japan running news

Japan's best university meet got started Thursday at rural Kanagawa's Sagamihara Gion Stadium with Day One of the 98th Kanto Region University Track and Field Championship s. The main finals of the day were the 10000 m, where windy and hotter than usual conditions kept times on the slower side. In the women's 10000 m defending champ Natsuki Sekiya (Daito Bunka Univ.) gave it a miss after having run Sunday's 10000 m National Championships, leaving the door open for her 2nd-year teammate Yuka Suzuki (Daito Bunka Univ.) to take the win in 33:02.93 over last year's 2nd and 3rd-placers Rino Goshima (Chuo Univ.) and Yukina Ueda (Tsukuba Univ.). The graduation of Patrick Mathenge Wambui (Nihon Univ.), Dominic Nyairo (Yamanashi Gakuin Univ.) and Kazuya Shiojiri (Juntendo Univ.), top 3 in the D1 10000 m in that order for the last 3 years, gave others the chance to step up onto the podium this year. James Bunuka (Surugadai Univ.) took the opportunity to win his...

As championship ekiden season wraps up Japan’s athletes have started the transition to the winter road season, with four decently competitive half marathons highlighting the first half of January. At the hilly Okukuma Half Marathon , locally-based Africans Jeremiah Thuku Karemi (Toyota Kyushu) and Melaku Abera (Kurosaki Harima) duked it out one-on-one, Karemi through in a series of surges in the last 5 km before breaking away decisively with 1 km to go. Crossing the finish line in 1:01:48, Karemi took nearly two minutes off the course record with Abera just under 62 for 2nd. 2nd on the Hakone Ekiden’s Seventh Stage less than two weeks ago, Masanori Sumida (Nittai Univ.) outran corporate league competition Taku Fujimoto (Toyota) and Shohei Kurata (GMO) to take the top Japanese spot at 4th in 1:03:11. Spending most of the race behind a pack led by 2015 National Univeristy Half Marathon champion Tadashi Isshiki (GMO) and 2:07:39 marathoner Masato Imai (Toyota Kyushu), Yuki Ka...