japan running news

by Brett Larner The Inter-University Athletic Union of Japan has released the entry lists for Sunday's National University Half Marathon Championships in western Tokyo's Showa Kinen Park. With the rapidly increasing level of Japanese university men's distance running the once-minor half marathon championships have taken on increasing importance, three of the last four years seeing winning times under 63 minutes and 2012's race setting world records for depth with 193 men under 66 minutes.  1389 men are entered for this year's race, and with a consistent pattern of large numbers running aggressive paces throughout the season since Tokyo secured the 2020 Olympics this year's race could be the fastest and deepest yet. On Feb. 2 Hiroto Inoue  (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) ran the fastest half marathon ever by a Japanese 21-year-old, 1:01:39, and with that time he heads the entry list.  Inoue is on the Japanese national team for the Mar. 29 World Half Marathon Cha...

by Brett Larner This weekend is the first of two for the biggest meet in Japanese university athletics, the Kanto Regional University Track and Field Championships . Thanks to the presence of the legendary Hakone Ekiden the Kanto region or KGRR is the center of Japanese university men’s distance running, and its regional championships are both deeper and higher-quality than the National meet where a limited number of KGRR schools compete with universally weaker schools from other parts of the country. With a 27:38.31 by 21-year-old Waseda University senior Suguru Osako last month at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational , sub-28 runs from identical twin Toyo University seniors Keita and Yuta Shitara , both 21, at last week’s Golden Games in Nobeoka and much more there has been a rush of activity by Japan’s 18-22 set recently. It’s time for an update of JRN’s ongoing comparison of the best of this group with their counterparts in the United States’ NCAA, a comparison to wh...

http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20121210/ath12121017570005-n1.html translated and edited by Brett Larner additional source articles linked within translation On Dec. 16 the sixteen-man rosters were released for the twenty university teams competing at the 89th running of the two-day, ten-stage, 217.9 km Hakone Ekiden on Jan. 2 and 3.  The same evening, the head coaches appeared at a public event in Ebisu, Tokyo to discuss their teams' conditions, plans and their expectations for what looks to be an intensely competitive edition of the historic event.  Comments from the coaches of the top tier of teams: Yasuyuki   Watanabe , Waseda University 3rd, 2012 National University Ekiden Championships 6th, 2012 Izumo Ekiden 4th, 2012 Hakone Ekiden Course record wins at 2010 Izumo Ekiden, 2010 National University Ekiden Championships and 2011 Hakone Ekiden I want to put together a running order that forces our opponents to fight when they don't want to.  The m...

by Brett Larner Kenyan first-year Charles Ndungu  (Sapporo Yamanote H.S.), the first-ever Kenyan at a high school on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, continued his rapid improvement since arriving in Japan this spring, running 13:35.54 in the June 27  Hokuren Distance Challenge Fukagawa Meet 5000 m A-heat, a PB by over 20 seconds, to finish just behind past Kenyan national XC champion Gideon Ngatuny  (Team Nissin Shokuhin).  A month ago Ndungu's coach Kazuki Kajiyama   promised him an MP3 player for breaking 14 for the first time .  What will he get now?  Ndungu's remarkable run catapults him to the top level of the Japan-based Kenyan high school contingent and makes him a solid contender for the win at next month's National High School Track and Field Championships. University-level competition was thick, with Hakone Ekiden powerhouses Toyo University , Komazawa University  and Waseda University  all recording multiple sub-...

http://www.iaaf.org/Mini/LRR12/News/NewsDetail.aspx?id=63475 To Ken Nakamura's preview of Sunday's 66th Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon I would add mention of sub-28 World Championships 10000 m runner Yuki Iwai  (Team Asahi Kasei) tuning up for his marathon debut at the Tokyo Marathon after a good New Year Ekiden run, and the crop of top Hakone Ekiden university runners in the field.   Keita Shitara  (Toyo Univ.) is the most worth watching, making his official half marathon debut after having run 1:08:04 on the 23.2 km Second Stage at Hakone, equivalent to a 1:01:54 half marathon at a flat conversion.  Last year's #2 Japanese half marathoner, Hiromitsu Kakuage  (Komazawa Univ.) returns along with his teammate, Hakone Ekiden Ninth Stage winner Shinobu Kubota ,, whose 1:09:04 clocking for 23.2 km at Hakone suggests mid-62 capability.  Waseda University's strong Shuhei Yamamoto and Hiroyuki Sasaki  are scheduled to make their half maratho...