japan running news

http://www.sankei.com/west/news/170202/wst1702020048-n1.html translated by Brett Larner At the Jan. 29 Osaka Half Marathon , Osaka Prefecture police officer Shunsaku Shibata , 23, won the men's division in a course record 1:03:05.  Breaking his PB by more than 3 minutes, Shibata now turns his attention to making his marathon debut.  Interviewed after the race he expressed a strong desire "to make the Tokyo Olympics." Shibata graduated from Hotoku H.S. and Senshu University , enrolling with the police in April, 2015.  After studying at the Police Academy and undergoing training at the Miyoshima Police Station he was assigned to the Riot Police Company #1 in October last year.  Shibata had run long distance seriously since high school and his third year of university he had the chance to realize his dream of running the Hakone Ekiden, but shortly before the race he strained a ligament and was cut from the team.  Even as a police officer he felt that he "wan...

by Brett Larner Tenmaya teammates Rei Ohara and Risa Shigetomo won today's Osaka Half Marathon and Osaka International Women's Marathon with dominating performances.  Ohara, the fastest female Japanese half marathoner of 2015 and second-fastest last year, took the half marathon out hard, splitting 15:58 for the first 5 km, 1:07:22 pace with a 1:08 target.  She faded steadily from there but held on to win by 52 seconds in 1:10:02, bettering her fastest time of 2016 by 2 seconds.  Having missed the Rio Olympic team by 1 second despite running 2:23:20 at last year's Nagoya Women's Marathon, Ohara will line up in Nagoya again in March in hopes of joining the London World Championships team. Her teammate Shigetomo was one step ahead in making that goal a reality.  A member of the 2012 London Olympics and 2015 Beijing World Championships marathon teams, Shigetomo won Osaka in 2012 in 2:23:23, still her PB, to make the London team, and was controversially added to ...