one of the Big Three university men's ekidens under head coach Hayashi Morozumi and Tokai's first Izumo title since 2007. Formerly head coach at Nagano's Saku Chosei H.S. where he produced the fastest-ever all-Japanese high school team and standout Suguru Osako (Nike Oregon Project) on a cross-country based training regimen, since taking over at Tokai in 2011 Morozumi has set about systematically developing the Tokai program into one with the greatest depth in Japanese university running. On paper AGU had a slight advantage over Tokai over the first half of Izumo's six stages, but with Tokai's second half runners, including its top two men Shota Onizuka and Hayato Seki , ranked at the top of their stages AGU needed a decent lead by halfway to stand a chance. From the start it wasn't to be. In hot and sunny conditi...

by Brett Larner Japan's main selection race for the 2017 Kampala World Cross Country Championships happened Saturday at Fukuoka's National Cross Country Championships .  On fire this season with top three finishes in every race since November and wins at both January's National Men's Ekiden and the Karatsu 10-Miler two weeks ago, Tokai University first-year Shota Onizuka won a photo finish over pro Yuma Higashi (Team Kyudenko) to score the national title in the senior men's 12 km.  Burning just as hot with top three finishes all the way since October including two wins, Mao Ichiyama (Team Wacoal) won the senior women's 8 km national title by three seconds over Yuka Hori (Team Panasonic). The junior men's 8 km was nearly as close as the senior race.   Yuhi Nakaya of 2017 National High School Ekiden runner-up Saku Chosei H.S. won a three-way sprint finish over Ryo Saito (Akita Kogyo H.S.) and Kazuya Nishiyama (Tokyo Nogyo Prep Daini H.S.), runnin...

by Brett Larner Alongside Sunday's record-breaking marathon action , the weekend featured three high-level road races across the country.  In Yamaguchi, Ethiopian Abiyot Abinet (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) made a strong half marathon debut to win the National Corporate Half Marathon Championships men's title. Emerging from a lead pack of seven including Kenyans Macharia Ndirangu (Team Aichi Seiko), Charles Ndirangu (Team JFE Steel) and Daniel Muiva Kitonyi (Team Kanebo) plus Japanese men Taku Fujimoto (Team Toyota), Ken Yokote (Team Fujitsu) and Hiroyuki Ishikawa (Team Aisan Kogyo), Abinet ran the last two-thirds of the race alone to win in 1:01:21.  Fujimoto took 4th overall in 1:01:53 in the top Japanese position.  Kitonyi, Yokote and Ishikawa faded in the second half and were run down by 2014 National University Half Marathon champion Hideto Yamanaka (Team Honda) and Komazawa University graduate Shun Inoura (Team Yachiyo Kogyo) who set new PBs of 1:02:00 and 1:02:...

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 video courtesy of NHK Six-time national champion Nagano extended its dynasty to seven, fighting off a tough challenge by Fukuoka on the anchor stage to win the 22nd edition of the National Men's Ekiden  in Hiroshima. The counterpart to last weekend's National Women's Ekiden , the men's race features 47 seven-man teams made up from the best junior high school, high school, university and corporate league runners from each prefecture, all competing over a total of 48.0 km. Nagano got off to a strong start as its lead runner Yuhi Nakaya took 2nd on the 7.0 km high school boys' First Stage, 3 seconds behind leader Kiseki Shiozawa of Mie .  Defending national champion Aichi and Fukuoka were more than 20 seconds back in 19th and 20th, but with solid runs by their 3.0 km junior high school Second Stage runners both advanced into the top 10. Behind them, Nagasaki 's Hiroto Hayashida went from 41st to 27th as he broke the course record by 9...

translated and edited by Brett Larner source articles at bottom Powered by its formidable lineup of talented first-years, Tokai University is shooting for top three in Japan's biggest race.  On Dec. 16 the Tokai University men's ekiden team held a public practice session in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa ahead of the Jan. 2-3 Hakone Ekiden .  Of its sixteen-man Hakone entry roster, eight are first-years.  Four of those have run 13 minutes for 5000 m, four have run 28 minutes for 10000 m, and two have run 62 minutes for the half marathon.  Head coach Hayashi Morozumi , 50, told reporters, "I think you'll probably see a lot of the first-years on the final start list too.  It's jump or die.  If we take an interesting approach, we can make it a good race.  We have to take it to the champs Aoyama Gakuin University and not be afraid of failing.  Our goal is 3rd place.  I hope that we can go into it with every team member bringing the best of his abili...

by Brett Larner video by Ekiden News Waseda University fourth-year Rintaro Takeda became just the fourth man and third Japanese collegiate runner in the 29-year history of the Ageo City Half Marathon to break 62 minutes on the Ageo course, running a PB of over a minute to win in 1:01:59 in a tight sprint finish on the track. Just about the last major university race before the January 2-3 Hakone Ekiden , Ageo serves to help coaches of the twenty Hakone-bound schools sort out their final rosters for Japan's biggest race.  With most schools fielding around thirty runners apiece this has made Ageo into the deepest half marathon in the world, and over the last five years an invitation for the top two finishers to run March's United Airlines NYC Half Marathon has taken the front end of the race to another level. Despite predicted hot weather the day dawned with thick fog and temperatures under 10 degrees.  Running his first half marathon, 18-year-old  Chuo Gakui...

by Brett Larner The World U20 Championships got moving Tuesday in Bydgoszcz, Poland with medals handed out in three events.  In the women's 10000 m race walk 2015 national high school champ Yukiko Mizoguchi delivered a PB 46:19.49 for 8th, about 45 seconds out of the medals but within the JAAF's much-loved top eight target.   Zhenxia Ma (China) took gold in 45:18.45, with 3rd placers Yehualeya Beletew (Ethiopia) and 4th-placer Valeria Ortuno (Mexico) scoring area records.  An East African making the podium has to be shaking the race walk world. Japan-based Rodgers Chumo Kwemoi (Kenya), a second-year pro with the Aisan Kogyo corporate team, ran a meet record 27:25.23 to take gold in the men's 10000 m, just outkicking Aron Kifle (Eritrea) and Jacob Kiplimo (Uganda) with Kifle setting a national junior record.  Two athletes each from Kenya, Eritrea, Uganda and Ethiopia made up the top eight, with Tokai University first-year Hayato Seki (Japan) running a...